(upbeat music) (Tom) This week on Arizona Illustrated, a filmmaker gives up the city life and finds refuge in Tubac with puppets.

(Genevieve) The work that I do is rooted in a desire to understand myself better spiritually and to understand what we're here to do.

(Tom) Ministry and service with a priest and her bulldog.

(Ellen) Lacey has been my friend, my sidekick for years and years, she's eight years old.

(Marilyn) How can anything be so ugly and so wonderful?

(laughing) (Tom) And the art and science of boxing and life lessons with coach Chris Valdez.

(Chris) 100%, where you at, where you at?

We get kids from all walks of life.

That's the beauty about boxing.

(upbeat music) (Tom) Hi, and welcome to Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

Filmmaker Genevieve Anderson's career path has been anything but typical, but she doesn't make typical films.

Using individually designed puppets and miniature sets, her movies explore loneliness and compassion, qualities that she has time to reflect on after moving to Tubac, Arizona with chickens, a duck, a large dog, and her son, Roman.

(soft music) (light music) (Genevieve) I wanted to leave LA, I was ready to leave LA.

So I moved to Tubac, Arizona to be close to my family.

I moved with my son who's eight years old and we live on an eight acre farmhouse.

Part of me that felt stripped bare in the city based on what I was going through personally, but also just living in a city for so long, all of that was addressed coming here, it's a really nourishing thing to be in this environment.

That said, it's lonely.

It's been very lonely and I don't mean that in a bad way.

I mean in the way in which you really confronted yourself.

(bright music) My name is Genevieve Anderson, I'm an artist, director, and a filmmaker.

I come to it first as a filmmaker and secondarily as a person interested in puppets.

I'm actually not even a puppeteer.

I have some very, very primal feeling about diminutive things, small things, and it touched that feeling I had when I was a child of magic coming out of small spaces.

In American culture historically we really don't have a tradition of puppetry here.

Our tradition is Topo Gigio, it's The Thunderbirds, it's The Muppets.

You know, I was a huge fan of The Muppets.

But puppets that I'm working with and what I'm endeavoring to do with the puppets, has very little reference in the United States.

It comes more from I guess in a European tradition.

It serves a very almost ritualistic, even spiritual function.

The puppet can do something that a human actor can't.

(light violin music) It isn't sullied by having a human experience, it's completely neutral.

So in that sense it's a very powerful tool.

(Male voice) For 35 years I've been a book crusher and this is my life story.

(soft piano music) For 35 years books have taught me that the heavens are not humane, and neither the heavens nor any man with a head on his shoulders.

It's not that men don't wish to be humane, just goes against common sense.

And anyone who crushes books for a living is no more humane than the heavens.

But somebody's gotta do it.

(Genevieve) The reason to do Too Loud a Solitude with puppets and animation is because we spend very little time in the material realm, (crinkling) which is a book crusher in a basement crushing books, book crusher on the street going to the bar, book crusher in the bar.

(Male voice) I've drunk so much beer over the past 35 years I could fill an Olympic size pool, an entire fish hatchery.

(Genevieve) The rest of the time it's his imagination.

(Male voice) I don't really read.

I pop a sentence into my mouth and I suck it like a fruit drop.

(Genevieve) Many people say that Too Loud a Solitude is autobiographical.

So I'm starting creating the character from that.

(Male voice) For 35 years I've been alone in this basement, alone except for the excellent company I find here.

(soft violin music) (Genevieve) Paul Giamatti, he knew the book well and that's sort of the platform that I used to ask him.

We're doing this adaptation of the book and puppets, would you be interested?

And he said yes.

(buzzing) (cranking) I did think about him when building the puppet, because the voice is so integral.

(Paul) Such wisdom as I have comes to me unwittingly (Paul) Such wisdom as I have comes to me unwittingly hydraulically compacted ideas.

(Genevieve) So I should say too that there are two camps of people when they see this, they go what, Paul, he's an American?

You've got this extremely Czech character and then you've got a well known American actor with an American accent reading the language of this Czech author.

And then you've got people who are like oh he's great, God, his voice, it's so wonderful, it's perfect.

