This time on Film-Maker.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts on the web at arts.gov, and by Oolite Arts, what Miami is made of.

Hey there, my name is Vince Marcucci.

This is Tales of Sunshine: Florida EcoStories.

My ecological documentary series about Florida, and you're about to watch the fishermen.

[Freddy] I feel at peace, honestly.

I have nothing else bothering me.

I feel at peace, I know what I have to do on Monday.

I have to go to work like everybody else.

You know, I learned my lesson years, years ago.

So, it's just what it is, it's the life of a regular hard working American man.

You know, everybody else can relate, nine to five.

They call us the Weekend Warriors.

All right.

Hello, my name is Freddy Matos.

I'm from Palm Beach County, Florida.

Been here all my life.

I'd say about 30 years of fishing knowledge involved in this local area.

First things first, we're gonna put the line through the eye of the hook.

Like so.

Bam, now you put your finger on the tip, fold it over.

Now you got it like this.

Spin three times.

I like to go four.

See how we spinned it and now we got those?

[Director] Mm-hmm.

Now you're gonna take your tag in, put it through, and you're gonna grab this with your teeth.

Now you pull this way, this way, and then back.

See that?

It's a honeycomb knot, uni knot.

You catch fish 10 times the size of the line that you're playing with, with that knot.

I'm gonna put a piece of bait on that.

Elephants eat peanuts.

Sometimes you got give yourself a smaller piece of bait.

You shake that bag up.

Ring the dinner bell and then you just drop this bag and go with the current.

But we have three tags today, we're gonna tag the fish, courtesy of Dolphin Fish Research Program.

We're looking for some mahi-mahi.

We're gonna land him pretty much where you're standing, and off to the sides in the middle of the boat.

We'll take a measurement of him, get a tag, make sure we get him in a nice tag, and we're gonna safely release him into the water, and try to do that as fast as we can.

We're gonna take a picture of the fish, and from that picture in our phone, we could take the longitude and latitude right from that.

Here, for me, I like to take the picture, deploy the fish.

Get the fish out in the water, make sure he survives.

It takes a lot of time to find him, but when you find him, it's like 15 minutes and then, "Woo, okay, it's done."

"It was worth it, those four hours."

Okay, so on Instagram, there's a page called tagdolphinfish, and they got a lot of cool photos on there, so I just kept liking the photos, and eventually I was like, "Oh, cool."

I seen a post where you can actually get involved on it too.

If you didn't wanna spend money on it, just to try it out, they sent out free samples, you know?

And it's really not a lot of money either, come to find out.

I run BashBrosFishingCo on Facebook.

Me and my brother, we've been doing it for about five years so far.

It started off like a fun group, like we just, man, we were talking trash to each other, holding fish up.

"Ha ha, I'm in your spot."

You know?

Like, and then you're bored, "No" at work, like, "Get out of there, I'll call the police."

But that's how it started, and then the group just kept growing and growing and growing.

And now we have members from different parts of Florida.

We got Gainesville, Palatka in the house, the Keys, the Gulf Coast we have members as well.

Different parts of the world, all the way from Japan, Hawaii.

The Bash Bros, that's what we named our fishing little group.

Anthony, wanna take over brother?

We are six years apart.

Yeah.

So me and him are real close, we're real tight.

We can talk about anything with each other, and that's what's cool, to be able to work with somebody, and he's your therapist as well.

Nine to five we put up screen rooms across the east side of Florida.

Me and my brother, we've been putting them up together for about two years now.

Just last year we put up over 200 rooms.

We got so lucky that we were still able to work during this.

We're essential workers.

We have, me and my brother have certifications.

Tonight, Florida, leading the nation in the number of Covid-19 variant cases, and the majority of those cases are being found right here in South Florida.

That was tough, man.

A lot of people were laid off during that time.

And I felt the effect of it, because my girlfriend, she's a barber, and she had to sit home for a while and we had to figure out what's going on.

Bills were just still piling up, so it was just, I'm just grateful for being able to work still.

I was kind of a germophobe to begin with, you know?

But now, this is crazy.

Nice and easy.

Nice and easy.

Nice and easy.

Come on.

Ah.

Seaweed.

All right, so we found seaweed guys.

It was fighting like- that was cool.

All right.

I'm a hundred percent Puerto Rican.

Fishing was introduced to us when we were really, really young.

Everybody in our family had a fishing pole, pretty much at the age of five.

That's how I was introduced.

This place is where it all began.

Lake Worth pier.

We used to spend a lot of summers here.

The first time I seen something, I seen a barracuda that just got slung over the bridge and it's snapping its teeth at me and I'm this big, I've never seen something like that.

It freaked me out.

I never wanted to come back here again.

Yeah, true story.

Yeah, they, my uncles kept forcing me, "Come on, let's go."

Uncle Chew, Uncle David, Uncle Leo, Uncle Johnny.

I had pretty much three aunts and five uncles.

They're a big, big family, you know, we're all into the same fishing and stuff, so growing up around here was pretty cool for a kid.

This one's pretty cool, I got the whole family on this thing.

Whoa.

