This article was featured in the Lewiston Tribune on October 3, 2014.
Documenting the life of a long-snapping coach isn’t the way most filmmakers opt to begin their career. But Tanner Gibas knew Chris Rubio’s story couldn’t go untold.
A Lewiston resident, Rubio is known as the nation’s leading guru for high-schoolers hoping to take their long-snapping to the next level. Those in the “long-snapping family” understand his instruction is unparalleled and it’s precisely the reason Gibas’ full-length film, entitled “Rubio,” is hardly centered around Rubio’s expertise with the position itself.
The movie premiers today at 6:35 p.m. at Lewiston’s Village Centre Cinemas and will air once every day at the same time for one week.
Instead, the film dissects Rubio’s background, answering the questions many have posed to the coach throughout the years.
Chief among those questions: Why did Rubio, a UCLA graduate and Los Angeles native who has long-snappers playing for Alabama’s Nick Saban, LSU’s Les Miles and Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly, decide to settle in Lewiston of all places?
“Rubio is obviously a well-documented person, but what isn’t well-documented is how he became who he is today,” said Gibas, who developed a relationship with Rubio at a young age when his older brother began working with him in Los Angeles.
Gibas was a long-snapper at the University of Kansas and is still attending the school, where he studies film and media. “Rubio” will show at the Oread Hotel in Lawrence, Kan., on Oct. 10.
“How does someone become who they are today? What happens in their life, what shapes them to be who they are?” Gibas said. “I wanted to do a story like that.”
Rubio was on board with the project from day one, though he wasn’t initially sure whether Gibas was serious about it.
“When Gibas first called me, said ‘Hey, I want to make a movie about your life,’ I thought he was kind of kidding,” Rubio recalls. “From that to me thinking it would be a five-minute YouTube video to seeing it last week almost complete, and thinking ‘Wow, this is a real movie,’ … I don’t want to downplay him, but it’s a real movie.”
The 1-hour, 45-minute documentary depicts Rubio’s upbringing, his short stint as a school teacher and the unique story of how he met his wife Jolie.
Rubio, born in 1975, wouldn’t spill the beans quite yet, but gave a hint: “Our relationship started, essentially, in 1954. I’ll just leave it at that.”
Gibas has a few other showings in the works, thought nothing is official yet. He hopes to screen the movie in Los Angeles and make it available to audiences online in the near future.
“Right now we’re going to release the film, kind of let it do its thing with the few releases we have, let people start talking about it a little bit and, quite honestly, I need a week break,” Gibas said.
More information on the film, including the official trailer, can be found at therubioproject.com.
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Lawson may be contacted at tlawson@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2260. Follow him on Twitter @TheoLawson_Trib.
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