“Squanchy Papi” brings to light the vibrant community that lies within fixed gear biking, set to premiere at the Orem Film Festival on Sept. 24. The documentary-style film encapsulates this community through 16mm film, thoughtful storytelling and Santos’ unique story. The director, Brinton Douglas, a former U student, paints a portrait of his friend, Nick Santos, also known as “Squanchy Papi,” in the short film.
The director behind the direction
Film piqued Douglas’s interest as a child, watching comedy movies like “Airplane!” and “Caddyshack.” He carried on his love for comedy movies, but later in life discovered his love for documentaries, specifically, making them. When Douglas interned at the Sorenson Impact Institute while at the U, he was assigned projects that intersected commercial film with shorter documentaries. “It’s awesome, but I really wanted to go out and tell my own story,” he said.
Douglas’s interest as a director lay in short, personable documentaries while still implementing visual concepts. “We’re trying to make it beautiful and we’re trying to inject a documentary with beauty, rather than just follow the story that a lot of documentaries take,” he said.
Beautiful shots fill this short documentary; the coloring, shot sequence and the choice to use 16mm film make it a visually appetizing watch. With only 1,200 feet of film to work with, every shot was meticulously thought out to produce the film they wanted. “You’re literally doing the math of like making sure every shot is worth it and making sure every shot has the chance to be pretty enough to make it into the final cut. So yeah, that was really our driver visually.”
Who is “Squanchy Papi?”
Fixed-gear biking is an interactive community here in Salt Lake City, hosting events and bringing people together through that. “Squanchy Papi is my friend Nick Santos’ alias on the internet. All of their persona is wrapped around ‘Squanchy Papi.’ The film is just a portrait about them and how they navigate this kind of biking space,” Douglas said. He wanted to highlight this niche within the action sports community and bring it to film in a beautiful, abstract way.
Santos grew up in L.A., where one of their first jobs was delivering groceries on a bike, which gave them the chance to be on a bike all day, every day. “Throughout that process, Nick met all these other bikers that are on these fixed gear bikes, single gear, no brakes, just bombing through the city, running red lights and holding on to cars,” Douglas said. He compared the scene to that of the punk scene in music where “it’s just mayhem for mayhem’s sake a little bit.”
Coming from this community in L.A. to Salt Lake City, Santos noticed that there were bikers, but no central place of gathering. Santos and others brought this community together by coordinating events multiple times a week to create a space for these people. Douglas said that when the group comes together, there is so much life and joy, and this is certainly portrayed in the film. The short film welcomes the viewer into the aesthetics and liveliness of this scene.
Orem Film Festival
“Squanchy Papi” will premiere at the Orem Film Festival on Sept. 24 at the Geneva Megaplex. Purchase tickets here.