You see mom with dolphin?

Oh.

That's Mother's Day dolphin.

She goes every time.

Lot of good memories, man.

[Director] So what do you got going on in here?

All right, so in here, remember earlier I was telling you I got a couple sponsors that send me stuff?

We do a lot of field testing products and try to give back some feedback to the companies and also to the anglers as well.

[Director] How many rods do you have in total?

Um, I don't know how many in total but I know I'm pushing like 20, probably more.

And what's crazy is that each one is for one thing, basically.

This is for pulling heavy weights like this, heavy lures like that.

And you can see the size in it.

You know, you need something like that to pull this, because of the fish you're going after is gonna be a big monster, you know?

[Director] Now if you were going out with someone that was brand new to fishing, first timer, would you let them borrow any of these rods in the first place?

Yeah.

And then which one?

Yeah, I'd let 'em but under close supervision.

Nah, but I got the loaner rod, you know, the loaner rod's the one that you fell down a couple times and you can let him use that one.

Once we tag the fish, we get our longitude and latitude.

We measure how big the fish was, where it was caught, what kind of bait, the degree of the water.

There's a bunch of little cool things that we can find out.

And you give it a little jab, has a needle point.

The tag stays into the fish.

All right.

Let's see what's on it, Ant.

Ah, there you go.

Look at that, huh?

[Director] This here?

Hang out right here.

Go ahead and we'll get a little closer to it.

That's 16.

16 inches.

The next guy who catches the fish, his responsibility is to remove the tag, and you continue the paperwork on the fish.

Basically, it's gonna pop up a portal and you fill out the rest of the information that's on it.

So we can have an understanding of what kind of limits that we should be doing.

Right now, everything's at 10 fish per person limit.

That would be really great for the fishing community, especially the recreational guys.

They can can work on that number.

It's 10 fish per person and then you're bringing back at least 30 fish per boat.

They need to change that up a little bit.

It's a little outdated system.

All the catches recently reported.

We're not really getting those big trophies on our coast anymore.

Definitely would like to see our next generation hold up some big fish, you know?

I'd like to see it keep being passed down, being that we're third generation fishermen, and I'd like to see the sixth generation be able to have the same amount of fish.

But the way things have been going, it's just declining.

Everything's declining, you know?

You know, FWC is only so many people, they can't watch everybody, but we all gotta step in.

Gotta be a brothers' keeper.

Say, "Respect the fish, man."

I respect all fishermen, you know?

Everywhere in the world you can enjoy it.

So that's one thing I'm happy about.

Keeps you out of trouble, you know?

[Director] Yeah, I've heard you say that a couple times now.

Keep you out of trouble.

[Director] "Keeps you out of trouble, keeps you out of trouble."

Yeah, I had a couple tie-ins with trouble in the past, man.

I'm glad, the last time I got in trouble, I learned.

Yeah, yeah, I learned my lesson.

[Director] And when was that?

Yeah, that was back in 2010.

2010, I ended up getting into some trouble and had to go behind some bars for a couple years.

I don't know.

It's hard to touch back on that day, that was tough.

But that day, they got me pretty much red-handed with everything in my hand.

I was just, it was so stupid, the way I was thinking, you know?

Arrested in 2010, November.

I was on my way to go sell some dope.

Yeah.

Ended up being like a setup.

I get there, and there's guys in my face with lights coming out of nowhere.

You concentrate too hard on the lights, and then they're all in the face, and I took a back step.

I had a flashlight to the face, went down.

Next thing I know, I'm in some handcuffs.

I fell for a trap and, boom, I felt like I was the fish getting caught that day, man.

Cause it was me getting in trouble.

Gone five years, right then and there, and getting no smack on the hand, no probation, nothing like that, no community hours.

I was just ripped from my family and in another state.

I know it hurt mom.

Mom Dukes can't go day without seeing me.

So that hurt man.

Just knowing.

She called me every day, man.

Every day, me and her talked just to make her feel better that I was in there, you know?

And I was happy about that.

That was my talk, you know?

Let everything go on in there, read my book, go talk to my mom, see what's going on.

Look back at that, and I remember so many people trying to tell me, "What are you doing?"

You know, my uncle's, "Yo, you need to stop that."

And then I would rebel against him, stop talking to him, cause he said something.

It was whack, it was lame, and you don't know what's going on when you get to a new environment.

Now they release you into a different environment.

You got real sharks around you.

You thought you were bad until you see the next guy.

He's been there three times.

Waiting to go back for the fourth time.

I found myself in that situation.

I realized I wasn't such a great person out there.

I had to tighten up, and I did.

They say everybody finds God when they're in trouble and they go to prison.

But I found, I believe I found myself and God when I went to prison.

So it was like he never left my side.

I didn't know how good I was at different things until I applied my mind to it.

I was just joking around to help pass some time.

I joined the art class and wow, I really, I blew some minds away there.

I didn't know I had that in me.

These are some of the paintings that I did while I was incarcerated.

This is my my mahi-mahi I did.

I had a good teacher, Dwayne.

Good guy.

He's still painting till this day.

