We asked a few LatinoBuzz amigos to get their Robinson Crusoe on and pick a film, an album, a book and a companion from the movies to join them in their shenanigans were they to be stuck on a deserted island (and before anyone nitpicks, filmmakers are resourceful, so of course they built solar powered entertainment centers made from bamboos, coconuts and grass to watch movies and listen to baby making slow jams). We figured we'd start with the narrative filmmakers since they probably sit around thinking about this kinda stuff anyway.
Film: Choosing desert island items may mean sacrificing taste and/or reason, thinking about those items that you wouldn’t forgive yourself for not bringing them as your company, it´s like choosing the woman of your life. Here it goes: Hiroshima Mon Amour; there might be others I fancy as much as or more than (La Dolce Vita, Vertigo, M , some Lubitsch or Preminger), but I can think of no other as unique. I wouldn’t be able to choose any other without feeling Hiroshima’s absence - the best love film, the best movie about war, the best motion picture regarding the memory and its consequences. I can spend my whole life learning about film and the world because of Hiroshima...'.
Album: “Los Preludios de Debussy” by Claudio Arrau. These were so important to my life (I'm referring to my childhood of course) and I think no one does it better than Arrau. Same thing: it is endless. I think I could never tire of this and I could still wake up each and every morning amazed by it.
Book: “Sentimental Education”, by Flaubert. Similar to “Hiroshima”, a book that changed my outlook on literature and the world and I am certain it will keep transforming it forever.
Companion: Susie Diamond (Michelle Pfeiffer in 'The fabulous Baker Boys'). Since I saw the film (which I liked very much!) in the provincial movie theater of my childhood, I felt as Jack Baker´s relative and I loved Susie. If we had a piano, it would all be all be perfect. - Santiago Palavecino (Algunas chicas/Some Girls)
Film: This is a tricky question. I've always said that on a deserted island you should bring some porn. You could use that more than regular movies. But since I've got to pick a film I guess it'd be Jaws. Why? Because it's one of my favorites (I could also go with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). But being on a deserted island, Jaws will remind me all the time what'll happen to me for sure if I try to get away!
Album: “ Appetite for Destruction” (Guns N' Roses). Hey, I was 13 when this came out. I listen to it every day while I work, anyways. My favorite, by far.
A Book: I'm going to cheat on this one: 'The Complete Works' by Jorge Luis Borges. The best writer, and enough labyrinths to get lost on endless nights.
Companion: Sherlock Holmes. He's always been my favorite, and also, since my guess is he'll be pretty useless in a deserted island, every time we fail to get out because of him I can get to tell him "Is that the best you can do, Sherlock? - Alejandro Brugués (Juan of the Dead)
Film: Los Olvidados- this is punk rock and Pachuco. Mexico City style before the bombed out bunkers of Sid & Nancy. Bunuel is a hero and I wanna buy Jaibo a beer and milk for the old poetic man!
Album: The Blade Runner album. I can play it over and over, get cranked up or mellow with Blade Runner Blues and the constant rain.
Book: '20 years of Joda' - poems of Jose Montoya, my pop. Epic stuff! 'Ran with Miguel Pinero in the Lower Eastside!”
Companion: Michael Corleone cause he's Mack in my book! Jaibo gets an honorable mention. - Richard Montoya (Water & Power )
Film: I´d choose Misery because a year can go by and I can watch it again eagerly. It's simple and the director (Rob Reiner) and Stephen King are both masters of suspense.
Album: I know this may be considered cheating but it would have to be 'The Best of David Bowie'. That way I have 2 CD's with nearly 40 songs!
Companion: There's many great people who I would to live with but on a deserted Island? It would have to be Mary Poppins for obvious reasons.
Book: And finally the book would be 'Blood Meridian' by Cormac McCarthy because it's one I haven't read yet. Analeine Cal y Mayor - (The Boy Who Smells Like Fish)
Film: I would say White Chicks. I’m going to need some humor! White Chicks is the movie that I put on when I need a good laugh. It does it for me every time. I grew up with characters like that; and admittedly, I can regress back to a few of them myself when no one is looking.
Album: ' Songs From the Capeman' - Paul Simon. I can’t get enough of that album. It instantly takes me to that world and electrifies that side of me that’s determined to make a change for Latinos. I want to keep that feeling with me alive eternally…wherever I’m at.”
Book: There are many but 'Anatomy of the Spirit' by Caroline Myss has been my compass. It taught me how to take control of my destiny by listening to my intuition and body. I stand by her quote: “Your biography becomes your biology.
Companion: The first person that came to mind when I read the question was silly Clarence from “It’s a Wonderful Life”. I guess I’m going to need an angel with me, and he’s perfect. He has a pure childlike spirit that would help me find gratitude in the most unlikely moments… even on a deserted island! That right there is the meaning of life. - Carmen Marron (Endgame)
Film: There are so many brilliant, groundbreaking favorite films that have influenced me (The 400 Blows; Jules and Jim ; Law of Desire; et al) but I wouldn't bring any of them. If I'm stuck on a deserted island, I'm bringing Neil Simon's Murder by Death so I can laugh my ass off. Not a great film at all, it's true, but it's a classic comedy.
Album: Oh, this is easy: Madonna's "Ray of Light." I am no Madonna fanatic, but "deserted island, " means beach + summer weather + Fire Island-like atmosphere. So somewhere nearby there's got to be gay guys partying and I will use Madonna to lure them to me so I can be rescued.
One Book: Varga Llosa's "Feast of the Goat" ("La Fiesta del Chivo") -- it's action-packed historical fiction. It will keep me occupied. One of my favorite novels.
Companion: Huckleberry Finn. He will be a great companion: not only will he tell great stories, but undoubtedly, the ever-resourceful Huck Finn will figure out how to build a raft and get us out off that island! - Terracino (Elliot Loves )
Film: Whenever anyone asks me this I always think of what use these items would serve practically on a deserted island, so I answered this in that respect. Tokyo Story - Yasujiro Ozu. This would be a great film to take on a deserted island because it's really about the unavoidable suffering of the cycle of life, which I'm sure you'd relate to if you were stuck on an island. I really could watch this film a million times over and notice something new every time. Watching most Ozu films is not unlike participating in a Zen meditation practice. It's patience and slowness and trying to empty your mind of thought until your left with the basics of existence. Kind of like sitting on a deserted island alone. I can watch the scene where Kyoto says “Life is disappointing, isn't it?” and Noriko smiles and says “Yes it is.” I can watch that endlessly and cry every time. It's so true.
Album: ' Tusk' - Fleetwood Mac. I could also deal with 'Rumours' but I picked 'Tusk' because it's longer and denser; probably better for an island. 'Sara' is maybe my favorite song in the world and so it would be nice to have that with me. I think channeling the powerful witchy energy of Stevie Nicks would be a real asset on an island. This album has so much strange material on - you wouldn't get bored too easily with it. It's also got a range of emotions so if you get too depressed on the island you can just put on 'Never Forget' and feel better. And 'Sisters of the Moon' would be good around a fire at night. Even though you're stuck on an island, it's good to create an ambiance to remind you that life is worth living.
Book: ' In Search of Lost Time' - Marcel Proust. I've only read 'Swann's Way' which is first part of this. My analyst recommend it to me when I was totally heartbroken after someone broke up with me. It really did the trick. This would be a good long epic read that has enough complex ideas in it to keep you occupied for a life time. Probably a good book (or set of books) to get back to nature with.
Companion: I'll say Terry Malloy from “On the Waterfront”. He'd be strong and good to have around to cut down trees and hunt and stuff. He's also easy on the eyes and someone that could do with a little lonely contemplation away from the loading docks. That doesn't sound half bad...stuck on like a tropical island with a young, cute Marlon Brando, watching Ozu, reading Proust and listening to Fleetwood Mac all day. Sign me up! - Joshua Sanchez (Four)
Film: My film would have to be Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados. I have been a movie watcher since I was a child. Raised on mainstream American films and Wuxia flicks, it wasn't until I was a late teen that I took my first film class and was introduced to the work of Buñuel. Los Olvidados literally changed my perception of the world, both socially and visually. It was also the gateway for me to progress from movie watcher to film student.
Album: Music is my religion and I belong to the church of Robert Nesta Marley. I would prefer the whole anthology, but if I had to choose one album it would be “Exodus”. When on an island listen to island music.
