Roger Ross Williams Had to Prepare ‘Cassandro’ Real-Life Subject for Artistic License: ‘It Wasn’t a Documentary’

This story about “Cassandro” first appeared in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap magazine.

Director Roger Ross Williams has lived with the story of Saúl “Cassandro” Armendáriz for seven years, ever since he made the 2016 short documentary Man Without a Mask, itself adapted from the 2014 New Yorker story focused on the life of the “exotico” wrestler who made his mark on lucha libre for his flamboyant life both in and out of the ring. “I fell in love with Cassandro because it’s such an inspiring story,” Williams said. For the filmmaker, it was a story that called for a highly visual level of storytelling to capture Cassandro’s personality and the profession he inhabits.