Read on! What is anĪn expository documentary is one that has a commentator who talks over both videos and pictures to explain a specific story. By the end of this article, you will have an answer as to why that is the case. It was also a Spotlight film in the 2008 Hamptons International Film Festival.Among the various types of documentaries, the expository ones are common. It was scheduled to compete in the Dramatic Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. The website's consensus reads, " Sugar is an exceptionally-crafted film - part sports flick, part immigrant tale - with touching and poignant drama highlighted by splendid performances." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film an average score of 82 based on 26 reviews, indicating "Universal acclaim." The American Film Institute also named the film among its Top. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 92% approval rating with an average rating of 7.77/10 based on 136 reviews. Sugar received positive reviews from critics.
#The sugar story documentary full#
The DVD release was edited down to a PG-13 rating (from the original R theatrical rating) and runs 114 minutes rather than the theatrical 120 the Blu-Ray release contains the full unedited film. Sugar was released on DVD and Blu-Ray for home video in September 2009. Sugar was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics and was released on Apin Los Angeles and New York City.
#The sugar story documentary movie#
The movie itself has several shots of downtown Burlington, including the charred remains of the First Methodist Church, which had burned down due to arson months before filming began.
The movie poster features the Centennial Bridge, which spans the Mississippi River, at Davenport. The film was shot on location in Davenport, and Burlington, two cities in the state of Iowa, about 70 miles apart from each other. Algenis Perez Soto as Miguel "Sugar" SantosĪnna Boden and Ryan Fleck wrote the screenplay after researching about many Dominican immigrants who arrive in America to play in minor league towns, saying: "The stories we heard were so fascinating that it became what we were writing before we'd even decided it was our next project".
Miguel ends up playing baseball with rejected players from the minor leagues. His odyssey finally brings him to New York City, where at first he struggles to find community and make a new home for himself, like so many before him. As his dream begins to fall apart, Miguel decides to leave baseball to follow another kind of American Dream. Miguel's play falters, and the increased isolation begins to take its toll on him. Pressure mounts when Salvador, a young pitching phenomenon who used to play with Miguel, is brought up from the Dominican Republic to join the team. The new vulnerability of Miguel's injury, coupled with the loneliness of losing his closest friend, force Miguel to begin examining the world around him and his place within it. While Miguel is on the disabled list, Jorge, his one familiar connection to home in this strange new place, is cut from the team, never fully regaining his ability following an off-season knee surgery. Miguel's domination on the mound masks his underlying sense of isolation, until he injures himself during a routine play at first. However, despite the Higgins' welcoming efforts and Jorge's guidance, the challenge of Miguel's acceptance into the community is exposed in small ways every day, from his struggle to communicate in the English language to an accident of casual bigotry at a local bar. Jorge (Rufino), a veteran player and the only other Dominican on the team, also tries to help Miguel learn the ropes. He is housed by the Higgins family, who take in Swing players every year. He is assigned to their Single A affiliate in Iowa, the Swing. With the small bonus he earned when he signed with the academy some time ago, he has started to build his family a new house-one that has a bigger kitchen for his mom and a separate room for his grandmother.Īfter learning a devastating knuckle curve, Sugar is invited to spring training by the fictional Kansas City Knights.
To his family, who lost their father years before, Miguel is their hope and shining star. His neighbors gather to welcome him back for the weekend the children ask him for extra baseballs or an old glove. In his small village outside San Pedro de Macorís, Miguel enjoys a kind of celebrity status. Miguel "Sugar" Santos (Perez Soto) spends his weekends at home, passing from the landscaped gardens and manicured fields on one side of the guarded academy gate to the underdeveloped, more chaotic world beyond.