"Through the Storm" highlights the challenges of a high school football team in a small community. Co-director Fritz Bitsoie, coming from a small town in New Mexico.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A New Mexico native is earning huge recognition for a film he directed.
“Through the Storm” highlights the challenges of a high school football team in a small community. Co-director, Fritz Bitsoie, comes from a small town in New Mexico, and said he would have never imagined he would make it this far.
“It’s a really crazy feeling to watch a movie on a screen, like to watch ‘Through the Storm,’ when it was finished and to think that was in my head like a year ago. Now, I’m watching it, like that’s pretty cool,” Bitsoie said.
If you ask anyone, “Through the Storm” is a documentary about a high school football team that hasn’t won a game in two decades. But Bitsoie said there’s much more past the sidelines.
“We just wanted to make a short film about this team that was struggling to make a win after 20 years,” he said. “But quickly we found our star, coach Nolan, and how he was really doing what he can to keep this football practice program going because out there, there’s not a lot for these kids to do.”
The co-director said it also explores learning to live with loss, mental health, and how a community comes together.
“This film has brought so many moments of like ‘wow I can’t believe I’m here doing this,'” Bitsoie said.
That included the time his co-director called to tell him they got nominated for an Emmy.
“Charles just gave me like a phone call and said, ‘Hey, we’re nominated for an Emmy.’ You know, and I was just like, what? Even with this nomination, I still feel like I’m still trying to find my way,” said Bitsoie.
Bitsoie says he started college back in the early 2000s but left a year in because he didn’t know what to study. The love for movies is what brought him to get his degree in 2016.
“They just need to trust their path. I didn’t go back to college until I was, I was like the oldest guy in my classes, I think. And it took me time to realize what I wanted to do,” said Bitsoie.
Bitsoie will find out on Tuesday if his film wins the Emmy.
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