Book: Right around the time I discovered the work of Buñuel, I was gifted Jose Montoya's 'In Formation: 20 years of Joda'. The book is a treasure of epic poems, sketches, and corridos. All testaments to the beauty and strength of Chicana/o culture. 20 years later I pay homage to both of these Maestros in my debut feature film, “Cry Now”. The film's protagonist is nicknamed 'Ojitos' during the course of the narrative, a reference to one of the characters in Los Olvidados. The late great Lupe Ontiveros playing the role of a sage loosely recites Montoya's mantra 'La Locura Cura' (In madness you find truth) while she councils our protagonist.
Companion: To bring it all full circle my fictitious character would have to be a Wuxia hero. As a child I was awe inspired by these bigger than life martial artists. As an adult, Ang Lee's “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” did the same. I know all would be as it should if Yu Shu Lien was on that island with me. - Alberto Barboza (Cry Now )
Film: Nothing But a Man (1964) It's a film that does an incredible job balancing a character-driven story within a politically charged context. It's a film I'm finding myself inspired by as I continue to write Los Valientes.
Album: I'm not a fan of albums, but if I had to choose one I guess I would have to go with any of Prince's albums. His music always puts me in a trance.
Book: My dream journal so I can look back look for signs of what is to become of my future.
Companion: Who better than TV's MacGyver. I'd put his ass to work on getting me off the island! -Aurora Guerrero (Mosquita y Mari)
Film: Hell in the Pacific so that I can be reminded that even in paradise there is a duality.
Album: “La Scala: Concert” by Ludovico Einaudi – I've listened to it a thousand times and each time I feel or discover something new.
Book: “ Voces Reunidas” by Antonio Porchia. Each time I read one of his poems I learn something new and I'm deeply moved.
Companion: Barbarella, so I could never be lonely and I could enjoy this planet-island – Diego Quemada-Díez (La jaula de oro/The Golden Dream)
Written by Juan Caceres . LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow [At]LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook...
Film: Choosing desert island items may mean sacrificing taste and/or reason, thinking about those items that you wouldn’t forgive yourself for not bringing them as your company, it´s like choosing the woman of your life. Here it goes: Hiroshima Mon Amour; there might be others I fancy as much as or more than (La Dolce Vita, Vertigo, M , some Lubitsch or Preminger), but I can think of no other as unique. I wouldn’t be able to choose any other without feeling Hiroshima’s absence - the best love film, the best movie about war, the best motion picture regarding the memory and its consequences. I can spend my whole life learning about film and the world because of Hiroshima...'.
Album: “Los Preludios de Debussy” by Claudio Arrau. These were so important to my life (I'm referring to my childhood of course) and I think no one does it better than Arrau. Same thing: it is endless. I think I could never tire of this and I could still wake up each and every morning amazed by it.
Book: “Sentimental Education”, by Flaubert. Similar to “Hiroshima”, a book that changed my outlook on literature and the world and I am certain it will keep transforming it forever.
Companion: Susie Diamond (Michelle Pfeiffer in 'The fabulous Baker Boys'). Since I saw the film (which I liked very much!) in the provincial movie theater of my childhood, I felt as Jack Baker´s relative and I loved Susie. If we had a piano, it would all be all be perfect. - Santiago Palavecino (Algunas chicas/Some Girls)
Film: This is a tricky question. I've always said that on a deserted island you should bring some porn. You could use that more than regular movies. But since I've got to pick a film I guess it'd be Jaws. Why? Because it's one of my favorites (I could also go with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). But being on a deserted island, Jaws will remind me all the time what'll happen to me for sure if I try to get away!
Album: “ Appetite for Destruction” (Guns N' Roses). Hey, I was 13 when this came out. I listen to it every day while I work, anyways. My favorite, by far.
A Book: I'm going to cheat on this one: 'The Complete Works' by Jorge Luis Borges. The best writer, and enough labyrinths to get lost on endless nights.
Companion: Sherlock Holmes. He's always been my favorite, and also, since my guess is he'll be pretty useless in a deserted island, every time we fail to get out because of him I can get to tell him "Is that the best you can do, Sherlock? - Alejandro Brugués (Juan of the Dead)
Film: Los Olvidados- this is punk rock and Pachuco. Mexico City style before the bombed out bunkers of Sid & Nancy. Bunuel is a hero and I wanna buy Jaibo a beer and milk for the old poetic man!
Album: The Blade Runner album. I can play it over and over, get cranked up or mellow with Blade Runner Blues and the constant rain.
Book: '20 years of Joda' - poems of Jose Montoya, my pop. Epic stuff! 'Ran with Miguel Pinero in the Lower Eastside!”
Companion: Michael Corleone cause he's Mack in my book! Jaibo gets an honorable mention. - Richard Montoya (Water & Power )
Film: I´d choose Misery because a year can go by and I can watch it again eagerly. It's simple and the director (Rob Reiner) and Stephen King are both masters of suspense.
Album: I know this may be considered cheating but it would have to be 'The Best of David Bowie'. That way I have 2 CD's with nearly 40 songs!
Companion: There's many great people who I would to live with but on a deserted Island? It would have to be Mary Poppins for obvious reasons.
Book: And finally the book would be 'Blood Meridian' by Cormac McCarthy because it's one I haven't read yet. Analeine Cal y Mayor - (The Boy Who Smells Like Fish)
Film: I would say White Chicks. I’m going to need some humor! White Chicks is the movie that I put on when I need a good laugh. It does it for me every time. I grew up with characters like that; and admittedly, I can regress back to a few of them myself when no one is looking.
Album: ' Songs From the Capeman' - Paul Simon. I can’t get enough of that album. It instantly takes me to that world and electrifies that side of me that’s determined to make a change for Latinos. I want to keep that feeling with me alive eternally…wherever I’m at.”
Book: There are many but 'Anatomy of the Spirit' by Caroline Myss has been my compass. It taught me how to take control of my destiny by listening to my intuition and body. I stand by her quote: “Your biography becomes your biology.
Companion: The first person that came to mind when I read the question was silly Clarence from “It’s a Wonderful Life”. I guess I’m going to need an angel with me, and he’s perfect. He has a pure childlike spirit that would help me find gratitude in the most unlikely moments… even on a deserted island! That right there is the meaning of life. - Carmen Marron (Endgame)
Film: There are so many brilliant, groundbreaking favorite films that have influenced me (The 400 Blows; Jules and Jim ; Law of Desire; et al) but I wouldn't bring any of them. If I'm stuck on a deserted island, I'm bringing Neil Simon's Murder by Death so I can laugh my ass off. Not a great film at all, it's true, but it's a classic comedy.
Album: Oh, this is easy: Madonna's "Ray of Light." I am no Madonna fanatic, but "deserted island, " means beach + summer weather + Fire Island-like atmosphere. So somewhere nearby there's got to be gay guys partying and I will use Madonna to lure them to me so I can be rescued.
One Book: Varga Llosa's "Feast of the Goat" ("La Fiesta del Chivo") -- it's action-packed historical fiction. It will keep me occupied. One of my favorite novels.
Companion: Huckleberry Finn. He will be a great companion: not only will he tell great stories, but undoubtedly, the ever-resourceful Huck Finn will figure out how to build a raft and get us out off that island! - Terracino (Elliot Loves )
Film: Whenever anyone asks me this I always think of what use these items would serve practically on a deserted island, so I answered this in that respect. Tokyo Story - Yasujiro Ozu. This would be a great film to take on a deserted island because it's really about the unavoidable suffering of the cycle of life, which I'm sure you'd relate to if you were stuck on an island. I really could watch this film a million times over and notice something new every time. Watching most Ozu films is not unlike participating in a Zen meditation practice. It's patience and slowness and trying to empty your mind of thought until your left with the basics of existence. Kind of like sitting on a deserted island alone. I can watch the scene where Kyoto says “Life is disappointing, isn't it?” and Noriko smiles and says “Yes it is.” I can watch that endlessly and cry every time. It's so true.
Album: ' Tusk' - Fleetwood Mac. I could also deal with 'Rumours' but I picked 'Tusk' because it's longer and denser; probably better for an island. 'Sara' is maybe my favorite song in the world and so it would be nice to have that with me. I think channeling the powerful witchy energy of Stevie Nicks would be a real asset on an island. This album has so much strange material on - you wouldn't get bored too easily with it. It's also got a range of emotions so if you get too depressed on the island you can just put on 'Never Forget' and feel better. And 'Sisters of the Moon' would be good around a fire at night. Even though you're stuck on an island, it's good to create an ambiance to remind you that life is worth living.