The amazing thing about him has been that he's stayed on board.

There's been all these starts and stops and he's been like right there with ya, how's it going?

He's such a champion of the project.

You do all of this work, you set all of these things up in the hopes that there'll be a gesture, a way that something moves or a look or something that opens up this space where something magic comes through.

[Drill whirling] I'll do the molding of the figure because I feel like that's really important to have something that's my aesthetic, but then I will hand these things off to people who are good at making the molds or people who can make the puppets and who can do the flocking and the painting and the wardrobe.

So I hire people to help in that capacity for sure.

The next level for me artistically is to create the full feature film of Too Loud a Solitude.

We created 17 minutes that we finished in 2007 and then life intervened and years went by.

Now we're picking it up again.

(light piano music) The work that I do is rooted in a desire to understand myself better spiritually and to understand what we're here to do.

And I think that you can only really get centered in an approach to those questions when you're lonely.

All right, sweetie.

It's really hard to address those things when there's a lot of noise and chaos in your life.

So being quiet, being reverent, being grateful, all of those things have provided a great grounding pad for me to go back and do the work.

Luckily, we live in a world with all kinds of people and plants and animals and sometimes we forget that's what makes the world go round.

In our next story, meet Ellen, an ordained Episcopal priest and her sidekick Lacey, an English bulldog who's not always the most obedient or agile but who's a great therapy dog for those in nursing homes and hospice centers.

(upbeat music) (Ellen) Come on.

Come on, let's go get the ball.

[Laci barking] I'm Ellen Morell and I'm a chaplain for Harmony Hospice.

And this is Laci and she's my therapy dog who goes with me to visit my patients.

Come on.

And we just visit people and enjoy ourselves.

Good girl.

Good girl.

(laughs) Hi, Donna, this is Ellen from Harmony.

I was just checking in to see how you're doing.

You've been through a difficult period and I hope that you will take a day or two to relax and refresh and rejuvenate yourself.

I try to check on the diagnosis before I go to see people because sometimes it makes a difference.

I have been a dental hygienist, which I did for 10 years.

I have been a planned giving consultant, which was lots of fun, helping rich people give money away is not a bad way to make a living.

And then, finally, I succumbed to the call from God and became an Episcopal priest.

On my way, when I decided to move to Arizona, on my way here, I had another call that said you need to be a hospice chaplain so I came and applied and got a job and here I am.

(water running) Let's go, go see the veterans.

(dog panting) Let's go, come on.

You see the puppy, huh?

(Woman) Do you see it?

(Ellen) Laci, can you sit?

Can you wave to the little boy?

Wave.

Good girl.

(laughing) Were you in the Army?

We thank you for your service, 'cause what you did made it possible for us to do what we do, so we really thank you.

(Janice) This is my husband, Bob Budak.

He's a Vietnam vet.

He worked, he was in the Army.

This, actually, is a wonderful place.

We've worked really hard to get him here and we're very excited.

And you notice how alert he got and how excited he was to see Laci, so, he's very receptive to therapies, receptive to having people and talk with him and he enjoys it and he smiles.

He smiles, yeah.

(Ellen) Laci has been my friend, my sidekick for years and years.

She's eight-years-old.

I got her when she was just a puppy.

My son had her mother and I went to see the puppies but told him I would not, under any circumstances, take a puppy home.

And I don't know how it happened, but on the way home, I looked over and there she was.

(laughing) And we have been pretty much inseparable ever since.

(Brianna) So if you go to our website harmonyhospice.org and you look at meet the employees, Laci is very, on the very top.

(laughs) She has her own professional photo and so we often joke, again, she's the boss.

(laughs) (Ellen) I read his book and I thought he was a good man.

- Oh, yeah.

- Yeah.

(Ellen) I've had lots of dogs in my life.

I've always had dogs.

And I've loved them and I've cared for them but I've never had one that I actually called my sidekick because Laci's like that little poem, remember, when you were in grade school.

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me and what can be the use of it is more than I can see.

Well, that's Laci.

Everywhere I go, she goes.

If I happen to come in without her, the question always is, "Where's Laci, where's Laci?"

