How did your relationship with Steph begin? And what did the collaborative process look like?

So my boy Milo had a friend named Lal, and Lal had a friend who worked at Public hotel. We all went out one night free drinks and everything andout of nowhere Steph just pulled up to our table and started chopping it up with us. He told me I looked deep I was wearing a kufi and glasses in the club lmaoo. I didn't know if he was cracking jokes or not lmaoo but it was funny im ngl. But yea from there we became friends and yea here we are now. As far as the collaboration, it was really open. Since the film is observational, it mostly came down to talking with Steph, seeing what his day looked like, figuring out what he was getting into, and then me and Dino (dp) would pull up and be a fly on the wall. We communicated a lot throughout the process. Steph was super game for ideas, and a lot of times he’d bring ideas to the table himself, so it really became a collaboration instead of us just pointing a camera at him.

The film has an element of solitude and intimacy that’s rare to see in a documentary. How do you think you achieved that? Was it an intentional process?

That was completely intentional. We kept really open lines of communication throughout the whole process, not just between Steph and me, but with everybody on the team. After shoots, we’d always talk about what just happened and just honestly going back and forth about what the film needed. At first, the plan wasn’t even to show Steph outside of character. When I first pitched the project, he only wanted to be filmed in kayfabe. But after spending time filming him like that, it became obvious we needed something else to create contrast. When he’s performing, he’s loud, charismatic, and larger than life. When he’s just living his life, he’s a different person. Showing those quieter moments gave the audience another way into who he is and added more depth to the portrait.

What’s your relationship to non-narrative filmmaking? What are the type of stories you want to tell?

I love non-narrative filmmaking because I like making movies out of real life. If you pay enough attention, everyday life is already a movie fr. I lean heavily toward nonfiction because it’s how my brain works. I have ADHD, so building these super tightly planned narratives has never felt natural to me. I like showing up with an idea, hanging out, observing, and finding the story that’s already there. It also makes life richer. Instead of waiting for something interesting to happen, filmmaking teaches you that interesting things are already happening all around you— you just have to notice them. Life is Tom Brady, and I’m Randy Moss. I’m just going up and catching whatever it throws me

lol.

I want my mark to be the work itself. I just want to make endlessly fly stuff; the goods, if you will. I want people to watch one of my films the same way they watch their favorite basketball player’s best game or an old high school mixtape. You watch it and you’re just like, “Man…that’s tough.” That’s the feeling I want to leave people with. I want the work to keep inspiring people long after I’m gone.