Book: ' In Search of Lost Time' - Marcel Proust. I've only read 'Swann's Way' which is first part of this. My analyst recommend it to me when I was totally heartbroken after someone broke up with me. It really did the trick. This would be a good long epic read that has enough complex ideas in it to keep you occupied for a life time. Probably a good book (or set of books) to get back to nature with.
Companion: I'll say Terry Malloy from “On the Waterfront”. He'd be strong and good to have around to cut down trees and hunt and stuff. He's also easy on the eyes and someone that could do with a little lonely contemplation away from the loading docks. That doesn't sound half bad...stuck on like a tropical island with a young, cute Marlon Brando, watching Ozu, reading Proust and listening to Fleetwood Mac all day. Sign me up! - Joshua Sanchez (Four)
Film: My film would have to be Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados. I have been a movie watcher since I was a child. Raised on mainstream American films and Wuxia flicks, it wasn't until I was a late teen that I took my first film class and was introduced to the work of Buñuel. Los Olvidados literally changed my perception of the world, both socially and visually. It was also the gateway for me to progress from movie watcher to film student.
Album: Music is my religion and I belong to the church of Robert Nesta Marley. I would prefer the whole anthology, but if I had to choose one album it would be “Exodus”. When on an island listen to island music.
Book: Right around the time I discovered the work of Buñuel, I was gifted Jose Montoya's 'In Formation: 20 years of Joda'. The book is a treasure of epic poems, sketches, and corridos. All testaments to the beauty and strength of Chicana/o culture. 20 years later I pay homage to both of these Maestros in my debut feature film, “Cry Now”. The film's protagonist is nicknamed 'Ojitos' during the course of the narrative, a reference to one of the characters in Los Olvidados. The late great Lupe Ontiveros playing the role of a sage loosely recites Montoya's mantra 'La Locura Cura' (In madness you find truth) while she councils our protagonist.
Companion: To bring it all full circle my fictitious character would have to be a Wuxia hero. As a child I was awe inspired by these bigger than life martial artists. As an adult, Ang Lee's “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” did the same. I know all would be as it should if Yu Shu Lien was on that island with me. - Alberto Barboza (Cry Now )
Film: Nothing But a Man (1964) It's a film that does an incredible job balancing a character-driven story within a politically charged context. It's a film I'm finding myself inspired by as I continue to write Los Valientes.
Album: I'm not a fan of albums, but if I had to choose one I guess I would have to go with any of Prince's albums. His music always puts me in a trance.
Book: My dream journal so I can look back look for signs of what is to become of my future.
Companion: Who better than TV's MacGyver. I'd put his ass to work on getting me off the island! -Aurora Guerrero (Mosquita y Mari)
Film: Hell in the Pacific so that I can be reminded that even in paradise there is a duality.
Album: “La Scala: Concert” by Ludovico Einaudi – I've listened to it a thousand times and each time I feel or discover something new.
Book: “ Voces Reunidas” by Antonio Porchia. Each time I read one of his poems I learn something new and I'm deeply moved.
Companion: Barbarella, so I could never be lonely and I could enjoy this planet-island – Diego Quemada-Díez (La jaula de oro/The Golden Dream)
Written by Juan Caceres . LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow [At]LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook...
- 3/5/2014
- by Juan Caceres
- Sydney's Buzz
Based on the play by Christopher Shinn and directed by Joshua Sanchez, Four is an award-winning drama that follows four people on the night of a steamy July 4th. A film about love and freedom, Four is an emotional-filled film that exposes the raw feelings and harsh truths of the characters. Four is newly on DVD and to celebrate, our friends at Wolfe Video have given us 10 copies to giveaway! To enter the contest, answer this question and e-mail your answer to nick At filmmakermagazine Dot com: What is the name of the role Wendell Pierce plays on the show The Wire? N.B. Contest is only open […]...
- 1/17/2014
- by Arielle Grinshpan
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Based on the play by Christopher Shinn and directed by Joshua Sanchez, Four is an award-winning drama that follows four people on the night of a steamy July 4th. A film about love and freedom, Four is an emotional-filled film that exposes the raw feelings and harsh truths of the characters. Four is newly on DVD and to celebrate, our friends at Wolfe Video have given us 10 copies to giveaway! To enter the contest, answer this question and e-mail your answer to nick At filmmakermagazine Dot com: What is the name of the role Wendell Pierce plays on the show The Wire? N.B. Contest is only open […]...
- 1/17/2014
- by Arielle Grinshpan
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Chicago – Like so many great plays, Joshua Sanchez’s debut drama “Four,” adapted from the stage by Christopher Shinn, is a tale of people who can find sexual connections but long for something more. It is about two hook-ups on the Fourth of July, both of which seem to do little to break their participants from their melancholy, and one of which has the potential to tear a family apart.
Anchored by stellar performances from the always-great Wendell Pierce (“The Wire”) and newcomer Aja Naomi King, “Four” is a performance piece that works on those terms even when the dialogue feels a bit too theatrical and forced. On the stage, we’ve come to expect dialogue-heavy scenes of self-examination and personal revelation that feel more forced when transferred to celluloid. However, Pierce and his co-stars never allow the melodrama or philosophizing to get in the way of their well-defined character work.
Anchored by stellar performances from the always-great Wendell Pierce (“The Wire”) and newcomer Aja Naomi King, “Four” is a performance piece that works on those terms even when the dialogue feels a bit too theatrical and forced. On the stage, we’ve come to expect dialogue-heavy scenes of self-examination and personal revelation that feel more forced when transferred to celluloid. However, Pierce and his co-stars never allow the melodrama or philosophizing to get in the way of their well-defined character work.
- 9/18/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Looking for a Love That’s Never Enough: Joshua Sanchez Directs a Broody Debut
Director Joshua Sanchez has chosen excellent material to adapt for his film debut, Four, based on the play by Obie award winning (and Pulitzer short finalist) playwright, Christopher Shinn. At times, simplistic in its familiarity, the film manages to create a brooding atmosphere that slowly tightens its grip, sloughing off familiar tropes concerning race and sexuality and hitting enough subtle notes to become more intense the more quiet it becomes.
On one typical seeming 4th of July, a distressed and nervous white adolescent male named June (Emory Cohen) secretly meets a mysterious man in a desolate parking lot, a man that confirms the meeting via a payphone booth. As night begins to fall, a heavy set black male in his forties named Joe (Wendell Pierce) picks up June and we discover that they met online and arranged this rendezvous for sex.
Director Joshua Sanchez has chosen excellent material to adapt for his film debut, Four, based on the play by Obie award winning (and Pulitzer short finalist) playwright, Christopher Shinn. At times, simplistic in its familiarity, the film manages to create a brooding atmosphere that slowly tightens its grip, sloughing off familiar tropes concerning race and sexuality and hitting enough subtle notes to become more intense the more quiet it becomes.
On one typical seeming 4th of July, a distressed and nervous white adolescent male named June (Emory Cohen) secretly meets a mysterious man in a desolate parking lot, a man that confirms the meeting via a payphone booth. As night begins to fall, a heavy set black male in his forties named Joe (Wendell Pierce) picks up June and we discover that they met online and arranged this rendezvous for sex.
- 9/13/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
With its glum, suburban Fourth of July setting, Four aches be a tragedy about identity crisis in America (young homosexuals terrified to come out, black girls teased for seeming too white). But the film, adapted by director Joshua Sanchez from Christopher Shinn's 2002 play, never achieves its intended weightiness. It's merely about two lustful yet gentle adult predators who know what they want, and their younger, more reticent prey, who don't. Straying husband Joe (The Wire's Wendell Pierce), who's secretly gay, tries in vain to loosen up fiercely closeted teenager June (Emory Cohen), whom he met on the Internet. That Joe's wife in an invalid, and his frequent straying leaves her in the care of his adolescent daughter, Abigayle (Aja Naomi King), gives him no shame. Joe wa...