(upbeat music) Hi.

I brought Laci to see you.

- [Woman] Laci or Stacy?

(Ellen) Laci, like lace on your dress, like lace fabric.

- Oh, how can anything be so ugly and so wonderful?

(laughing) (Ellen) I like to tell the story about when I first took her to some people.

There was a lady who had advanced dementia who could not say anything intelligible, who sort of just chattered all day.

I walked in with Laci and she looked down at her and said, "Nice dog."

(laughs) So, Laci touches people in many ways that are surprising.

More than once, when she's been invited, she's climbed up in bed with somebody and laid with them as they were dying, so that they die with their hand on a nice, soft, furry head.

(gentle music) She failed agility, she failed obedience, she really failed motherhood because it took us two-and-a-half years to get her pregnant and then she ended up with three living puppies and hated them.

Really hated them.

Sit.

Wave.

Good girl.

But she's finally found her calling.

She's as good a therapy dog as you could have.

Hey, you've made a friend.

You know how to make dogs happy.

(Robert) She's great.

(Ellen) I consider this part of my service to God.

(Robert) I like animals.

(Ellen) And even though I'm not as religious as a lot of chaplains are, I don't insist that people pray, I don't insist that they find salvation in Jesus, I think this is my ministry to the world.

And Laci's ministry to the world.

So, we're doing this, truly out of a sense of call, as a minister would say.

young people in our community.

Now, some of them are called to teach, others to heal or guide, and some to coach.

Chris Valdez is one of those, the kids he works with call him coach.

And his life's passion is to teach them the fight game and the life lessons that go along with it.

[MUSIC] (Gavin) He always tells me, the first day you missing in the gym, you know.

But, the second day you miss in the gym, your opponent knows.

The third day you miss in the gym, the whole world knows.

(Chris) Inside our head, is a ring.

We're always fighting.

We're always fighting with ourselves, whether we admit it or not.

And they can be scared, before that fight, and if they can overcome that, they can do anything.

(crowd yelling) I want them to be champions in and out of the ring.

(crowd cheering) I'm trying to get in his head and say, listen, you already won.

I want you to envision yourself winning.

I want to see you positive right now.

We worked too hard for this.

You've got the condition, man.

- Yeah, no we're there.

- You're all good man, easy work.

(crowd yelling) Then I start wrapping, so how does that feel?

See if we can do that, I want that right hand, I want hook going, I want that eight, I want that three.

Giving him this little feedback, then I start warming him up, then I get him breathing.

Then I get him relaxed, like zen.

Oh, you're going to knock this guy out, you know.

Then they go, "Coach, you think I'm going to win?"

Yeah, we got this.

You know, so more confidence, more confidence, more confidence.

You have to fight all those human conditions, and the more you prepare yourself, mentally, physically, spiritually, heart, the more that you can accomplish that in that ring, in that moment.

(shouting) And then, all the challenges that you going to face in life.

(crowd cheering) - There you go, baby!

("Heaven" by Los Lonely Boys) (garage door rolling) (Chris) Good to see you, Levi.

Sup my boy?

- What's up, Coach?

How you doing?

(Chris) Good man, what's new?

You ready?

- I'm ready, Coach.

(Chris) Sisco's supposed to be here, but look at him running late.

He ain't going to be in the Marines, if he's going to be running late like that.

Think I'll dog him.

- He calls me, he says, "I'm at gym, you coming?"

(laughing) - Yeah, he pushes us every day.

- I expect Coach to kick our ass.

(laughing) That's honestly what I expect, and most of the time, he does it.

(Chris) There he is.

There he is.

What's up man, you ready?

How you been, man?

- Good.

(rap music) - Let's go guys!

There you go, that's it.

We got to give it some heart, let's go.

100%, where you at, where you at!

That's the hustle, right there.

That's the hustle, keep it up!

Let's go, big Angel.

Welcome back.

Alright, take it in!

Nice job.

(Chris) I find a lot of kids, that when they come out, they really don't want to box.

And that's okay, I just let them train, and they don't have to get in there and fight.

Like this, okay?

Remember I said, like you're holding a sword?

