Sugar

Blog #2 Sugar

Winner of the “Movie of the year AFI Award of 2010,” Sugar is spoken to shine a bright light on the American Dream. Directors and writers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, shaped this low budget film as well-turned and as remarkable as possible using the acting talent led by Algenis Perez Soto. Sugar, based on America’s favorite pastime allows viewers to watch an immigrant's experience while he attempts to reach for his ideal. Being only 19 years old Sugar aka Miguel Santos left the Dominican Republic to play baseball in the U.S.

After passing his first tryouts, they sent him to play in Bridgetown, Iowa where he stayed with a white farm family. He played well for a few months until he was injured and lost confidence in his throw. Knowing that his family back home needed the money he was making to survive, he became desperate enough to try performance enhanced drugs. Fearing that he was going to get kicked off the team he decided that he would leave first instead. Miguel knew that there wasn't anything he could do for his family back in the Dominican Republic, and without having even finished high school, he didn't have much of an education. He took a bus to New York, got a job at a restaurant where his friend had worked at and started going to a wood shop to make a table for his mom. He started a new life in New York with a simple job, occasional calls to his mom and a new girlfriend. Its noticeable that Ryan and Anna worked hard to produce a well informed film on a realistic type of situation on both immigration and baseball.