As you’ve traveled this summer, either at carnivals, block parties, state fairs, or street fairs, you have probably seen a bouncy house. Someone was in charge of getting that bouncy house to that location, inflating it, testing it out, and waiting for the rental to be finished so they could deflate it, roll it back up, lift it onto a trailer, take it back to headquarters, re-inflate it, and hose it down before renting it out again. It is hard work that seems like it would put smiles on the faces of those who work these circuits, given their child-pleasing end results, but behind the scenes, it can be physically exhausting and hard to keep up with the demands and cancellations.
“Bouncy Brothers” is a short doc about one man, Anthony Glazier, who got into the business of renting out bouncy houses, a seemingly lucrative business, seeing as how you always count on seeing one somewhere in the summertime. Anthony moved far away from his family to set up shop in a rural area, where his office consists of an overturned bucket for a chair and an actual chair for a table, where he listens to voicemails on his landline from either co-workers calling in sick or customers canceling their order.
For anyone who has gone into business for themselves and works alone most of the time, this will feel painfully real, as you watch your month’s rent, bills, and possible leftover money for savings or spending dwindle with each phone call. Desperate, Anthony calls on his brother, Ted, to come out and help him get back on track. Too many bouncy houses need cleaning, and nobody can do the job alone. Ted agrees, having been here before. This isn’t the first time Anthony has reached out for help.
Nicholas J. Santore’s documentary dives deeper into their relationship as well as the business of working on your own and surviving by the skin of your teeth. Anthony is clearly a good self-starter, but caves easily when negotiating a price for a bouncy house rental, because something is always better than nothing. Ted, always there to rescue his brother in times of need, fears this venture might not go the distance and that he’ll have to save him again down the road. Still, he’s there and not giving up on him. “Trust is hard to find,” Anthony says. “And I trust my brother more than anybody.”
Santore produced “Bouncy Brothers” with his producing partner, Tom Krawczyk, who directed the wonderful short film, “My Dudus,” which told the story of his mother’s friendship with a neighborhood squirrel. Both films are loving, moving tributes to members of their families (Anthony and Ted are Nicholas’ uncles), while also revealing the heartbreak within the narratives. Bouncy houses, castles, and slides are a lot of fun, but like the relationship between two siblings, they sometimes need a lot of maintenance and care to sustain.
Q&A with director Nicholas J. Santore
How did this come about?
My uncles Anthony and Ted have been next-door neighbors for most of their adult lives. Their houses, located in the west suburbs of Illinois, are also next door to my grandparents (their parents), who first moved into the neighborhood in the early 1960s. As you can imagine, I’ve spent much of my 39 years on that block.
After Anthony moved next door, they spent most of their time working on projects together in Ted’s home workshop, including several years gut-rehabbing Anthony’s house from the ground up. Raised in a tight-knit family with a strong blue-collar work ethic, together they could achieve anything they put their minds to.
But at the end of the pandemic, Anthony was restless for a change. He couldn’t handle the confines of the suburbs and his 9-to-5 job, and he wanted to be the first in the family to give it a go on his own. Anthony had visited a friend who moved to Bushnell, Florida, several times and decided to move there when he was offered the opportunity to take over an inflatable bounce house rental business. On a whim, he traded his newly renovated home for the business, which included five acres of land, a house barely holding onto its foundation, and a collection of inflatable bounce houses. Even with zero knowledge of how to manage the business, Anthony felt it was the perfect opportunity to take a leap and figure it out.
I knew this move was the beginning of a bigger story. Over the next year, I tracked everything happening between Anthony and Ted. I kept thinking how incredible it would be if they were in a position to run the business together; I could somehow show the bond they share by grinding through hard work. Then came that fateful phone call from my uncle Ted. He had told me that Anthony was struggling to run the business by himself and was in dire need of help. Ted, a high school teacher, decided to spend his entire summer in Florida to get Anthony back on track. I knew I had to follow along.
And so, I headed down to Florida to spend a full week capturing Ted’s arrival as he jumped in to help Anthony save the business. Over the course of the week, I discovered more than just a beautiful bond; I chronicled the ups and downs of brotherhood and realized Ted wasn’t there to save just the business, but Anthony himself. This film delves into the inner turmoil we undergo when we choose to leave family behind in pursuit of a dream, how that dream isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be, and what it really looks like to have family by your side.
The film is great at depicting how back-breaking this work is. Did you ever feel the need to put the cameras down and help out? And did you?
We were so wrapped up in capturing absolutely everything we possibly could that we didn’t have time to think about or do anything else!
Did you have the “one year later” idea planned when you finished filming them that summer? Or did you have a finished film and then the “one year later” happened?
The film was actually finished before I decided to add the ending. But as documentaries often go, the story kept going. It took some time and convincing for me to add that last beat to the film; I don’t always like wrapping things up so perfectly for an audience. But since it felt like such a vital part of the story, I knew it had to be in there. I think it really helps solidify how strong the bond between the brothers really is.
What did Anthony and Ted think of this film when they saw it?
I think more than anything, they were impressed by the fact that we were able to pull so much of a story out of what they felt was just a week’s worth of the two of them working. I honestly wish I could have filmed for much longer, especially with Anthony on his own. I think there are so many more layers to this story I’d like to dive into, which I may do within the constructs of a narrative film.
With this and Krawczyk’s “My Dudus,” do you find you’re mainly drawn to stories of your families, or might the next film be a complete departure?
I have always been all about family-focused stories. Although most of my projects have been focused on people close to my collaborators and me, I am starting to explore outside of that close circle. I am currently working as a story producer on a documentary about a high school football team from the ‘80s that is, in its own right, its own little family. As a storyteller, I love examining the values and complexity within family dynamics, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.
