From Omeleto.
A man meets a rival.
WATER BABY is used with permission from Pilar Boehm. Learn more at https://waterbabyfilm.com.
Ignacio is an influencer in the streetball space trying to boost his visibility and viability. With his skill videos and social content, he gets access to brand deals, fashion partnerships and media appearances, hoping to land something that puts him closer to his dream of "blowing up."
While Ig is building his brand and following, another new draftee enters the scene, piquing feelings of insecurity and competition between the two men. As Ignacio’s position is threatened and his new rival is gaining on social, the lines between obsession, stalking and status become darkly blurred.
Directed and written by Pilar Boehm, this hypnotic, thought-provoking short drama uses the dynamic, inherently vivid milieu of streetball influencers as a jumping-off point to examine the thorny intersection of identity, self-presentation and self-illusion, as a striving, ambitious influencer finds himself threatened by a rivalry in an inherently competitive space. Told with taut yet fluid directing and shaded, muted cinematography that captures the grit underlying the Californian setting, it immerses us first in Ignacio’s world of games, deals and cheering crowds, all with a swagger that’s both rough and tumble and glamorous — and not unlike the media coverage that Ignacio likely imagines for himself one day.
But the storytelling deftly deconstructs the reality behind the image, showing the significant hustling and deal-making that happens behind the glossy surface. As Ignacio, actor Elvin Rodriguez excels at Ig’s innate, seemingly unbothered cool, sailing through it all with a nonchalant confidence. But that ease and self-assurance falter when a rival named Aaron comes on the scene. Played by actor and influencer Leaky Roof, Aaron is just as athletic, ambitious and stylish as Ignacio. At first, they seem like they could be collaborators, but thanks to rivalry and insecurity, eventually Aaron begins to get under Ignacio’s skin.
Rodriguez is adroit at hinting at the uneasy cracks underneath Ignacio’s surface, which widen to let a slow, seeping obsession in. As he fixates on Aaron’s growing online presence, the film’s emotional register becomes uneasy, with a dissonant electronic score itching the ears on the soundtrack and the editing rhythms becoming more fragmented. It mirrors Ignacio’s growing destabilization, which begins to take him to increasingly darker places — and starts to blur the lines between self and other, and maybe even right and wrong.
Combative as a pickup game but also layered with tense psychological introspection, WATER BABY takes us deep into the rabbit hole of one man’s identity, particularly as it is mediated by social media. As Ig feels his toehold in a competitive world begin to slip, what happens to his sense of self? Was it ever solid to begin with? As the film traces his quiet unraveling, it provokes these existential questions and propels us into a final disquieting sequence. But instead of taking a predictable turn, it chooses character over spectacle, ending with a disquieting moment as Ignacio adapts himself to a shift in his reality.
