We are a group of independent film makers from both Vancouver and New York, and we are looking for support to help finish our documentary film on Cuban boxer, Guillermo Rigondeaux, and his transition from amateur phenom in Cuba to blue chip professional in the United States. Split Decision explores the ethos of both the Cuban and American boxing systems through interviews with trainers (Freddie Roach), promoters (Bob Arum), and historical boxing icons (Guillermo Rigondeaux, Felix Savon, Teofilio Stevenson, Hector Vinent) and many, many others. Split Decision introduces viewers to a list of athletes that both accepted and rejected offers of millions of dollars to box professionally in the United States.
Filmed over the last 3 years, this project has taken our team to a number of locations:
- Ireland
- Tijuana, Mexico
- Los Angeles, California
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Miami, Florida (Overtown, Liberty City, Little Havana)
- New York City, New York
- Havana, Cuba
Needless to say, travel, equipment rental, legal fees, and acquiring rights to various media have all but depleted the current funding for our project. To date, every part of this film has been completed as frugally as humanly possible. Tapping into personal assets, staying with friends, pleading with Olympic archive representatives for footage rights discounts, and using donated time from editors - we've done a tight-rope walk of maintaining a budget without sacrificing the film's content or quality. We are now inviting all of our supports and anyone who would like to see this film come to fruition to claim one (or any amount) of our perks listed to the right.
Below is a list of the portions of this project that have been completed along with estimates of their total cost:
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Equipment Purchasing - $8,000 - COMPLETE
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Footage/Media Rights - $3,000 - COMPLETE
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Travel Expenses - $20,000 - COMPLETE
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Filming - $15,000 - COMPLETE
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Equipment Rental - $4,000 - COMPLETE
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Legal Fees - 2,000 - COMPLETE
Total - $52,000
And here is a list of upcoming expenses that your contribution will help fund:
- Final Editing - 11,000 - Currently In Progress
- Promotion/Marketing - $2,500 - Forthcoming
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Marketing Related Travel - $1,500 - Forthcoming
Total - $15,000
We understand that money is tight right now for most people. However, if a buying a perk is outside of your means, there are still ways to help us! Follow us on twitter, like us on Facebook through our website, and join our Facebook Fan page. Also, check out our picture gallery and fill free to tweet or post the pictures anywhere you'd like. Please don't edit out the URL, however. Help us spread the word!
The boxer’s struggle in Cuba is the Cuban struggle. All Cubans struggle from birth and they see the boxer’s struggle as a metaphor for their own.
Fidel Castro banned professional sports in Cuba in 1962. His decree created a difficult choice for boxers—stay in Cuba and fight for national glory or defect to a country where their talents could make them rich. In the 70s Teofilo Stevenson won three Olympic gold medals and turned down five million dollars to defect from Cuba and fight Muhammad Ali, asking those promoters who made the offer, "What's a million dollars compared to the love of eight million Cubans?". In the 90s Felix Savon won another three Olympic gold medals and turned down tens of millions to travel to the US to fight Mike Tyson. What Fidel Castro was trying to use his boxers to prove was not just that his boxers were defeating Americans in the ring, but that Cuba and her system were defeating America itself, most noticeably in their sacrifice of financial reward for service to their country.
We meet Rigondeaux as a national hero, 243 fights with only four losses, two Olympic gold medals, captain of the Cuban team, numerous world championships and national championships. Rigondeaux is well on his way to becoming the greatest amateur fighter the world has ever seen. The Cuban state has looked after Rigondeaux following his victories, providing him and his family with a car and Havana home. At this point Rigondeaux feels his sacrifice deserves a greater reward.
In the summer of 2007, Guillermo Rigondeaux fails to show up for his scheduled bout at the Pan Am Games in Brazil. It’s announced that Rigondeaux is turning professional and joining his fellow Cuban Olympians Yan Barthelemy, Yuriorkis Gamboa and Odlandier Solis, who’d defected earlier in 2006. Following the lead of the previous Cuban defectors, Rigondeaux signs a promotional deal with Arena Box-Promotion. Then, on August 2nd 2007,Rigondeaux is taken into police custody in Brazil, pleading that he wants to return home to Cuba.
Upon his return, Fidel Castro states publicly Rigondeaux is a traitor to Cuba and the Cuban people and he will not box again for the Cuban team. His car is seized, his home under constant watch, all former teammates, coaches and friends are forbidden from contact with him. Teofilo Stevenson, Cuba’s most decorated champion speaks out against this publicly and defends Rigondeaux, pleading for his reinstatement to no avail. He’s banned from competing for a 3rd gold medal in Beijing. Rigondeaux, set adrift in the prime of his career, is held hostage by the state and banned from any possible return to boxing.
