From local producers Vista Pop, a short, beautiful documentary about Mike Evgen, a boxer from Saint Paul who rose to prominence in the early nineties. As the producers put it:
5′ 6″. 145. Born amongst steel workers, junkyards, and dives, Mike Evgen became a hero of St. Paul’s working class with a venom jab and a windmill uppercut in the early ’90s. Grandpa called him the revival of the city’s boxing tradition. The writers just called him the Rice Street Rocker. His fingertips jammed into nubs from all the punches, the Rocker was tough enough for HBO and a world title.
Then he got mixed up.
Thrown to the dogs by the Miami mob, the gladiator fell. He went out of sight, out of mind for 16 years. Now, the old town hero faces his ghosts while making good on his vow for redemption.
