Experiencing Interruptions?

Troublemakers

Documentary about the Trouble Maker AA/FA racing team at the Bakersfield March Meet in 2018.

  • Ed Moy
    Director
    Luminaries, Aviatrix, Up in the Clouds, Middleton Madness, Flying Solo
  • Ed Moy
    Producer
    Luminaries, Aviatrix, Middleton Madness, Flying Solo
  • Enrique Esparza
    Producer
  • Enrique Esparza
    Key Cast
  • Vince Degl'Innocenti
    Key Cast
  • "Nitro" Jim Holtz
    Key Cast
  • Jon D'Avolio
    Cinematographer
  • Ed Moy
    Editors
  • Jon D'Avolio
    Editors
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short, Web / New Media
  • Genres:
    Documentary, Biographical, Sports, Auto Racing
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes 44 seconds
  • Production Budget:
    4,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Culver City Film Festival
    Culver City, CA
    United States
    Southern California Premiere
Distribution Information
  • Amazon Prime Video
    Country: United States
    Rights: Internet, Video on Demand
Director Biography - Ed Moy

Ed Moy is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.
His documentary short film "Aviatrix: The Katherine Sui Fun Cheung Story" received a Congressional Certificate of Recognition for Historical Significance (2017), won Best Documentary in the Asia Web Awards (2017), took home an Audience Award for Short at the Marina Del Rey Film Festival (2016), and garnered a Most Inspirational Short Award at the Culver City Film Festival (2016).
He wrote and directed the animated short film "Up in the Clouds" which received a Best Short Animation Award from Asians on Film Festival (Summer 2015).
His short film "Luminaries" received the Audience Award for Documentary at the Marina del Rey Film Festival (2017) and won Best Documentary about L.A. Award at the Culver City Film Festival (2017).
In 2018, his documentary short "Middleton Madness" won the Audience Award at the Silicon Beach Film Festival and his documentary short "Flying Solo" was a winner in FLIFF's Filmed in Broward and New York Chinese American Mid-Autumn Film Festival documentary shorts.
As a journalist, he was a recipient of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's National Print Media Award for Excellence in Journalism for his series of articles about their Team in Training Programs.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

"Troublemakers" came about unexpectedly when I met Rick Esparza on the backlot of Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank.

I had started researching ideas for a race car movie and Rick told me he'd been involved in racing cars since he was a teenager and mentioned that he was currently working with the Trouble Maker AA/FA (Fuel Altered) racing team.

Several months later, we decided to put together a documentary about the Trouble Maker team.

With Rick's help coproducing, we raised a few thousand dollars on GoFundMe to cover travel costs, plus equipment rentals and hired cinematographer Jon D'Avolio.

I shot some initial interviews at Rick's home in Palm Springs and car owner Vince Degl'Innocenti's garage in Valencia, California.

I then traveled to Bakersfield with Jon to shoot the first day of qualifying.

As it turned out, bad weather delayed the AA/FA (Fuel Altered) cars from running until after dark.

Luckily, we recorded the Trouble Maker's only qualifying run, as the second day of qualifying was rained out.

Unfortunately, the Trouble Maker did not qualify for the finals so we were limited to one day of shooting on location at the racetrack.

However, what we got during the preparation, the qualifying race and post-race told an intriguing visual story in and of itself.

At one point, I had considered trying to raise money to make a reality series based on the car and the world of Nitro racing, but that project never seemed to gel for me.

In all honesty, the Trouble Maker team was an authentic and genuinely good group of guys.

They were straightforward and didn't display the type of pretentiousness you see from cast members on any of those so called "unscripted" reality television shows in the race car genre.

In the end, I think we captured a unique slice-of-life look at the hard work that goes on behind-the-scenes to prepare a nostalgia Nitro car to race.

Mixing Jon's visual compositions with country, folk, and swamp music in the editing, I've created a short film that presents audiences with an artistic and poetic interpretation of the Trouble Maker team at the Bakersfield March Meet in 2018.