Miami New Times' MasterMind Awards honors the city's most inspiring creatives. This week, we're profiling the 10 finalists, selected by our staff from over 100 submissions, who are in the running to receive one of three 2013 MasterMind awards, each of which comes with a fat $1,000 check. This year's MasterMind Award winners will be announced Thursday, February 28, at Artopia, our annual soiree celebrating Miami culture. For tickets and more information, visit the website.
Andrew Hevia has made his mark by filming some of the city's most misunderstood or under-recognized assets, from the ins and outs of Art Basel to the explosive escapades of Meatball (AKA Robert Lorie) and Justin Long of the art collective Funner Projects.
Sitting outside Panther Coffee in pressed slacks and a button-up shirt, Hevia's look doesn't scream "Miami artist." But then again, what qualities characterize local creatives?
"The best way I can describe the Miami experience is, whenever I'm here, I'm not convinced I fit in here, despite the fact that I'm born and raised here. And when I leave, I realize I don't fit anywhere," the 28-year-old filmmaker says. "We all feel this way. The thing we share in common is that nobody has anything in common. It's an odd shared trait."
Clean-cut and poised, Hevia looks more Cape Cod than Wynwood. But deeper digging reveals he's as Miami as cafecitos. He attended New World School of the Arts and then FIU, forging relationships with cultural influencers along the way. "I decided before I went to high school that I would be a filmmaker, which is actually why I went to the high school I went to, which is why I met the people I met," he says.
A cofounder of the blossoming Borscht Film Festival, Hevia directed WLRN's recently aired Rising Tide: A Story of Miami Artists, a chronicle of Art Basel. He has also produced a number of short films, including Velvet, Otto and the Electric Eel, Chlorophyll, and the 2012 Borscht selection When We Lived in Miami. Last year, a one-minute promo showcasing the work of Funner Projects earned him an Emmy.
"Miami is fertile ground," he says. "If you build it, it will be. You want to be a filmmaker? Make a film. You want to run a film festival? Start one. That's sort of been the history of the city since its inception. All you have to do is push."
And despite the common misconception that Miami culture lags behind that of other cities, Hevia thinks the 305 is ahead of the game. "The problem is when we try to compare ourselves to New York, [which has] had 200 years to establish a city. We think we're behind, but the reality is, they're doing their thing, we're doing ours. We do it differently."
2013 MasterMind Award Finalists:
Andrew Hevia
2013 MasterMind Award Honorable Mentions:
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