Tip, tip!

I think that's important, as a coach, is to understand the person first.

Let's go, work, work, work!

Because then you can bring out their talents.

- It will start with a... (hissing) And then, once I start to go more, I'll start to get tired sometimes.

I love doing mitts with Coach.

Just the connection, it feels good.

When you land a punch, when it hits, like that pop, pow, pow, pow.

Oh, I love it.

(loud beep) - Time!

Every time he punches, you breathe.

(shouting) (breathing heavy) Boom, boom, boom, boom.

I'm getting a little tired.

- [Sisco] He's just like that, he likes to work hard.

Did you see him?

He was working out with us too.

- Who going to do it, Gavin?

Who can be the champion, Gavin?

- The most difficult is, might be the abs at the end.

- Yeah, that's the worst part.

(laughing) (Chris) His brother's keepers.

(Gavin} And he fought, in the days where it was a little bit harder, it was a little bit more rough.

- When I row, I want to row right here, right here.

Right here.

- To fight on the same card as someone like Luis Cesar Chavez, who is considered, like, the Mexican greatest of all time.

To be able to get there, at that level, in his time, at his prime, and fight on that card?

It's a legend to me.

(bell rings) (man shouting) (Chris) I gained the name, Little Killer.

So, when I was boxing that was my boxing name.

I got my start when I was probably about seven years old.

I amateur until I was 17, and won the golden gloves.

Seem I ended up six and six in professional boxing.

I won a lot of my early fights by knockout.

(cheering) I was a pretty tough kid, so I got in a lot of street fights, which ended up in a lot of trouble.

And made a lot of mistakes, that if I would have had somebody telling me otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten in a lot of those problems.

I had to join the Marines, got some strict discipline, and I love the Marines.

And once I started learning how to be a leader, my mindset just changed.

- I'm joining the Marines, like him.

This December, I leave for basic training.

So, after the Marines, I want to come back.

(shouting) (mitts boxing) I'm going to be his first real champion.

- I go to school, I do work, I do all that stuff.

Here is where it's like, I really have my communication.

You know what I mean?

- One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

(Chris) The boxing is not only, we box and then that's it.

You know, that's family.

There's families getting together, and they come and they bring the kid.

And the kid gets in there, and works, and spars.

And mom and dad see it, and that's what I grew up with.

Coach Chris, he's like an uncle, you know?

He's like that uncle that you have, and he's always there for you.

He's there for you in every way you could possibly imagine.

More so than a coach would be.

(Chris) Come on, young one!

(groaning) - He's like a family member, he really is.

I consider him family.

(knocking) (Chris) Thought you were going to beat me up there, Gavin.

(Gavin) Honestly I thought I was going to, myself.

(Chris) Hey, do you have Sisco's number?

Text him, tell him Coach said make sure he's there at 3pm.

(Gavin) Coach like a father figure.

(Chris) Every time you beat me, you get one of these, man.

He calls me, and he makes sure that I'm done my homework.

Makes sure I'm like, getting my run in, stuff like that.

I love playing chess with him, even though I've only won once or twice.

(laughing) (Chris) You know, the more you play chess, the more you realize that, especially if you're playing with somebody that can whoop you, you learn but you learn how to deal with your mistakes.

Long live the king.

(Gavin) It's alright, Coach.

(Chris) Check you.

(Gavin) Why?

Oh, my goodness.

Coach be always telling me to hurry up.

(laughing) It takes me like, two, three minutes.

He's a quick thinker.

Careful I have nothing to say, but that Coach is a good man, honestly.

(Chris) Oh, that was good move, Gavin.

(Gavin) He's not angry around us, you know what I mean?

He doesn't bring out that towards us, you know?

(Chris) Another one for me.

(mitts boxing) - Come on man, I'm too fast for you.

(Gavin) Always good vibes, that's all I ever get from Coach, you know?

(mitts boxing) (Chris) See how to slow it down.

Hold on, hold on, let me rewind it to slow.

(laughing) No, I saw it there.

No, I did.

It's there.

It's there.

- No, you got to look in it.

Coach.

See, it's right there.

(laughing) I was out of it.

