In October 2019, Cruz’s mentor, director Gerard Victor, told Cruz he’d maxed out in Detroit. Bigger opportunities existed elsewhere, and that “elsewhere” was New York City.
Cruz didn’t believe it. “I was like, ‘Nah, I still have more to do here. I haven’t accomplished what I want with the artists here,’” Cruz says. “The music scene was picking up.”
But Victor kept pushing, insisting the move would help Cruz’s career progress in ways Detroit couldn’t offer. Cruz started to consider it, not because he was entirely convinced, but because as long as he could still travel back and forth – just a drive or a quick flight whenever he needed to be home – the risk seemed manageable enough to try.
“It was 100% a career move,” Cruz says.
Once Cruz connected with a production company in New Jersey, the steady work came quickly, but the certainty that he belonged there never did. Detroit stayed on his mind, especially the clients whose trust he had earned and the atmosphere that had always fueled him.
Then COVID shut everything down. In most industries, it was a death sentence. But in Detroit’s music video scene, it was business as usual. Artists kept shooting like nothing had changed, and Cruz found himself coming back more and more until the production company he was connected with started noticing he was doing his own thing as often as, if not more than, he was working with them. Eventually, they parted ways.
“No hard feelings,” Cruz says. “But looking back, it was the best decision.”
Free from the production company, Cruz threw everything into Detroit just as the city’s music scene hit a critical mass. Industry eyes had finally focused on Detroit, and labels were asking who was coming next and which artists deserved deals. Cruz watched people he’d been filming for years sign with Empire Records as the Oakland-based label built out a massive Detroit roster. Motown had its moment, too. The work Cruz wanted was here, and the demand matched his ambition.
“I didn’t even like the music coming out of New York at the time,” Cruz admits. “I was still listening to Detroit artists. That’s where my ears and my heart were.”
The irony is that coming home opened doors everywhere else. The quality of work Cruz produced in Detroit caught attention beyond the city. Artists and crew members in Atlanta and LA started reaching out because they’d seen what he was doing in Detroit and wanted that same energy for their projects.
“Now I’m filming a lot in Atlanta and other cities, but that’s only possible because of the quality of work I’ve been able to do here,” Cruz says. “The content I created in Detroit made people elsewhere start paying attention.”
He works regularly in LA now, in Atlanta, wherever the work takes him. But he always comes back, and he never stopped working with emerging Detroit artists who are still grinding and chasing the same dream he once chased.
“People can see me working in LA one day, and then the next day I’m back home shooting for someone who’s still building,” Cruz says. “I think that makes a difference for people. That gives them a boost.”
At 38, Cruz thinks about legacy in concrete terms rather than abstract ones. He thinks about what will outlive him and how his work will be remembered once he’s gone.
“Movies live forever,” he says. “If a prominent filmmaker passes away today, people remember them through their work. I think about how I’ve contributed to the culture. Like, if I were to leave this Earth tomorrow, I know people couldn’t say, ‘He didn’t do anything for the culture.’ I did. I made my mark.”
That mark goes beyond the videos he’s made over the past decade. It’s the example he’s set as a kid from Southwest Detroit who proved you don’t need to leave to make it, or as the cement worker armed with a camera who showed that you can compete at the highest level while staying rooted in your community and lifting up the people around you.
“That’s the message I want to leave behind,” Cruz says. “Anyone can do this. If you want to do it, don’t be afraid. Just start.”
He pauses, then smiles.
“And yo, I still need to shoot with Eminem. That’s the only person from Detroit I haven’t worked with yet.”
The dream is still fun. The work is still home. And Diego Cruz is exactly where he belongs.
This article and photos were made possible thanks to a generous grant to EL CENTRAL Hispanic News by Press Forward, the national movement to strengthen communities by reinvigorating local news. Learn more at www.pressforward.news.
