At Sundance, Lin-Manuel Miranda shares the spotlight
PARK CITY, UTAH » Lin-Manuel Miranda knows that, for some, the story of his life is already written.
“If I can put it absolutely morbidly, I know that ‘Hamilton’ is the first line in my obituary,” Miranda said with an unusually chipper tone for someone contemplating their death. “Like, good! Done! I know nothing will ever be ‘Hamilton’ again, and I’m fine with that.
“I think artists start to go off the rails when they try to chase that again and again.”
A pair of new documentaries premiering at the Sundance Film Festival capture a wider view of Miranda’s life through some of the people who have been most foundational to him. “Siempre, Luis” is a profile of his father, the tireless Puerto Rico advocate Luis Miranda. “We Are Freestyle Love Supreme” documents the improvised hip-hop show that Miranda and several of his “Hamilton” collaborators regularly put on before “In the Heights” altered Miranda’s trajectory, and which they recently reformed on Broadway.
“Life’s not a linear narrative,” Miranda says in “We Are Freestyle Love Supreme.” “It’s not this and this and this ascent. It’s all these side journeys.
“Life gets complicated, and you keep going. There’s no end point. What’s that Orson Wells’ quote? If you want to tell a story with a happy ending, it depends on where you end the story.”
Both films are, in a way, origin stories for the 40-year-old Miranda.
But they are also stories that take some of the megawatt spotlight trust on him by “Hamilton” and deflect it onto those around him.
“My son is the most collaborative human being that I know,” says the elder Miranda. “From sharing the Kennedy Center award with his other collaborators to making sure that everyone who did something important to him and accomplish that next goal gets accounted for and acknowledged.
“I understand why. I have a wonderful wife of 42 years who is exactly like that. It’s part of his DNA.”
“Siempre, Luis,” directed by John James, is a profile of Luis Miranda, the longtime New York political player. It took some time for Luis to get accustomed to the cameras being focused on him.