It's one of my favorite ones.

I spent a lot of time on this.

I was really trying to focus on the water splash coming at you.

I mean, I was sitting in a place with nothing else to do.

Just putting hours into this thing.

I don't know if, remember yesterday I was telling you how they're not always lit up that color?

They're not always yellow.

[Director] Yeah, yeah.

Well in a natural state, before they get excited, they're this color, they're the electric blue.

[Director] Hmm.

Sometimes you can catch a dolphin so fast and land him on the boat and he's still that color.

It's rare to get that electric blue picture of you holding a blue dolphin.

And it changes as soon as you get out?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

It changes like a chameleon like that, you know, thing's really awesome.

Probably the reason why he's my favorite fish to go after.

When I first got out, I went to work for Home Depot, and I was riding a bike to and from work, and that was challenging some days, and I was doing the late night shift.

That was scary, man.

First getting out and trying not to fight the urge and just saying, "Yo, I could just do one thing and screw this working stuff, man.

Let me get back to my old ways."

But I fought through that urge, and there was days I was riding my bike through the rain and cars going by splashing.

You get to your job, you're soaked, and I always thought about it.

I was like, "You know what?

It's still better than Thursday's lunch menu at Yazoo City, Mississippi."

"What is that?

It's still moving."

And brother, it killed me.

I wanted to spend more time with him and all that.

And again I had other things that I felt like I had to do but I didn't have to do that.

I was just greed, you know?

Being greedy and I learned my lesson for that.

I spent five years away from my brother after that.

But yeah, now we work together, we fish together.

We're making up for all that time now, especially the fishing part.

I mean, like I said before, we're each other's therapists pretty much, cause we're around each other all the time.

We really don't even talk when we're out on the boat.

When it's me and him, it's game time.

It's, "Who's gonna clean the fish?"

Does he got a line out?

Does he?

Nah, it's all good.

Just get me wherever you feel safe.

I got off probation two years ago.

So everything's over with now.

I had five years in and five years on paper.

To me, I'm just grateful, man, I know where I was a couple years ago, and to be sitting and seeing everything come together that I was working on in there, me teaching my brother all that, man?

We were able to buy boats, we got another smaller boat, we got a bigger boat, just, life is good.

Life is good right now, man, and I'm just very thankful.

Thanks, guys, for having me, man.

That really means a lot.

I always wanted to kind of share the story and some things on here that even my brother hasn't heard.

So I'm pretty sure once he sees this he's gonna be like, "Whoa, that was deep."

Yeah.

When Freddy offered us, yeah, invited us into his house to have some of the interview in his house, that was so exciting for our team, I think, to walk into that environment and just see someone light up with excitement, with enthusiasm about something they care about so deeply.

We went to South Florida and recorded up to probably about six hours of interviews with him and the story really started to present itself once I put into context Freddy's values.

Just listen to the film, and it will tell you what it wants to be.

My name is Dominic Traverso, and I'd like to introduce my film entitled Snakes.

Snakes tells the story of a man who's reflecting on childhood memories, of conquering imaginary monsters.

But as he gets older, he finds that those monsters take on a different form in his life and has difficulty conquering them.

I hope you enjoy it.

[Narrator] My brother and I fought monsters in the fields.

We struck down the evil in the solace in the sunlight.

Our conquests finished when mom rang that bell before the snake snapped at our heels.

We had order in our order.

Now I return to an empty house and see that the monsters are even more visible as they are in the drudgery of labor and the drink.

My brother has already lost.

I can barely keep them at bay, and the snakes are feasting.

You have to have patience, because you have to get it right, cause it's your vision, and you wanna get it right.

I set a limitation on myself in that I wanted to make a film that was only 60 seconds long.

And in the time it takes to take 10 deep breaths, you learn about this person as a child to an adult.

Simple, yet powerful.

It just kind of has a, not to sound cliche, like an aha moment, but it's kind of what it is.

And that's the way I felt with Snakes.

You know, I actually wrote Snakes as a poem, and that when I finished the piece I was like, "Okay, this is it.

Now let's go shoot it."

Hi, my name is Milan Tangirala, and I am the writer director of my film called Simulation, a sci-fi piece.

It was shot vertically.

It's really about the future of our planet and the challenges that it faces with climate change and that kind of thing.

[Voice On Radio] Our main story this evening concerns the wildfires that continue to spread throughout California.

Officials are urging residents to stay indoors and avoid going outside unless deemed necessary.

As red skies spread across states like Arizona, Nev- I knew I wanted to capture a lot of the beauty of natural Florida.

Towards the end, I knew that I wanted to have this sort of plot twist that kind of changes what the entire first half of the film means.

This film would not have been possible without my main actor.

Because it's a silent film, until the end where there's a little bit of dialogue, most of the character's emotion had to be portrayed through facial expressions, and I think that my actor really killed it with that.

Use everything as an opportunity to learn.

You have one goal, which is to tell a story, and then your next goal is to figure out how to tell that story.

It's really about ingenuity and creativity and that's why I like it so much.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts on the web at arts.gov, and by Oolite Arts, what Miami is made of.