- 9/11/2013
- Village Voice
As previously announced, AMC Theatres is partnering with newcomer, 306 Releasing, to bring Joshua Sanchez's Independent Spirit Award-nominated drama Four to a theater near you, starting next month. An adaptation on an off-Broadway play by Christopher Shinn, Four stars Wendell Pierce of The Wire fame, alongside Emory Cohen, Aja Naomi King, E.J. Bonilla and Yolanda Ross, in a tale about of a married black man who steps out on his family, on the night of the Fourth of July, with a much younger white man whom he met online, and the way his family quietly deals with his duplicitous life. The film's script was both...
- 9/6/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
As previously announced, AMC Theatres is partnering with newcomer, 306 Releasing, to bring Joshua Sanchez's Independent Spirit Award-nominated drama Four to a theater near you, starting next month. An adaptation on an off-Broadway play by Christopher Shinn, Four stars Wendell Pierce of The Wire fame, alongside Emory Cohen, Aja Naomi King, E.J. Bonilla and Yolanda Ross, in a tale about of a married black man who steps out on his family, on the night of the Fourth of July, with a much younger white man whom he met online, and the way his family quietly deals with his duplicitous life. The film's script was both...
- 8/27/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
As previously announced in July, AMC Theatres is partnering with newcomer, 306 Releasing, to bring Joshua Sanchez's Independent Spirit Award-nominated drama Four to a theater near you, starting next month. An adaptation on an off-Broadway play by Christopher Shinn, Four stars Wendell Pierce of The Wire fame, alongside Aja Naomi King, Emory Cohen, E.J. Bonilla and Yolanda Ross, in a tale about of a married black man who steps out on his family, on the night of the Fourth of July, with a much younger white man whom he met online, and the way his family quietly deals with his duplicitous life. The film's script was both...
- 8/6/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Announced via press release, AMC Theatres is partnering with newcomer, 306 Releasing, to bring Joshua Sanchez's Independent Spirit Award-nominated drama Four to a theater near you. An adaptation on an off-Broadway play by Christopher Shinn, Four stars Wendell Pierce of The Wire fame, alongside Aja Naomi King, Emory Cohen, E.J. Bonilla and Yolanda Ross, in tale about of a married black man who steps out on his family, on the night of the Fourth of July, with a much younger white man whom he met online, and the way his family quietly deals with his duplicitous life. Four will be released, beginning September...
- 7/16/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Wolfe Releasing has acquired "Four," Joshua Sanchez's directorial debut based on award-winning playwright Christopher Shinn's play of the same name. The film stars Wendell Pierce, whose performance earned him a nomination for Best Actor at the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards. Pierce, best known for his work on HBO's "The Wire" and "Treme," stars as Joe, a middle-aged married man who goes on a date with a young man he meets on the Internet. Emory Cohen plays the young man while Aja Naomi King and E.J. Bonilla round out the cast. Pierce also...
- 2/14/2013
- by Lucas Shaw
- The Wrap
It screens at the at the 3rd annual New Voices In Black Cinema Festival, presented by BAMcinématek and ActNow Foundation, which runs from February 15 - 18, at Bam Rose Cinemas, but ahead of that news, announced this evening, Joshua Sanchez's Four, an adaptation on an off-Broadway play by Christopher Shinn, has been acquired for distribution by Wolfe Releasing. Wendell Pierce of The Wire fame, stars in the film, alongside Aja Naomi King, Emory Cohen, E.J. Bonilla and Yolanda Ross. The film's script was both a 2007 Tribeca All Access award recipient, and a 2008 No...
- 2/14/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Wolfe Releasing has acquired domestic and international rights to "Four," the debut feature film from director Joshua Sanchez, based on the play by Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright, Christopher Shinn. Wolfe plans to open the film theatrically this summer. The film stars Wendell Pierce ("The Wire") as Joe and Emory Cohen ("Smash") as June. Joe is a black, middle-aged man who meets June, a white teenage boy, online. The pair decide to meet and go out on a date on the 4th of July. Unbeknownst to them, Joe's daughter Abigayle, played by Aja Naomi King, is also out on a date that night with a basketball player named Dexter, played by E.J. Bonilla. As the night unfolds, the couples lives will change. All four of the film's leads collectively won the acting award at last year's Los Angeles Film Festival. Wolfe president Maria Lynn said, "'Four 'is a powerful new American Indie.
- 2/13/2013
- by Cristina A. Gonzalez
- Indiewire
I never thought I’d be watching Emily Owens, MD. But then I saw Joshua Sanchez’ new feature film Four this past summer, and one of the ‘four’ stars of that film (it’s a repeated theme throughout the movie) is Aja Naomi King and she was so both intense and intriguing that I knew I’d be on board with anything else she’d appear in, which brings us to Emily Owens, MD, the new medical drama/fish-out-of-water/professional life is like high school show on the CW. Very compared to Grey’s Anatomy, from which it copies heavily but respectably from, it stars Mamie Gummer in the title role playing a sort of dorky looking young lady who just...
- 10/23/2012
- by Curtis Caesar John
- ShadowAndAct
"Four," director Joshua Sanchez's remarkably honest, empathic adaptation of Christopher Shinn's play about a quartet of lovelorn folks in a modern age, works on you slowly. It's taken me about a week since seeing it at the New Orleans Film Festival to suss out just how complex and world weary it is, and how surprisingly beautiful. Hazily composed, even dreamlike — most of the action takes place under the cover of dark — "Four" glides past truck stops, bars, and basketball courts; it shimmers somewhere in the space between who we are and who we pretend to be. From the outset, its characters lie and dissemble, play and put on. Joe (Wendell Pierce), a middle-aged husband and father, picks up teenaged June (Emory Cohen) online for an illicit, possibly illegal, sexual liaison; Abigayle (Aja Naomi King) at once doubts and desires her cocky new paramour, Dexter (E.J. Bonilla). Whatever their reasons,...
- 10/23/2012
- by Matt Brennan
- Thompson on Hollywood
NewFest, New York’s Lgbt film festival, returns this year with bicoastal fortification, its programming taken over by the folks at L.A.’s Outfest, whose motive for the merge is to foster a national queer arts entity. But is the alliance holy? With Outfest having just wrapped its 30th anniversary, an 11-day event that boasted nearly 150 titles (including Ira Sachs’s Keep the Lights On, Jonathan Lisecki’s Gayby, and David France’s riveting Act Up doc, How to Survive a Plague), NewFest has the not-so-faint whiff of an afterthought, its 18-feature lineup looking more like the subpar cache of a scavenger than a carefully curated medley. The only films that seem to leap out as hot tickets are Yossi, Eytan Fox’s tender sequel to Yossi and Jagger; Cloudburst, a geriatric lesbian dramedy with Brenda Fricker and Olympia Dukakis; I Want Your Love, Travis Matthews’s arthouse-porno expansion of his 2010 short; and Four,...
- 7/28/2012
- by R. Kurt Osenlund
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
There are thousands of film festivals all over the world. Some are prestigious and well known--taking place in large cities across Europe and the U.S.--others in out-of-the-way towns that no one has ever heard of. These festivals show all kinds of films--from a range countries, on various topics and of many genres.
Often the films tend to be heavy on stories from the U.S.and Europe--focusing on the developed world and centering on mainstream populations. Generally speaking, they showcase films directed by men and about people who are White, straight, and well-off. As a result there are countless specialty festivals--Latino, Asian, African, and others--whose objective is to feature the talents of marginalized filmmakers. But even at a niche festival there are groups which continue to be underrepresented. At a Latino film festival it’s not always easy to find films that are Jewish, gay, indigenous, Afro-Latino or about Latin American immigrants from unexpected countries like Japan or Germany. Granted there aren’t as many movies made about these populations but--on the bright side--this year has proven to be a bountiful one for Latino Lgbt films. They have played renowned mainstream festivals like Sundance and Berlin and are making the rounds at gay festivals. It’s about time.
Mosquita y Mari (Isa: The Film Collaborative)
Aurora Guerrero
USA, 2011, 85 min
“This Sundance favorite is a sweet and genuine film about two Chicana high schoolers, Yolanda, a shy, straight-a student, and Mari, her “bad girl” classmate. Yolanda offers to tutor the feisty and hot troublemaker. As she and Mari study and share their intimate thoughts in an abandoned auto body shop, their feelings inevitably get deeper, furtive glances grow longer, and Yolanda starts to come into her own. Aurora Guerrero’s debut feature takes a tender look at what it’s like to discover yourself and fall in love for the first time.”
