Dynasty Sports Film Festival celebrates inaugural year in South Bend

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- On Thursday the inaugural Dynasty Sports Film Festival kicked off in South Bend.

A documentary that made its global premiere was "Stitch: From the Fields to the Garden" which examines the life of Jacob "Stitch" Duran; an elite cutman. A cutman is the person responsible for preventing and treating physical damage to sports combat fighters.

Dr.Rudy Mondragon has been a fan of boxing since 1992. Now a professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, he was honored to be chosen to direct this piece because of his own skill set and prior knowledge of stitch.

"My goal has always been to be in documentaries as an expert around boxing culture and boxing politics." Dr. Mondragon said. "About 4 years ago, I was approached by Stitch's team. And they had this project and they were looking for a director to take on the documentary of Jacob "Stitch" Duran. And they contacted me because of my background as a Chicano studies professor, so I'm trained in Mexican-American, Chicano, Latino history and politics. And because his story is a Chicano Mexican-American story and a combat sports story, they felt that I would be a good match, a good fit for this documentary."

Both Mondragon and stitch do advocacy work in the boxing world, which they bonded over. Over the last four years, they have gotten close to the point where Mondragon says talking to him feels like talking to a wise family member. 

When UFC changed the rules regarding fighters making money from outside sponsorships, Stitch spoke out and was blackballed. This documentary details that experience.

"It's not just the experience he had working as a combat sports worker, but as a human." Dr. Mondragon said. "As a person who really cares about the fighters, cares about when they get injured, and making sure that he can help them get through the fight. But also if he needs to stop the fight to look out for the health and wellbeing of the fighter he'll do that so he doesn't put the business or the sport first, he put the fighters first. And knowing that aspect of him, it makes it even more special that I got the opportunity to direct the film" 

Stitch's care for others comes from being raised by parents in the United Farmworkers Movement and never wanting people to be exploited again. Now his story of combat sports, agriculture, labor, cultural, and politics will be used to preserve Chicano legacy.

The title memorializes how the fields of the United Farmworkers Movement led to one of the most well sought after faces at Madison Square Garden.