The 2026 Three Rivers Film Festival kicked off with the world premiere of Louder Than the Odds: The Mr. Smalls Story, a celebration of the longstanding Millvale music venue. For over twenty-five years, founders Liz Berlin and Mike Speranzo have crafted a home for the indie music scene in Pittsburgh, but it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses. The enduring legacy of Mr. Smalls is one of perseverance that goes back to long before Berlin and Speranzo took a gamble on an 18th-century Catholic church. The documentary, co-directed by Berlin and Evan Edelist, has been eighteen years in the making – since the two directors caught up in Los Angeles after Berlin played a show with her band, Rusted Root.
One has to wonder if at any point in those eighteen years of development there was a moment when a member of the team thought about jumping ship.
“It's a labor of love and it's a unique story,” explains Edelist. “I always felt it was a great story, it just took a long time. Personally, I had a couple of times along the way where my partner, Lisa, was like, you know you don't have to finish this, right? I said, well, you know, it's nice to finish things you start, so I wanted to finish it.”
“I don't envy Evan having to sift through all the material I sent him and trying to piece together our lives,” says Berlin. “I think it was a Herculean task on Evan’s part. I feel like I'm in a constant undertow in life and I never can quite catch up. This movie was one of those things for me where I cared about it so much and I wanted to do it so much, but I just never could quite stay in the process, you know?”
Courtesy of “Louder Than the Odds: The Mr. Smalls Story”
A Herculean task indeed. Louder Than the Odds is a chronicle of the lives of Berlin and Speranzo. In order for the audience to get a full picture of who this duo is, Edelist and editor Karl Nykwest had to begin the timeline decades before the opening of the Mr. Smalls theatre. Berlin and Speranzo’s paths crossed as musicians who toured together, but before then, Speranzo was quite well-known in the world of skateboarding. Each chapter of the lives of Berlin and Speranzo could be a documentary in its own right, but the real challenge was finding a way to whittle it down to ninety minutes in a way that was a celebration of those who were around for the whole journey and those finding the film as newcomers.
“In about 2013, when I first graduated, I didn't really know what exactly I wanted to do in the industry,” recalls Nykwest. “A couple of people asked me why I didn’t edit the documentary back then. I really felt like it needed to be somebody with distance, somebody who's got kind of an outside perspective.”
Nykwest was an intern with the Mr. Smalls team in the 2010s, which was what made him feel too close to be able to see how this story could be condensed into a manageable size. By the time he returned to the project in 2024, Nykwest felt he had been gone long enough that his eyes were fresh. By that point, Edelist and Berlin had taken the initial three-hour edit and were working to cut it down further.
The final cut of the film clocks in at eighty-nine minutes, and it’s an emotional roller coaster. Those who have been to a show at Mr. Smalls may not have realized the yearslong renovation project Speranzo was undertaking behind the scenes, the skatepark venture on Millvale’s waterfront, the different iterations of production studios, and the general stress of running a concert venue. It’s no wonder that Speranzo described the film’s premiere as like a wedding. The party and screening were a catharsis, not just for all involved, but for the audience too. To account for all the friends and family of those involved, one screening for the general public was held in the Mr. Smalls theater and another across the street at The Sanctuary (also run by Berlin and Speranzo) for those closest to the duo.
Courtesy of “Louder Than the Odds: The Mr. Smalls Story”
“People want to believe they can overcome. They need examples of that. I think the story created that example and that's why it took so long to be made, because it took that long to reach this moment,” Speranzo says.
“When we were on the road, there were two tour buses,” Speranzo continues. “One tour bus was called the Loud Smoky Bus, and the other tour bus was the Equity Bus. Liz and I were on the Equity Bus. We had the kids and were all prim and proper. Last night's party at The Sanctuary was like being on the Loud Smoky Bus. People were screaming, yelling, and whooping it up. It was cool to watch it under that condition and then equally powerful when I came I watched the remaining 30 minutes in the Mr. Smalls theater and saw how everybody was connected to it on a serious note.”
In everything Berlin and Speranzo do, there is one guiding principle: to do what they love with those they love. In this way they’re able to create spaces that exude a community feel. Yes, it’s about the music, but it’s also about giving back, which is why they have programs like REAL.LIFE.MUSIC. Camp that immerses young people in the music industry by teaching them about songwriting, producing, and more. Mr. Smalls went from being the subject of gossip for turning a Catholic church into a music venue to becoming a pillar of Millvale’s revitalization. It all comes back to a shared passion for music.
“All the music in the documentary was stuff Liz and I created,” explains Speranzo.
“It's interesting, because Mike and I have been writing music all these years through these experiences,” adds Berlin. “The songs you hear in the movie came out of the same experiences that are in the movie. Mike went through and placed songs that were written at that time or that were about what the subject of the movie is about at that moment. It's actually an incredibly well-curated soundtrack.”
Courtesy of “Louder Than the Odds: The Mr. Smalls Story”
One wouldn’t expect anything less from Berlin and Speranzo, who opened Mr. Smalls to acts like Muse, Smashing Pumpkins, and more, before they made it big. When asked about a dream musical guest for the venue, dead or alive, Speranzo didn’t have to think hard at all. He wanted to throw a mini festival for all the bands who came through Mr. Smalls and went on to become known at the national level. My Chemical Romance, Arctic Monkeys, Broken Social Scene, Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, and Muse are names Berlin and Speranzo throw out as possibilities.
Many of those acts can be seen in archival footage in Louder Than the Odds, as Berlin has been filming countless hours of performances at the venue. Not only was there footage from Mr. Smalls, but also from Berlin’s early touring years in Rusted Root, Speranzo’s skateboarding career, the building of multiple skateparks, and so very much more. During our interview, Nykwest pointed to an external hard drive behind him that can hold 14 terabytes, and this project was taking up 13.7 terabytes. As Nykwest began to wrap his head around this story, he crafted an extremely detailed organizational system to keep track of what he had to work with and of the gaps that had to be filled with more interviews. The team also decided there should be some type of foundation that would keep things in place as the movie moved throughout time. No one was interested in having a narrator, but they liked the idea of chapters. In order to make these transitions visually appealing, they had Chelsea, an artist, draw versions of Berlin and Speranzo that would then be animated by Nykwest
“Chelsea had to make the choice of whether to draw us at a young age or as our current selves, and she chose to draw us as our current selves to create a sense of connection and recognition of us as characters,” explains Berlin. “Those characters she drew became the avatars of the movie that connected the younger and older selves throughout the movie.”
Those drawings can be seen on Louder Than the Odds’ poster. Berlin holds a guitar and Speranzo holds a skateboard. A heart hovers above them and they’re covered by an outline of Mr. Smalls’ distinct spire. The story of Mr. Smalls doesn’t end with Louder Than the Odds because there’s more footage to be seen, more memories to be made, and more love to spread to the community.
“Even though music and skating played such a big role, if you look at Mike and Liz’s projects beyond the venue, the band and skate camps, all that stuff,” Edelist says, “it's a remarkable story about this endeavor of trying to provide opportunity for people. To be able to build it yourself is one part, and then to be able to have people experience it is another altogether.”
It goes back to the guiding principle of community and connection. Those who already know and love Mr. Smalls can take an intimate look at the people who built these spaces. Those who have yet to see a show at the venue will immediately understand the ethos of the crew behind the project. Speranzo sums it up best. “All art has a place at Smalls. That's what makes it so, so powerful. We've had people from all walks of life come through those doors and experience the same type of love and care. They've taken that to their community and said, I'm respected there, I'm loved there for me.”
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