Olhe Pra Mim de Novo (LookatMeAgain) (Isa:FiGa Films)
Kiko Goifman, Claudia Priscilla
Brazil, 2011, 72 min
trailer: http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/221/1116
“Syllvio Luccio, born a girl, grew to identify as a lesbian then finally a man, embarks on a road trip through Northeastern Brazil, a region characterized by rigid ideas rooted in evangelical religion and machismo. Syllvio engages with outsiders of different backgrounds on the road, including Lgbt youth, a man whose paternity is questioned by his family and a group of adults afflicted with a genetic disease. Directors Kiko Goifman and Claudia Priscilla draw candid testimony from their subjects to construct a moving portrait of an individual and exploration of outsider culture.”
Elliot Loves (Isa: Tla Releasing)
Terracino
USA, 2011, 92 min
trailer: http://vimeo.com/38051803
“Finding love in the big city is never easy. But it’s always entertaining in this bouncy romantic comedy from first time feature director Terracino. Elliot is an earnest twenty-one year-old Dominican American looking for love in all the wrong places. The juxtaposition of Elliot’s past and present paints a sweet, complex character study of a young gay man trying to find love and meaning in the big city. Wild visual nuances, surprising fantasy interludes and a non-traditional approach to just about every aspect of filmmaking make this a must see for connoisseurs of brave new cinema.”
Joven y Alocada (Young& Wild) (Isa: Elle Driver)
Marialy Rivas
Chile, 2012, 96 min
“Seventeen-year-old Daniela is obsessed with sex. But her self-proclaimed “pussy in flames” is in direct conflict with her well-to-do, strict evangelical family in Santiago, Chile. She finds an outlet by detailing her naughty ruminations and exploits on her blog Young & Wild to her eager online followers. Marialy Rivas masterfully directs her first feature, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and picked up the World Cinema Screenwriting Award. Rooted in a fearless and unforgettable performance by Alicia Rodríguez, Young & Wild is a stunning, energetic look at family and youth culture in contemporary Chile.”
Four
Joshua Sanchez
USA, 2012, 75 min
“An adaptation of Pulitzer prize finalist Christopher Shinn's first play of the same name, Four is both an emotional and urgent glimpse into the lives of four troubled and fascinating individuals. As the world around them celebrates the 4th of July with fireworks and festivity, a closeted married man, his young daughter, a gay teen, and a minor drug dealer haltingly negotiate one-night affairs. Filmmaker, author and artist Joshua Sanchez opens typical expectations of race and gender, reading Shinn’s drama with an intensity, candor, and carnality.”
Film Synopses taken from Frameline: The San Francisco International Lgbt Festival and OutFest: The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzzthat highlights emerging and established Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzzon twitter.
Often the films tend to be heavy on stories from the U.S.and Europe--focusing on the developed world and centering on mainstream populations. Generally speaking, they showcase films directed by men and about people who are White, straight, and well-off. As a result there are countless specialty festivals--Latino, Asian, African, and others--whose objective is to feature the talents of marginalized filmmakers. But even at a niche festival there are groups which continue to be underrepresented. At a Latino film festival it’s not always easy to find films that are Jewish, gay, indigenous, Afro-Latino or about Latin American immigrants from unexpected countries like Japan or Germany. Granted there aren’t as many movies made about these populations but--on the bright side--this year has proven to be a bountiful one for Latino Lgbt films. They have played renowned mainstream festivals like Sundance and Berlin and are making the rounds at gay festivals. It’s about time.
Mosquita y Mari (Isa: The Film Collaborative)
Aurora Guerrero
USA, 2011, 85 min
“This Sundance favorite is a sweet and genuine film about two Chicana high schoolers, Yolanda, a shy, straight-a student, and Mari, her “bad girl” classmate. Yolanda offers to tutor the feisty and hot troublemaker. As she and Mari study and share their intimate thoughts in an abandoned auto body shop, their feelings inevitably get deeper, furtive glances grow longer, and Yolanda starts to come into her own. Aurora Guerrero’s debut feature takes a tender look at what it’s like to discover yourself and fall in love for the first time.”
Olhe Pra Mim de Novo (LookatMeAgain) (Isa:FiGa Films)
Kiko Goifman, Claudia Priscilla
Brazil, 2011, 72 min
trailer: http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/221/1116
“Syllvio Luccio, born a girl, grew to identify as a lesbian then finally a man, embarks on a road trip through Northeastern Brazil, a region characterized by rigid ideas rooted in evangelical religion and machismo. Syllvio engages with outsiders of different backgrounds on the road, including Lgbt youth, a man whose paternity is questioned by his family and a group of adults afflicted with a genetic disease. Directors Kiko Goifman and Claudia Priscilla draw candid testimony from their subjects to construct a moving portrait of an individual and exploration of outsider culture.”
Elliot Loves (Isa: Tla Releasing)
Terracino
USA, 2011, 92 min
trailer: http://vimeo.com/38051803
“Finding love in the big city is never easy. But it’s always entertaining in this bouncy romantic comedy from first time feature director Terracino. Elliot is an earnest twenty-one year-old Dominican American looking for love in all the wrong places. The juxtaposition of Elliot’s past and present paints a sweet, complex character study of a young gay man trying to find love and meaning in the big city. Wild visual nuances, surprising fantasy interludes and a non-traditional approach to just about every aspect of filmmaking make this a must see for connoisseurs of brave new cinema.”
Joven y Alocada (Young& Wild) (Isa: Elle Driver)
Marialy Rivas
Chile, 2012, 96 min
“Seventeen-year-old Daniela is obsessed with sex. But her self-proclaimed “pussy in flames” is in direct conflict with her well-to-do, strict evangelical family in Santiago, Chile. She finds an outlet by detailing her naughty ruminations and exploits on her blog Young & Wild to her eager online followers. Marialy Rivas masterfully directs her first feature, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and picked up the World Cinema Screenwriting Award. Rooted in a fearless and unforgettable performance by Alicia Rodríguez, Young & Wild is a stunning, energetic look at family and youth culture in contemporary Chile.”
Four
Joshua Sanchez
USA, 2012, 75 min
“An adaptation of Pulitzer prize finalist Christopher Shinn's first play of the same name, Four is both an emotional and urgent glimpse into the lives of four troubled and fascinating individuals. As the world around them celebrates the 4th of July with fireworks and festivity, a closeted married man, his young daughter, a gay teen, and a minor drug dealer haltingly negotiate one-night affairs. Filmmaker, author and artist Joshua Sanchez opens typical expectations of race and gender, reading Shinn’s drama with an intensity, candor, and carnality.”
Film Synopses taken from Frameline: The San Francisco International Lgbt Festival and OutFest: The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzzthat highlights emerging and established Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzzon twitter.
- 7/7/2012
- by Vanessa Erazo
- Sydney's Buzz
Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Spirit Awards, announced on Sunday the jury and audience award winners for the 2012 Festival at the Awards Brunch, hosted by Chaya Downtown for the third year. Actors Jon Heder and Ari Graynor were on hand to present the awards. The La Film Fest, presented by Film Independent and Host Venue Regal Cinemas L.A. Live Stadium 14 and presenting media sponsor Los Angeles Times, ran from Thursday, June 14 to Sunday, June 24 in downtown Los Angeles.
“Every single filmmaker in this year’s Festival deserves kudos for their artistry and compelling stories. Our juries had such gems to choose from in each competition and the winners truly represent what we hold dear.diversity and uniqueness of vision,” said Festival Director Stephanie Allain.
The two top juried awards of the Los Angeles Film Festival are the Narrative Award and Documentary Award,...
“Every single filmmaker in this year’s Festival deserves kudos for their artistry and compelling stories. Our juries had such gems to choose from in each competition and the winners truly represent what we hold dear.diversity and uniqueness of vision,” said Festival Director Stephanie Allain.
The two top juried awards of the Los Angeles Film Festival are the Narrative Award and Documentary Award,...
- 6/25/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Congrats to Stephanie Allain on her inaugural year as Laff director, and congrats to all the winners - especially those films and talents we've covered here on S&A, like the Narrative Award for the finest narrative film in competition at the Festival went to Pocas Pascoal for the North American Premiere of All is Well; the award for Best Performance in the Narrative Competition which went to Wendell Pierce, Emory Cohen, E.J. Bonilla and Aja Naomi King for their performances in the World Premiere of Joshua Sanchez’s Four; and the award for Best Narrative Short Film went to The...
