The Painted Warrior is a 2019 documentary about a unique husband and wife duo who combine art in motion as they blend the worlds of artistry and athleticism.
More likely than not, you’ve never heard of Obstacle Racing so let’s go ahead and change that. In a nutshell, the description is in the name, where a competitor races over a series of physically challenging obstacles on foot from high hurdles to mud running to climbing over walls to carrying heavy things to crawling under barbed wire to jumping over fire to more. See what I mean?
With that said, we can move on to director Mark Wilson‘s latest affecting documentary The Painted Warrior, which might sound like a project about ancient tribal fighters and in a way sort of is but as you have already guessed, is actually about obstacle racing, more specifically one obstacle racer. That is Stephen Sinek, a racer with a unique approach to competition – he wears body paint. A lot of body paint. But that’s only half the story.
We meet his wife Aeni Domme, a commercial makeup artist who has taken to making Stephen her own personal canvas, expressing on his skin a near countless number of colorful works of art of her own designs, transforming the tall, slender man into an instantly identifiable figure on the racing scene. For this, he has gained a certain level of fame or at least notoriety, where his determination and hunger for self improvement has inspired others to run along with him. Naturally, it’s opened up in them both larger possibilities and a desire to be the best they can be, physically and mentally.
Being a former long distance runner myself, I think it’s important to say that while The Painted Warrior does by default separate Stephen from the pack in suggesting he has great personal passion to reach his dreams by being different, I couldn’t help but notice the many other faces on film racing with him, remembering myself in grueling marathon events and how hard I trained to push myself to do better than before. Fortunately, Wilson doesn’t try to elevate Stephen, merely shine a light on his efforts, he and Aeni’s body paint making them stand out. It’s an admittedly compelling invitation and thanks to Wilson’s patience and pacing where we become absorbed in the process of their art and the real craft of racing, The Painted Warrior finds its footing, if you’ll forgive the wording.
Half the movie is focused on Aeni, who of course is the artist behind the paint, and while she sort of naturally holds a peripheral role in the performance as Stephen takes to the rigors of incredible physical endurance, she is a constant source of encouragement and inspiration. She does this in their house where the makeup application can take up to five hours or more to being on the sidelines basically serving as his personal aid station. And it’s here where The Painted Warrior makes its turn, ever so slowly shifting from a fun expose on the couple and their unique venture to a troubling odyssey of limitations and letdown.
This hinges on the 50-mile Mesquite Canyon run through the Arizona desert where temperatures are staggering and runners must stay in pace or be disqualified. He couldn’t finish last year and trains for it again, leading to the film’s central plot of sorts and soon, even as these body painting holds great significance to his efforts, it is the man inside the ‘warrior’ that soon emerges as the real reason Wilson made this movie. It is not about ‘winning’ in any traditional sense. It is about something altogether different, that perhaps only those that do it can understand. This is a singular story of such a thing that many will feel great personal kinship with. Maybe even you.
The Painted Warrior is now available on Amazon Prime