Secretly Rigondeaux engages in negotiations with foreign parties to arrange for his escape from Cuba and into the world of professional boxing at the cost of losing his wife and child and everything he’s ever known with little or no prospect of ever being able to return.
February 2009, Rigondeaux risks his life to defect with smugglers via Mexico City, into the waiting arms of Miami exiled-Cuban promoters. A legal battle between his Irish manager Gary Hyde and the Miami promoters begins for control of Rigondeaux’s career before it even has a chance to begin. Rigondeaux's career stalls as the power struggle over his career persists. He is nearly 30 when the issues are resolved and he finally signs a contract with Bob Arum, the largest boxing promoter in the world.
Rigondeaux discovers that the biggest obstacle to his career’s success lies in the fact that the 95% non-black exiled-Cuban community in Florida offer no support of black Cuban fighters. As Bob Arum points out, "Cuban Olympic champions can't sell out the front row of a dancehall in Miami."
Shortly after signing his contract in April of 2010, Rigondeaux is nearly knocked out while sparring in Los Angeles with a very limited youthful amateur. He promptly severs ties with his trainer, Freddie Roach, and returns to Miami. From his corner, Roach chillingly points out, "Someone was exposed here today." At the most important moment of his life, Rigondeaux stands on the brink of either a championship or total professional and personal collapse. After 6 successful fights, Bob Arum steps forward to offer a contract to Gary Hyde, dangling a title shot. If he wins, the American dream could still come true for Rigondeaux. If he loses, he could become just another defector from Cuba who’s lost everything in search of that dream. Like nearly all the defected Cuban fighters who came before him, the biggest opponent Rigondeaux faces is coping with American life. Every time he steps into battle in an American ring, Rigondeaux wears the flag of the nation he has left behind on his trunks. Just what Cuba he is fighting for remains a mystery.
Brin-Jonathan Butler, Director
Brin-Jonathan Butler is a New York based author and boxing trainer who won the 2009 Eric Hoffer Award for his debut novel, Sic (And/Or Press). His work has appeared in ESPN.com, The Rumpus, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.
Brin first traveled to Havana in 2000 during the Elian Gonzalez controversy and has repeatedly returned to train under the tutelage of Cuban Olympic boxing coaching while reporting on the Cuban National Boxing Championships and life in Havana for various magazine publications and news organizations, including Newsday, Maxboxing.com, Israel Sports Radio and the documentary film Boxeo.
Split Decision (formerly Hero Traitor Madness) is Brin’s first foray into the world of filmmaking. Academy Award winning director Leon Gast has called Brin-Jonathan Butler's forthcoming documentary on the life of Guillermo Rigondeaux, Split Decision, "Something very special."
The winter of 2007, during the Cuban National Boxing Championships of that year, brought Brin into contact with Guillermo Rigondeaux after his failed attempt at defecting and turning professional. With Castro refusing to allow Rigondeaux to continue his fighting career, Rigondeaux was left to drift or plot another defection while the Cuban public eagerly followed his situation. With unique access to a vast contact network of boxing coaches and former Olympic Champion fighters who choose to remain despite the lure of millions, Split Decision is Brin-Jonathan Butler's film seeking to explore the complicated heart of both the Cuban and American dream through the lens of Rigondeaux losing everything to risk his life stepping on a smuggler's boat for a chance at success in America while so many great boxers before him proudly remained.
With Rigondeaux's story the example that Fidel always said his athletes represented to the Cuban people has suddenly taken on a profoundly different meaning.
Michael Collins, Producer
Michael Collins is an independent film producer living in Vancouver Canada. Michael has spent the last decade working as an assistant director in the Vancouver film industry on films such as I Robot, Underworld 2 & 4, Night at the Museum. Split Decision (formerly Hero Traitor Madness) is his 3rd film as a producer.
Ronan Reinart, Producer
Ronan is a Vancouver-based lawyer, who balances a busy law practice with a very active creative role in Vancouver's independent film community.
Ronan is also a cinematographer, with a keen eye for composition, lighting, and film production workflow management, and has experience using a wide array of the industry's cutting-edge film editing, processing, and visual effects compositing computer software, including Final Cut Studio Pro, Adobe After Effects, Side Effects Software’s Houdini, and the Foundry’s Nuke (to name a few).
As an attorney, Ronan practices with the Vancouver firm Bell Alliance in the areas of commercial, entertainment, and estate planning law.
Brent Crowell, Producer
Brent is a twenty year veteran of the film industry. He's written, produced and directed the short film Mary Did a Bad, Bad Thing and, more recently, the full length feature, Traveling at the Speed of Life with Split Decision producer Michael Collins. He's currently writing a new feature film effort as well as developing a half-hour comedy series and a dramatic series.