Local Filmmakers Document Racine Police Killing and Girls Rising in Sports

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LionArt Media is a women-owned film production company founded by Laura Kezman and Vianca Fuster. Together, the two have worked to challenge the status quo through impactful documentary storytelling, touching on a myriad of topics from police brutality to gender equity to mental health. 

Kezman and Fuster began working together in 2018 while at 88Nine Radio Milwaukee. One such film they worked on while there, Invisible Lines, was featured in the 2018 Milwaukee Film Festival. Since leaving 88Nine to pursue LionArt Media full-time in 2019, their clients have included PEARLS for Teen Girls, Milwaukee Magazine, F.E.A.R. MKE, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and United Community Center. Notably, they have done a few pieces for the “Today Show” as well.

Fuster says, “We try to do a lot of work that lines up with what we believe in, which is to have a platform for more women and more people of color in the film scene. We’re trying to be the change and raise the next generation of storytellers who are not from the white male demographic.”

LionArt Media are currently working on a documentary in collaboration with William Howell titled Cycle about the killing of 18-year-old Tyrese West by a police officer in Racine, Wisconsin during Juneteenth 2019.

Fuster explains, “Cycle is looking at the system as a whole. Why is it that this keeps happening? Why is there a lack of accountability? What laws and what people are in place that perpetuate the system? Obviously, so much has happened in Wisconsin alone since then. When George Floyd was murdered Laura and William were in Madison covering everything that was happening on the ground. When Jacob Blake was shot, they were in Kenosha covering everything on the ground.”

Warrior Princess

Fuster’s recent directorial debut, The Warrior Princess, tells the story of 14-year-old Violet Lopez and her mission to make a new name for women in sports. Lopez began boxing at the age of eight and is now a four-time amateur boxing champion and the youngest boxer to compete out of United Community Center.

She felt it was right to make this documentary because she saw some of her younger self in Lopez. “In May 2019 I got a fellowship and initially I knew I wanted to go back to United Community Center and do a story on a boxer from their program,” she said. “The reason for that was because I went to UCC from kindergarten through middle school and so did my older brother and sister. I was falling in love with documentaries and I love my community so I wanted to use my craft to uplift and share a story about something I feel matters but isn’t being seen in traditional media.”

Fuster never boxed but played basketball competitively through middle school and high school. “The UCC is where I started that,” she continued. “I remember looking through the windows of the boxing gym and wishing I could go in there so bad but of course my mom was not going to let me sign up for that. That’s why I wanted to tell a story about it, so I found a boxer who was a top prospect, but he had to back out so I had this fellowship but didn’t have a story anymore.

“I emailed the coach and said that it’d be cool to do a story on a girl boxer, and he described for me this national champion who was their youngest and one of the most successful boxer of all-time. I went to meet her and there were all these little things I saw about myself in her, like remembering being a tomboy who was the one girl out of all the boys here playing a sport. It was a flood of all these memories from being in that building. It felt right; we had a natural relationship, and I wanted to tell a story that took me back to my roots.”

That was three years ago. Lopez had just turned 12 when Fuster began filming; now Lopez will be 15 in June.

“Back then she was shy and timid like how you’d expect a middle school girl,” Fuster recalled. “But once she was in the ring, she’s a whole different animal. Over time she just got used to me being there; it got to a point where she was acknowledging me as her friend and not just as someone filming her. Now she’s in high school and she’s a whole different person. It was rewarding watching her grow up into a young woman who’s accomplished so much with so much left to accomplish.”

Going Solo

Fuster describes her first experience of making a documentary solo. “Ninety-five percent of the hours and hours of footage I had accumulated over two years was just from me. I had a couple friends help me with things like lighting for the interviews, but I kind of just started it without a plan.”

The premise was already in mind: 14-year-old Violet is a champion and wants to win more championships but realizes that her sport has mostly been for men. “She’s had people tell her that this isn’t a place for her so there’s a gender equity angle, which is something that I’ve dealt with being a woman in the film industry and being a woman basketball player,” Fuster said.

She started filming within weeks after meeting her when she was at the Junior Olympics, where she won her fourth national title. “I filmed with her through the rest of 2019 and then that December she had a tournament in Louisiana and that’s where she won her fifth national title. I was able to be there for all of that which was pretty cool.”

Came 2020, her tournaments were cancelled because of the pandemic. “We filmed once in the summer and a little bit towards the end, so there wasn’t even much that happened for the film that whole year,” she said.

In 2021 the tournaments resumed. “For a lot of it, I was finding the story as I was filming, like doing things by trial-and-error,” Fuster said. “I’d show up to the gym even if nothing was happening but just in case; that’s a lot of what documentary is—being that fly on the wall for hours over the course of months just for maybe a 10 minute thing to play out that would be integral for the film. For that to be my first solo production—during the pandemic—I’m proud of what I was able to do. But I hope it’s never that hard again (laughs).”

Production concluded in summer 2021. Fuster did a “Today Show” piece that aired in August during their series “The Power of Sports.”

“Violet’s goal is to be in the Olympics, and I got to watch a news anchor from the ‘Today Show’ with the Olympic rings in the background in Tokyo introduce my story and air it for the whole country to see, which was amazing,” Fuster said. She submitted The Warrior Princess to festivals and was accepted into the San Francisco Latina Film Festival, which streamed in October. “A couple weeks ago I found out it got into the Bayamon International Film Festival in Puerto Rico, and that’s streaming right now,” she added.

Fuster will find out next month if The Warrior Princess got into the Milwaukee Film Festival. In the future, Fuster hopes to continue sharing stories of women in sports. “This was the project that taught me how to be a filmmaker.”

For more information about LionArt Media, visit their website. View the “Today Show” piece about The Warrior Princess here.