(Chris) What I was telling Levi is that, you know, I don't care, you know.

You might win some, you might lose some, but have a big heart.

And if you got a big heart, man, you've already won.

See, you'll never lose another fight in your life.

(Announcer) The third, and final round!

(crowd cheering) (bell rings) (crowd shouting) (Chris) Two minutes, Levi, whatever you got in two minutes!

Two minutes, body, body!

Yeah, good job Levi!

Good job Levi, you got it.

Levi fought, and so automatically I went to my phone, and I was going to, you know, text Randi and tell her about that.

(Announcer) Levi!

(Chris) Tell her about the win, but I, can't though.

You know, so.

My daughter Randi Alyssa Valdez, she died last May 12th.

And then I had another daughter Krista.

Krista Anne Valdez, she died when she was 17 in a car accident.

So, I lost both of my daughters.

The sky fell, man, the sky fell.

I mean, I don't know.

It's been like that ever since.

You know, your children, you don't expect that.

I'm constantly looking at the stars, and remembering.

(Levi) Even though I know he's in hurting, and he's not all there, but he still comes in.

He still holds it together, he keeps his composure.

And, he still preaches the same.

No matter how bad things get, he still tries to find the light himself, and shed it on me.

(Chris) Beautiful, you did it man.

Nice work.

(Levi) Me and Coach Chris have been through some things, we've lost people who meant the world to us.

I lost one of my best friends in the last six months, due to some of the gang violence in this city.

(shouting) And I brought him in here, and he was training with me side by side.

And we worked very hard.

Those types of things, they change your outlook.

They make you want to reach out to people that need it.

Because my friend needed it.

Good pace.

And, it hurts me that I couldn't touch him enough, couldn't pull him out of it.

But I know that the moments that we shared in here, they're precious to me.

And I tried, exactly.

It broke my heart.

(breathing deeply) Broke my heart, he's a good friend of mine.

I just wanted to get him out of there.

(loud beep) (crying) He lived every day without fear.

I can say that much about him, and that's why I live my life the way I do.

Every single day I come in here, I work my butt off.

(grunting) - It's not over!

(Chris) Well first, I think every kid's at risk.

Corazon grande.

- We get kids from all walks in life.

We get kids that are in gangs.

We get kids that are not in gangs.

We got kids that are doing well, and we got a mixture of all kinds of kids.

That's the beauty about boxing, but the one common thread?

With the kids I got, they're tough.

And if they're not tough, they think they're tough.

(Levi) If they don't have this place, they'll stick around their friends.

And if their friends aren't in the best places, they'll fall into some of the same bad habits.

And he'll reach 10 kids.

If he reaches 10 kids down the road, you got a hundred.

- Mama says, stupid is what stupid does.

(Levi) One that sticks around?

That makes it all worth it.

(Chris) Careful, Gavin!

Come on Gavin, you're messing up the whole routine!

I don't want them to have any limitations in their lives.

I want them to know that they can do that, because they get in there and fight.

Water it up, here you go.

I'm looking for the bigger challenges.

You know, college, getting their job.

You know, maybe if you got a family, how are you going to react to hard situations in your life?

Okay, so that's how you're going to get good.

- Hands up man, hands up, elbows and chin down.

And then, they see if they can do that hard work out in the gym, then they realize that they can become something in life.

You know, there was times when I just feel like quitting.

Just feel sorry for myself, and then I realize that's no answer to anything, you know?

You know, I can't understand why my daughters were taken before me.

But... ...there's a reason I'm here.

And all this stuff that I tell my kids, "Oh, you got to tough this out."

Or, "You got to do this."

I hear myself saying that to me, you know?

I hear myself saying, "Pick yourself up."

And, you know, "You're better than this, go do something."

And you know, "Be a better man, and work harder."

And you know, all the things I'm telling them.

So, I can't give up, and you know, I got to make myself better, and keep doing what I'm doing.

(grunting) Yeah, good to see you man.

You know, every day.

One more day, one more round.

One, two.

I didn't hear the bell.

I'm going to wait until I hear that bell.

(Tom) Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

We'll see you again next week.