Here is a great piece of advertising.
If you’re not familiar with lucha libre, the words are Spanish language, and they refer to a type of wrestling that is athletic entertainment popular in Mexico especially. It is very similar to what we know as WWE wrestling here in the U.S. Likewise the term luchador refers to a fighter or wrestler.
Roger Ross Williams (Look him up! Amazing body of work!) created this video, which was based on a profile of Cassandro, the Mexican lucha libre luchador written by William Finnegan for The New Yorker.
There are three points I want to focus on in considering this piece: the subject, the lighting during the interview, and the beats that build the arc of the story. Take a look:
The subject: I love how musical Cassandro is on camera. He is very expressive and adds to that with his hand and shoulder movements. And his voice is so animated, especially as he’s talking about putting on his make up and feeling beautiful and ready for the stage right from the start of the interview.
The lighting: In class we briefly talked about Spike Lee and the importance of lighting people of color properly. We learned about the ratio of light to dark, and where the light should be in relation to the camera. I’m curious about the way Williams decided to light Cassando, and whether or not there were factors beyond his control that made directing the light a challenge because there are shadows created by the contours of Cassandro’s face, and at times he appears shiny. The shine could be due to his makeup though.
This is small thing, but there also seems to be a mix of natural light and artificial light, based on the change in the light on his face around 3:54, and then again if you pay attention through the rest of the piece. I had this issue in a piece I made last year, so this is a reminder for me about why natural light can be both a gift and a curse during long sit-down interviews.
The story beats: The story arch is very much like a roller coaster that peaks and falls continuously as we hear about the early years of Cassandro, his early years as a gay wrestler, his coming out as an éxotico and being able to embrace himself and be embraced by others. Then the toll his art has taken on his body, and how he’s “made peace with the pain” and has overcome that challenge by teaching. And then the big reveal, long before Cassandro there was 6 year old Saúl Armendáriz, and he was sexually abused for eleven years, until he came to a turning point in his life and decided to fight back. Then we slowly start to descend, but it’s not a straight line to the conclusion: domestic violence, death and loss, addiction, self-harm, defeat, redemption. All of this is illuminated and the overall piece elevated by the music and pristine audio, the use of archival footage, and the selective use of slow motion in pivotal moments, including the pull out on the family picture that slowly reveals Sául’s father as he admits that his father abused his mother (8:15). The use of fade to black was great, and the final fade to white I loved because white represents hope and freedom.
I hope you enjoyed this piece as much I did!