Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Rookie Season’s Adrian Bonvento

Adrian Bonvento is an emerging storyteller whose career is off to the races. Earlier this year, he made his feature film directorial debut with Rookie Season.

The award-winning documentary captures the highs and lows of Rebel Rock Racing during their inaugural IMSA season, putting audiences in the driver’s seat. A deeply moving and introspective account of what it takes to compete, this is a story of struggle and strife; of victories along the way; of defeat. It is a universal underdog tale that attempts to uncover the truth and the meaning behind the pursuit of one’s dream.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Adrian about being a one-man crew, bringing this project to life, and more.

PC: How did you discover your passion for storytelling and filmmaking?
Adrian: That’s a good question. Ever since I was a kid, I was always interested in creating, even if it was just building things with blocks or painting and drawing. I’ve always had a bit of a passion for it.

When I was in high school, I was trying to find the best picture to take for my Myspace. [laughs] I was looking at all these different angles and things like that, back when Myspace was a thing.

I went to college and started to take some amateur-level photos on my iPhone and mess around with certain editing programs and then graduated to a little point-and-shoot Canon, which was great. I started making movies when I was studying abroad in Paris, which was really cool. Then I upgraded to a DSLR, a 5D Mark III, and eventually hacked it with some Magic Lantern firmware and actually used it to create my first breakthrough film at the 24 Hours of Daytona back in 2016 or 2017. The rest is history.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Adrian: My father has definitely played a big role in a lot of my creativity. He’s done a lot in his life. He’s started several businesses on his own. He’s always been a writer at heart. I was raised in a way that encouraged me to do the same. No career was off limits. My whole family has been very supportive. They always encouraged me to build, create, and try things.

In terms of film influences, I’ve always felt a connection to certain films and compositions of visuals paired with music and the whole story that leads to that culminating emotional moment. That’s something that I love feeling, whether it’s elation or sadness, or despair. Knowing that a film on a screen could make you feel all those different things was so interesting to me. That’s what has driven me to film. That’s been an inspiration for me to convey how I feel about things through film—in this case, racing.

PC: Speaking of filmmaking, you’ve got a new project. Tell us about Rookie Season and how you first discovered Frank [DePew] and Rebel Rock Racing.
Adrian: I actually discovered Robin before I discovered Frank. Robin and I worked together on the film that I mentioned earlier which I shot on the 5D Mark III. That helped launch my motorsport filmmaking career. He was with Stevenson Motorsports at the time. He was a driver. I did some interviews with him and was immediately intrigued by the way he thought about things and how he conveyed things and the fact he was able to be somewhat vulnerable on camera. A lot of drivers have that shield up. They’re just thanking the sponsors and saying “hi” to the family at home, whereas Robin really had an interesting and unique way of looking at things. That fit with my vision as a filmmaker.

We cultivated a relationship over a number of years and did several shorter films together, each three to five minutes in length maybe. Then I was looking to do this project. I knew I wanted to do something big. I wanted to do a feature-length film. I approached him as he was starting with a new team: Rebel Rock Racing. He introduced me to Frank DePew, who was the team owner and co-driver along with him. I showed Frank some of my previous work. Frank really liked it.

Frank was the best person you could wish for in this scenario. He said, “I’m going to give you complete and utter creative control.” He did. I had all-access. Nobody was over my shoulder saying, “Why are you doing this? Why aren’t you doing that?” They completely trusted me. That’s one of the main reasons the film has been as successful as it has.

PC: That’s the perfect segue to this next question. You were able to capture the highs and lows of that season. How did you create the space where everybody involved felt open and willing to have these honest and open conversations and expose that vulnerability?
Adrian: It’s something I’ve learned a bit about from having been in motorsports for a number of years. At the end of the day, it’s about basic relationship cultivation. At first, as with anything else, these guys are a close-knit group of people. They’re a team. They’re protective of their team. They’re protective of the cars and their image and everything like that. But being a decent person and not pushing too hard or too fast and letting them know what I’m doing and showing them that I’m not here to make them look bad goes a long way. I’m not here to make reality TV and leverage their drama for my profit. That was never the plan. At first, everybody was a little closed off, but at the end of the day, everybody was so genuine and so nice. There aren’t a lot of egos at that level of sports car racing. Everybody is really nice. Everybody’s accessible. It’s not like Formula 1 drivers where there are like ten walls of glass between you and them. Everybody was really down to earth and happy to help once they got to know me and I got to know them.

