Factotum of the City

2013 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

15:00 minutes

Javid Soriano

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Set in the infamous Tenderloin district of San Francisco, Factotum of the City is a documentary film by Javid Soriano that delves into the life of a former world-class opera singer turned self-styled street hustler. Factotum of the City centers around Tim, a Juilliard School graduate who fell from the world opera stage into the bowels of San Francisco’s Tenderloin, an destitute place located amidst the city’s vibrant downtown. The film follows the opera man as he navigates the Tenderloin and its surrounding locales, allowing a glimpse into some of the bizarre, tragic, and comical situations he endures while living as a self-fashioned ‘Figaro’ of the street. Figaro is an operatic character known for being a nifty middle-man of the city, and a role the narrator has performed internationally with high acclaim. The film pays particular attention to how Tim begins to transform the street into his own stage, and how his encounters there become part of semi-imagined operatic sagas.

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Javid Soriano is a filmmaker interested in recording the quotidian aspects of life. Primarily working in a documentary format, his films consider weather, dreams, and modes of dwelling in urban and wildlife settings. Inspired by the Bay Area’s eclectic population, Soriano’s subjects range from San Francisco’s oldest watchmaker in Swan Song (2012) to a former opera singer living on the streets of the Tenderloin district in Factotum of the City (2013). These tender and intimate portraits uncover the hidden talents of otherwise invisible private citizens, and remind viewers of San Francisco’s singular capacity to harbour the weird and wonderful in the most unusual places. Soriano has also contributed as an editor to other films, including The G Word and Table Stakes (2019).

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Colors:

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• identity.n.01
• poverty.n.01
• urban.a.02
• homeless.n.02
• music.n.01
• monochrome