- 6/25/2012
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Los Angeles (June 24, 2012) – Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Spirit Awards, announced the jury and audience award winners for the 2012 Festival The La Film Fest ran from Thursday, June 14 to Sunday, June 24 in downtown Los Angeles. The two top juried awards are the Narrative Award and Documentary Award, each carrying an unrestricted $15,000 cash prize funded by Film Independent, for the winning film’s director. The Narrative Award recognizes the finest narrative film in competition at the Festival and went to Pocas Pascoal for the North American Premiere of All is Well, with an Honorable Mention going to Dominga Sotomayor’s Thursday Till Sunday. The Documentary Award recognizes the finest documentary film in competition at the Festival and went to Everardo González for the U.S. Premiere of Drought. The award for Best Performance in the Narrative Competition went to Wendell Pierce,...
- 6/24/2012
- by NIKKI FINKE
- Deadline Hollywood
HollywoodNews.com: Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Spirit Awards, announced the jury and audience award winners for the 2012 Festival at the Awards Brunch, hosted by Chaya Downtown for the third year. Actors Jon Heder and Ari Graynor were on hand to present the awards. The La Film Fest, presented by Film Independent and Host Venue Regal Cinemas L.A. Live Stadium 14 and presenting media sponsor Los Angeles Times, ran from Thursday, June 14 to Sunday, June 24 in downtown Los Angeles.
“Every single filmmaker in this year’s Festival deserves kudos for their artistry and compelling stories. Our juries had such gems to choose from in each competition and the winners truly represent what we hold dear—diversity and uniqueness of vision,” said Festival Director Stephanie Allain.
The two top juried awards of the Los Angeles Film Festival are the Narrative Award and Documentary Award,...
“Every single filmmaker in this year’s Festival deserves kudos for their artistry and compelling stories. Our juries had such gems to choose from in each competition and the winners truly represent what we hold dear—diversity and uniqueness of vision,” said Festival Director Stephanie Allain.
The two top juried awards of the Los Angeles Film Festival are the Narrative Award and Documentary Award,...
- 6/24/2012
- by Josh Abraham
- Hollywoodnews.com
We are all faced with loneliness at one time or another, perhaps for longer periods than we can understand or accept. In a modern world, with all the connectivity our technology and our society have to offer, we may still be confronted by the looming threat of isolation. This condition of being alone, of lacking a friend, lover, or confidant in which to share your most personal self is the subject of “Four,” written and directed by Joshua Sanchez. In its relatively brief 76 minutes, the film provides a beautiful commentary on this state, a quiet and poetic meditation on the solitude of the human condition.
In an unnamed New York town, two couples come together under the cover of darkness on a steamy Fourth of July night. The teenaged June (Emory Cohen) leaves his parents’ barbeque to meet middle-aged Joe (Wendell Pierce), a man he’s met on the Internet,...
In an unnamed New York town, two couples come together under the cover of darkness on a steamy Fourth of July night. The teenaged June (Emory Cohen) leaves his parents’ barbeque to meet middle-aged Joe (Wendell Pierce), a man he’s met on the Internet,...
- 6/19/2012
- by Emma Bernstein
- The Playlist
Director Joshua Sanchez
Director: Joshua Sanchez
Festival Entry: Four
Narrative Competition
Over the course of a steamy 4th of July night, a father and daughter, each trapped in loneliness, reach out for sexual connection — he with a self-hating teenage boy, she with a smooth-talking wannabe homeboy — in this psychologically complex, beautifully acted drama.
Directed By: Joshua Sanchez
Executive Producer: Neil Labute
Producer: Christine Giorgio
Screenwriter: Joshua Sanchez
Cinematographer: Gregg Conde
Editor: David Gutnik
Music: Bryan Senti
Cast: Wendell Pierce, Emory Cohen, Aja Naomi King, Ej Bonilla
We asked Four director Josh Sanchez about everything from his inspirations to his challenges while making his Festival entry film. Here’s what he had to say:
Who are you and what do you do?
I’m Josh Sanchez. I make films, I write and I make art.
Who were your early mentors in filmmaking?
The filmmaker Lodge Kerrigan really made me understand film in a whole new way.
Director: Joshua Sanchez
Festival Entry: Four
Narrative Competition
Over the course of a steamy 4th of July night, a father and daughter, each trapped in loneliness, reach out for sexual connection — he with a self-hating teenage boy, she with a smooth-talking wannabe homeboy — in this psychologically complex, beautifully acted drama.
Directed By: Joshua Sanchez
Executive Producer: Neil Labute
Producer: Christine Giorgio
Screenwriter: Joshua Sanchez
Cinematographer: Gregg Conde
Editor: David Gutnik
Music: Bryan Senti
Cast: Wendell Pierce, Emory Cohen, Aja Naomi King, Ej Bonilla
We asked Four director Josh Sanchez about everything from his inspirations to his challenges while making his Festival entry film. Here’s what he had to say:
Who are you and what do you do?
I’m Josh Sanchez. I make films, I write and I make art.
Who were your early mentors in filmmaking?
The filmmaker Lodge Kerrigan really made me understand film in a whole new way.
- 6/13/2012
- by Film Independent
- Film Independent
Joshua Sanchez, a native of Houston, Tejas graduated from Columbia University’s Mfa Film Program with several internationally screened short films under his belt along with the HBO Films Young Producer’s Development Award. His feature debut, Four, based on a play written by Christopher Shinn, participated in the Tribeca All Access program at the Tribeca Film Festival and after a few false starts and delays, Joshua cast Wendell Pierce ('The Wire', 'Treme'), Emory Cohen ('Afterschool', TV's 'Smash'), Aja Naomi King ('Blue Bloods') and Ej Bonilla ('Mamitas', 'Don't Let Me Drown') as his "Four". Once in the can he was able to complete the post production when he became the recipient of the Jerome Foundation’s Film and Video grant. Adding his favorite New York bands to the soundtrack as icing on the cake, Joshua is ready to world premiere the film at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 15th.
LatinoBuzz: Four is based on a play by Christopher Shinn - What drew you to adapting it for the screen and how much did race factor in your desire to tell this story? Was there ever an urge to stray from the original story?
Joshua Sanchez: I saw one of Chris' other plays called Where Do We Live at the Vineyard Theatre in New York in 2004, right around the time I finished film school. The play had such a fresh voice that spoke to me, so I sought out Shinn's other work. Of all of his plays up to that time, Four really floored me mostly because it felt like experiences that I had in my adolescence, growing up as a closeted gay Mexican-American kid in a conservative suburb in Houston, Texas. The play also felt very cinematic and contained in that it takes place over one night and sort of roves around the city. It really could be any American city, which is how we shot it, although the play takes place in Hartford. I could see and feel the story so clearly right after I read, which is a good sign if you're thinking about whether a play could make a good movie.
I definitely appreciate the way race was dealt with in the play and it made me want to do the film more, although I probably initially responded more to the gay aspect of it. I'm Mexican-American and grew up in Texas but I don't speak Spanish, regrettably because I think it was sort of frowned upon in my generation of trying to assimilate into being an American. I think that sad aspect of my upbringing helped me deal with the race aspect of Four because I think that the story is so unconventional in its dealing with the race of the characters. Race in my life was never a 'normal' thing to deal with and I think the way it plays into the characters lives in Four is very complex as well.
This version of Four does stray away from the original story to some degree, which I think you'll pick up on if you read the play and see the movie. But I think the initial core of the characters and their arc in the story remains true to what Shinn wrote. We tried to make this as much of a cinematic experience as possible. But this is my interpretation of this story. I'm sure there will be others in the future.
LatinoBuzz: From your '04 short film Kill or Be Killed to your feature film Four - you've shown characters who are searching for something to fill an emotional void. What's Joshua Sanchez looking for?
Joshua Sanchez: When I first stared to watch movies seriously as an adolescent, I wanted them to echo back to me what I felt inside.I think a lot of where Kill or Be Killed and Four were coming from for me personally was the loneliness and isolation I felt as a kid trying to make sense of the intense dysfunction of my family life and the fact that my sexuality made me very different from what was in any way desirable to the people around me as a child.
