The Diamond King (2025) Palm Springs FIlm Festival 2025

 

Picasso doesn't have a World Series ring. Matisse doesn't have a World Series ring - Dick Perez who has a World Series ring

Director Marq Evans returns with a look at artist Dick Perez. Perez is the official artist for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and he is tasked with doing the portraits of every person inducted into the Hall. However, he's also painted a well-loved series of baseball cards (the title of the film comes from it), done extensive work for the Philadelphia Phillies (hence his having a World Series ring) and he's made the history of baseball come alive for generations through his work. 

Buckle in boys and girls this is a far-reaching film. 

Nominally this is the story of Perez and his life and art, but at the same time the film is also several other things. It’s a look at the game of baseball over the years, it’s a look at memorabilia collecting (Perez’s art is on sport cards) and collectors, it’s a look at the immigrant experience (Perez came to America as a child and he became a fan of the game because it was a way of connecting to the kids around him) and it's a look at the history of art and how it influences how we see the world. And since this is a Marq Evans film there is even more going on. 

Evans is one of the great filmmakers who make seemingly simple films that have unexpected facets to them. Evans seems to hate his films being about one thing and pulls as much into them as he can fit. He is never content to just tell you about a subject but about all the things that touch that subject, so you get a better understanding of it.

That said the most important facet of any Marq Evans film is always the film's subject, in this case it's Dick Perez. Perez is a cool guy. He is very aware of everything connected to his work.  He is so aware that he is a brutally honest critic of his own work. He hates one piece he did for the Philadelphia Phillies that he says is the worst thing he has done and that he wants cremated with him.  He is a man who loves baseball, and it is so much fun listening to him talk about the game from an artist's perspective. It's an even bigger blast since he not only discusses his own art and the game but the history of painting which results in some unexpected revelations of their intersections as he reveals the inspiration of his work in the work of the great masters. You will not look at any art in the same way again.

The film is helped by the on-screen narration by John Ortiz, who acts as a welcoming figure like the guy selling programs as you enter a stadium.  Where most documentaries have moved away from on screen narrators, in favor of a voice of god, Evans leans into the on-screen presence as a way of making the film not a lecture but a story told between good friends on a sunny afternoon in a ballpark. Two minutes into the film Ortiz is our best buddy and we'll go anywhere with him. We want to sit and drink beers and have hot dogs with him. As a result of Ortiz's boisterous love of the game and the joy he feels in discussing it has become infectious and we fall deeper in love with Perez's art and the game of baseball. Ortiz needs to do more narration he is that good.

While the film is completely and utterly a film that stands on its own pedestal, the best way that I can explain how good the film is to say, lazily, that this great little film feels as though it’s a kind of adjacent to Ken Burns Baseball series since we get so much history mixed into Perez’s tale that it speaks volumes about not just art and baseball but the people who enjoy both. 

This film is so good that I suspect that this will end up on endless repeat on the MLB channel for years to come.

What an absolute delight. 

Highly recommended for any baseball or art fan.

The film World Premieres January 5,6,7 at the Palm Springs Film Festival. Tickets and information on the screenings can be found here. The film will be playing additional festival dates before being released sometime this year.

An interview with director Marq Evans will appear this weekend.