PC: There’s an unpredictability that comes with documentary filmmaking. How did you adjust to that while filming? When did you start seeing the story shape itself?
Adrian: In terms of the story, I don’t want to spoil anything, but after the first three races of the film I honestly didn’t think I was going to have a documentary. It was pretty dire straits for the team at first. I was like, “This project just started and it’s going to end.” But I had a vision for it in terms of the themes that I wanted to convey and how I wanted to shoot it stylistically, and the film was never going to be about results and the progression from A to B to C. I never wanted it to be that. I always knew I could craft something regardless of how the season went.

However, after those first three races, the story almost wrote itself. It was incredible. There are some real storybook (in the truest sense of the word) victories in there. In terms of the natural progression the team went through, you couldn’t write a better Hollywood story. It was absolutely perfect.

Then from a filmmaking perspective, it was a matter of figuring out where to be and when. Because as a team of one, I was trying to balance getting all the cars, the cameras in the car, the audio in the cars, being at different points of the track, recording the team radio, trying to predict what’s going to happen with the car—if it’s going to crash, where they’re going to be. Those kinds of things. Logistically, that was a challenge.

PC: This is your feature film debut. Did anything surprise you about the experience? What was the biggest lesson that you learned being a part of this project that you’ll now bring to the next?
Adrian: How much work it takes. [laughs] I had no idea. I had come from making five- to twenty-minute films in length. I did a simple math equation. I was like, “If a five-minute film takes this long, an hour-and-fifteen-minute film should take this long. I’ll bang this out in three months and we’ll be on to the next.” It’s a ton of work. I learned a lot about every aspect of the process—not just what it takes to make a film of this length but audio, sound, color, everything. Also, music licensing, how to deal with people, what to say, and who to contact. As we get ready to launch theatrical distribution, I’m learning a lot now about marketing, PR, and digital distribution. It’s been a big and very humbling learning experience, but I guess I would have to say the biggest thing I’ve learned is everything. [laughs]

PC: The film has been incredibly well received. What do you think is resonating most with audiences? What do you hope they take away after they see it?
Adrian: That’s a good question. I never like to push too much onto the audience. I like them to take from it what they will. However, as a motorsport fan and a fan of cinema, I always want to convey how I view the sport in my films. That’s number one. You can’t avoid it. It’s the car. It’s the forces inside the car, the sound inside the car, the intensity of lap after lap after lap. If you’re a motorsport fan, you know. Maybe you don’t even really know because a lot of people have not been inside these cars. I’ve had the good fortune of being a passenger in real race cars with real car drivers on the track. I mean, going full speed, trying to hold my camera at the same time, like a human gimbal.

The first time I was in a race car and they hit the brakes, I was like, “Wow. I had no idea.” There’s nothing except being on the track that can tell you about the actual forces inside the car. I tried first and foremost to convey the forces inside the car, and the sound plays a big part in that.

Number two: for everybody who watches racing, whether they’re a fan or not, the commentators are always following the leaders. You always see the podium. You always see the champagne. You always see the checkered flag. You always see the winners, right? But for every winner, there are 30, 40, 50 cars that don’t finish on the podium. Maybe they don’t finish at all. Some teams will race for a number of years and never win a single race. Everybody just assumes they’ll win this. But it’s a grueling sport, and it takes a lot out of you to travel. You’re on the road a third of the year.

I wanted the film at its core to be about what it means to race. That sounds like a simple question to answer, but if you ask yourself why it takes five times to get to the core building blocks of the issue, it’s not so simple. There’s a lot that goes into it. I wanted to show the complexities of the sport, what it really takes, how it feels, the highs and the lows, and not just focus on the wins and the glory.

To keep up with Adrian, follow him on Instagram. Watch Rookie Season on Tubi today.