A lot of time has passed between the time I directed Kill or Be Killed and now. A lot of that time for me creatively was spent trying to get Four off the ground. I've gone through a lot of changes as a person in that period. I would say at this point in my life, I value the people that I'm close to. I have wonderful friends and a wonderful partner that I'm so blessed to have in my life. My main priority in life is to practice trying to love them and to love myself every day and to balance that with trying to make work that is meaningful and fulfilling to me.
I think film can be a really powerful vehicle to share and be witness to the experiences that we go through in our daily lives. Film really helped me when I was a kid and had nobody to turn to. I know they work that way for others and I feel a certain responsibility to myself and to any audience that watches my work to be as honest as possible.
And I still have a lot to learn as well. This is my first feature film, so I'm looking forward to pushing the boundaries of what I've learned and what I'm capable of in this medium.
LatinoBuzz: Is there a songwriter you've admired that had they gone that route would have made amazing filmmakers? (and why?)
Joshua Sanchez:I would like to have seen what Elliott Smith would have done with film. He was such a clever lyricist and inventive musician. I actually taught myself how to play guitar from listening to Either/Or and his self-titled album. 'Needle in the Hay' was the first song I learned. He's a weird player to learn from because his tunings are so off and he used a lot of strange variations and chord progressions that are really not normal, but it really opens up your mind to what is capable on a guitar. I learned the basic chords of guitar with my guitar tuned a step down because that's how a lot of his songs are tuned. I didn't know it for a long time that it wasn't the standard tuning. He had such an evolved sense of imagery and metaphor. When I hear 'Say Yes' I can almost see the movie in my head.
LatinoBuzz: Do Latino filmmakers have a responsibility on the images we convey to the broader audience? Or should we have the freedom as artists?
Joshua Sanchez: I think it's more important to maintain authenticity and honesty than it is to portray a certain PC image of what it means to be Latino. I've always felt somewhat out of place as a Latino since I don't speak Spanish very well and I'm fairly light skinned. I was essentially a shy skateboard, punk rock, lower middle class kid from the suburbs and that is really my perspective and where I come from. I appreciate it when I see work that challenges me to look at the world through different eyes. It's more important that Latinos feel free to express their own individual realities, rather than an accepted version of Latinoness.
LatinoBuzz: Which of the following villians best describes you as a director on set? Rasputin? Dick Dastardly? The Guy from Caligula? or Han from 'Enter The Dragon'?
Joshua Sanchez: Probably Rasputin if I had to pick one. He was a mystic.
LatinoBuzz: You've written short stories too as well as short films - Where do you draw your stories from?
Joshua Sanchez: The stories I write are usually somewhat autobiographical, or contain aspects of my observations and experiences. I started writing short stories in the middle of making Four actually, which took almost six years. Partially, I wrote these because I wanted to practice storytelling and keep my mind sharp in this realm. But in general, I love to write them because they are very low pressure to me. It's really fun to keep my mind working as a writer and to be able to practice turning my observations into story. I am inspired a lot by the short stories of John Cheever, who is probably my favorite fiction writer of all time.
LatinoBuzz: Ok -- For this interviews sake only -- Your life has spiraled out of control, You've hit rock bottom -- You are offered a second chance. Butyou have to direct a film based on a childhood game (Board or Video game). Anyone. Michael Bay is producing so you are in Great hands. Pick one. And who stars in it?
Joshua Sanchez: Definitely 'The Legend of Zelda'.
Bradford Cox from the band Deerhunter had a great idea that he posted on his blog of making one of their music videos about a lonely boy who is playing the original Nintendo 'Legend of Zelda' and the hero of the video game is echoing the kid's feeling of loneliness, walking aimlessly around these dark landscapes in the game. Then his abusive, drunk father comes in and starts beating him, and it's the beginning of a story about how the kid is escaping into playing the video game and how he transcends his abusive surroundings.
I would want to collaborate with Bradford and Michael Bay about turning this into a feature film version of 'Zelda' starring Justin Bieber. This is a movie I would definitely want to see.
LatinoBuzz: You went to Columbia Film School. There's the endless discussion of Film School versus skipping it and just making a film -- Both sides have great arguments. How do you feel about some of these short films with outrageous budgets when some people are trying to make features with the same amount?
Joshua Sanchez: I think it's less about the budgets of these films and more about whether they work as films at all. A few of my film school classmates went really overboard making their shorts that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, and trying to be the star of the class or win an award right out of the gate. I think it's wiser to think of making films as a progression through a body of work. Your budget can be small, but if you have a great idea that is well executed, this will always win out in the end. There are also really great short filmmakers that don't transition well into feature films.
For me film school was beneficial in the sense that it got me out of Texas and forced me into a situation where I had to learn how to tell stories and work on the basics of narrative filmmaking. But in retrospect, the most beneficial aspect of the whole film school experience was being in New York City and beginning to take advantage of all the resources that are here. So much of that was outside of film school for me. It wasn't really until I started going out downtown and moved to Brooklyn that things began to change for me. I was meeting other artists and having experiences that made me want to keep working and coming up with ideas.
The downsides are that it left me with a lot of debt and the environment of film school itself can be somewhat unbearable and suffocating. It's competitive and can often times can be a difficult place to find support and inspiration.
When I started film school it was in the late 90's. The equipment was terrible and there was a very old model of distribution and exhibition in place for up-and-coming filmmakers. Now, anyone can by a 5D and Final Cut and make something that looks fantastic.
I don't think film school is right for everyone and would encourage filmmakers that are interested in doing it to weigh their options very carefully. At the end of the day what you buy is a sort of entrance into the film world, but if you don't have an interesting perspective to back it up, you can get lost in the shuffle.
LatinoBuzz: Any particular films or filmmakers that inspired the aesthetic of your vision for 'Four'?
Joshua Sanchez: The two films I kept coming back to with Four were John Cassavetes' Faces and Larry Clark's Kids. They are both films that take place over a day or a night and both have a sort of intimacy in style that I found fit well with the story and characters of Four. I wanted the film to have the sort of Americana feel of say American Graffiti, mixed with the emotional rawness of Kids or Faces. I also watched a lot of Two Lane Blacktop and the film Over The Edge, which is about a teen rebellion in a small American suburban town.
LatinoBuzz: Anything as a filmmaker so far you wish you had done differently?
Joshua Sanchez:I think there are always things that you wished you'd done differently, but there is really nothing I regret in terms of my career as a filmmaker. It's a long road for anyone that wants to do this and it certainly has been for me as well. But I came to the conclusion a long time ago that I was only interested in doing the films that I feel passionate about partially because it's so much work and sacrifice. You really have to believe in what you are doing to make it worth your time. I'm proud of the body of work I've produced and hope I can continue to do it!
Joshua's website is http://www.joshuasanchez.net
his twitter world is: www.twitter.com/joshuasanchez76
and his Facebook face is: www.Facebook.com/joshuasanchez76.
And Click Here for the latest on Four
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights emerging and established Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in the Latino film world with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzzon twitter.
LatinoBuzz: Four is based on a play by Christopher Shinn - What drew you to adapting it for the screen and how much did race factor in your desire to tell this story? Was there ever an urge to stray from the original story?
Joshua Sanchez: I saw one of Chris' other plays called Where Do We Live at the Vineyard Theatre in New York in 2004, right around the time I finished film school. The play had such a fresh voice that spoke to me, so I sought out Shinn's other work. Of all of his plays up to that time, Four really floored me mostly because it felt like experiences that I had in my adolescence, growing up as a closeted gay Mexican-American kid in a conservative suburb in Houston, Texas. The play also felt very cinematic and contained in that it takes place over one night and sort of roves around the city. It really could be any American city, which is how we shot it, although the play takes place in Hartford. I could see and feel the story so clearly right after I read, which is a good sign if you're thinking about whether a play could make a good movie.
I definitely appreciate the way race was dealt with in the play and it made me want to do the film more, although I probably initially responded more to the gay aspect of it. I'm Mexican-American and grew up in Texas but I don't speak Spanish, regrettably because I think it was sort of frowned upon in my generation of trying to assimilate into being an American. I think that sad aspect of my upbringing helped me deal with the race aspect of Four because I think that the story is so unconventional in its dealing with the race of the characters. Race in my life was never a 'normal' thing to deal with and I think the way it plays into the characters lives in Four is very complex as well.
