Now Now: Documentary Screening — Tim Blevins

A documentary screening can sound small. But this one lands harder than that. Figaro Up, Figaro Down is a 75-minute film about Tim Blevins, a Juilliard-trained baritone who once sang on major stages, then lost his career, family, and housing to addiction before trying to rebuild his life in San Francisco. SFFILM is showing it as part of the 2026 San Francisco International Film Festival, and the event is framed less like nostalgia than a public checkpoint in a very long recovery story. (sffilm.org) ### Who is Tim Blevins? Tim Blevins is not a singer who almost made it. He did make it. The film notes that he trained at Juilliard and became known for a powerful baritone voice, performing demanding opera roles at a high level. What makes that history matter is who he was inside the field — a Black opera singer in an art form that has long been overwhelmingly white. That gave his rise extra weight, and his fall extra visibility. (sffilm.org) ### What is the film actually about? Basically, it is a comeback story with no sugar coating. Soriano follows Blevins from fame into addiction, family rupture, and homelessness in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, then into a late attempt to recover both his voice and his place in his family. The movie’s setup is brutal and very specific — not abstract “hard times,” but decades of unr(sffilm.org). (sffilm.org) ### Why does San Francisco matter so much here? Because this is not just where the film is screening — it is where the story broke open. Blevins ended up unhoused in San Francisco and was filmed around the city while trying to survive, busk, and hold onto some version of his identity as a performer. That local geography matters. The opera houses, sidewalks, SROs, and Tenderloin (sffilm.org)cond half of his life. (sffilm.org) ### Why has this film taken so long? Turns out Soriano has been orbiting Blevins’s story for years. SFFILM’s materials tie this feature to Soriano’s earlier 2013 short Factotum of the City, also about Blevins, and grant materials show the feature project was still moving through post-production support in 2025. One report says the documentary was produced over 10 years. That(sffilm.org)tten. This one seems built to show how slow and uneven change actually is. (sffilm.org) ### What changed this week? The film moved from being a supported project inside the Bay Area film ecosystem to a public festival title. SFFILM listed Figaro Up, Figaro Down in the 69th festival lineup, with screenings on Monday, April 27, 2026 at 6:00 PM PT at the Marina Theatre and Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 4:30 PM PT at BAMPFA. SFFILM also says Soriano, producer (sffilm.org) ### Why is the audience appearance a big deal? Because the subject is not being treated like archival material. Blevins is expected to attend. That changes the emotional shape of the screening. The audience is not just watching a film about whether someone can come back from public collapse — they may be sitting with the person who did the falling and is still in the middle of the climb. (sffilm.org) ### Why does this stand out in a festival lineup? SFFILM’s lineup is broad and international, but this film sits in a more intimate lane — a Bay Area story, backed by SFFILM grants and residency support, about a local artist trying to reclaim a life in public. That gives it a different kind of stake. It is not just premiere-season churn. It is the local film community showing what its support pipeline can actually deliver. (sffilm.org) ### Bottom line This screening matters because the movie is doing two things at once. It is introducing a festival audience to a wrenching San Francisco story, and it is marking the fact that Tim Blevins is still here — not as a cautionary tale, but as a living subject with a voice, a history, and a comeback still unfolding. (sffilm.org)