This version of Four does stray away from the original story to some degree, which I think you'll pick up on if you read the play and see the movie. But I think the initial core of the characters and their arc in the story remains true to what Shinn wrote. We tried to make this as much of a cinematic experience as possible. But this is my interpretation of this story. I'm sure there will be others in the future.
LatinoBuzz: From your '04 short film Kill or Be Killed to your feature film Four - you've shown characters who are searching for something to fill an emotional void. What's Joshua Sanchez looking for?
Joshua Sanchez: When I first stared to watch movies seriously as an adolescent, I wanted them to echo back to me what I felt inside.I think a lot of where Kill or Be Killed and Four were coming from for me personally was the loneliness and isolation I felt as a kid trying to make sense of the intense dysfunction of my family life and the fact that my sexuality made me very different from what was in any way desirable to the people around me as a child.
A lot of time has passed between the time I directed Kill or Be Killed and now. A lot of that time for me creatively was spent trying to get Four off the ground. I've gone through a lot of changes as a person in that period. I would say at this point in my life, I value the people that I'm close to. I have wonderful friends and a wonderful partner that I'm so blessed to have in my life. My main priority in life is to practice trying to love them and to love myself every day and to balance that with trying to make work that is meaningful and fulfilling to me.
I think film can be a really powerful vehicle to share and be witness to the experiences that we go through in our daily lives. Film really helped me when I was a kid and had nobody to turn to. I know they work that way for others and I feel a certain responsibility to myself and to any audience that watches my work to be as honest as possible.
And I still have a lot to learn as well. This is my first feature film, so I'm looking forward to pushing the boundaries of what I've learned and what I'm capable of in this medium.
LatinoBuzz: Is there a songwriter you've admired that had they gone that route would have made amazing filmmakers? (and why?)
Joshua Sanchez:I would like to have seen what Elliott Smith would have done with film. He was such a clever lyricist and inventive musician. I actually taught myself how to play guitar from listening to Either/Or and his self-titled album. 'Needle in the Hay' was the first song I learned. He's a weird player to learn from because his tunings are so off and he used a lot of strange variations and chord progressions that are really not normal, but it really opens up your mind to what is capable on a guitar. I learned the basic chords of guitar with my guitar tuned a step down because that's how a lot of his songs are tuned. I didn't know it for a long time that it wasn't the standard tuning. He had such an evolved sense of imagery and metaphor. When I hear 'Say Yes' I can almost see the movie in my head.
LatinoBuzz: Do Latino filmmakers have a responsibility on the images we convey to the broader audience? Or should we have the freedom as artists?
Joshua Sanchez: I think it's more important to maintain authenticity and honesty than it is to portray a certain PC image of what it means to be Latino. I've always felt somewhat out of place as a Latino since I don't speak Spanish very well and I'm fairly light skinned. I was essentially a shy skateboard, punk rock, lower middle class kid from the suburbs and that is really my perspective and where I come from. I appreciate it when I see work that challenges me to look at the world through different eyes. It's more important that Latinos feel free to express their own individual realities, rather than an accepted version of Latinoness.
LatinoBuzz: Which of the following villians best describes you as a director on set? Rasputin? Dick Dastardly? The Guy from Caligula? or Han from 'Enter The Dragon'?
Joshua Sanchez: Probably Rasputin if I had to pick one. He was a mystic.
LatinoBuzz: You've written short stories too as well as short films - Where do you draw your stories from?
Joshua Sanchez: The stories I write are usually somewhat autobiographical, or contain aspects of my observations and experiences. I started writing short stories in the middle of making Four actually, which took almost six years. Partially, I wrote these because I wanted to practice storytelling and keep my mind sharp in this realm. But in general, I love to write them because they are very low pressure to me. It's really fun to keep my mind working as a writer and to be able to practice turning my observations into story. I am inspired a lot by the short stories of John Cheever, who is probably my favorite fiction writer of all time.
LatinoBuzz: Ok -- For this interviews sake only -- Your life has spiraled out of control, You've hit rock bottom -- You are offered a second chance. Butyou have to direct a film based on a childhood game (Board or Video game). Anyone. Michael Bay is producing so you are in Great hands. Pick one. And who stars in it?
Joshua Sanchez: Definitely 'The Legend of Zelda'.
Bradford Cox from the band Deerhunter had a great idea that he posted on his blog of making one of their music videos about a lonely boy who is playing the original Nintendo 'Legend of Zelda' and the hero of the video game is echoing the kid's feeling of loneliness, walking aimlessly around these dark landscapes in the game. Then his abusive, drunk father comes in and starts beating him, and it's the beginning of a story about how the kid is escaping into playing the video game and how he transcends his abusive surroundings.
I would want to collaborate with Bradford and Michael Bay about turning this into a feature film version of 'Zelda' starring Justin Bieber. This is a movie I would definitely want to see.
LatinoBuzz: You went to Columbia Film School. There's the endless discussion of Film School versus skipping it and just making a film -- Both sides have great arguments. How do you feel about some of these short films with outrageous budgets when some people are trying to make features with the same amount?
Joshua Sanchez: I think it's less about the budgets of these films and more about whether they work as films at all. A few of my film school classmates went really overboard making their shorts that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, and trying to be the star of the class or win an award right out of the gate. I think it's wiser to think of making films as a progression through a body of work. Your budget can be small, but if you have a great idea that is well executed, this will always win out in the end. There are also really great short filmmakers that don't transition well into feature films.
For me film school was beneficial in the sense that it got me out of Texas and forced me into a situation where I had to learn how to tell stories and work on the basics of narrative filmmaking. But in retrospect, the most beneficial aspect of the whole film school experience was being in New York City and beginning to take advantage of all the resources that are here. So much of that was outside of film school for me. It wasn't really until I started going out downtown and moved to Brooklyn that things began to change for me. I was meeting other artists and having experiences that made me want to keep working and coming up with ideas.
The downsides are that it left me with a lot of debt and the environment of film school itself can be somewhat unbearable and suffocating. It's competitive and can often times can be a difficult place to find support and inspiration.
When I started film school it was in the late 90's. The equipment was terrible and there was a very old model of distribution and exhibition in place for up-and-coming filmmakers. Now, anyone can by a 5D and Final Cut and make something that looks fantastic.
I don't think film school is right for everyone and would encourage filmmakers that are interested in doing it to weigh their options very carefully. At the end of the day what you buy is a sort of entrance into the film world, but if you don't have an interesting perspective to back it up, you can get lost in the shuffle.
LatinoBuzz: Any particular films or filmmakers that inspired the aesthetic of your vision for 'Four'?
Joshua Sanchez: The two films I kept coming back to with Four were John Cassavetes' Faces and Larry Clark's Kids. They are both films that take place over a day or a night and both have a sort of intimacy in style that I found fit well with the story and characters of Four. I wanted the film to have the sort of Americana feel of say American Graffiti, mixed with the emotional rawness of Kids or Faces. I also watched a lot of Two Lane Blacktop and the film Over The Edge, which is about a teen rebellion in a small American suburban town.
LatinoBuzz: Anything as a filmmaker so far you wish you had done differently?
Joshua Sanchez:I think there are always things that you wished you'd done differently, but there is really nothing I regret in terms of my career as a filmmaker. It's a long road for anyone that wants to do this and it certainly has been for me as well. But I came to the conclusion a long time ago that I was only interested in doing the films that I feel passionate about partially because it's so much work and sacrifice. You really have to believe in what you are doing to make it worth your time. I'm proud of the body of work I've produced and hope I can continue to do it!
Joshua's website is http://www.joshuasanchez.net
his twitter world is: www.twitter.com/joshuasanchez76
and his Facebook face is: www.Facebook.com/joshuasanchez76.
And Click Here for the latest on Four
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights emerging and established Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in the Latino film world with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzzon twitter.
- 6/6/2012
- by Juan Caceres
- Sydney's Buzz
It was one of several projects Tambay included on his Sundance 2012 Film Festival predictions list, although it didn't debut at that festival. But Joshua Sanchez's indie drama Four, an adaptation on an off-Broadway play by Christopher Shinn, will make its world premiere at the upcoming Los Angeles Film Festival next month. Wendell Pierce of The Wire fame, stars in it, alongside Aja Naomi King, Emory Cohen, E.J. Bonilla and Yolanda Ross. The film's script was both a 2007 Tribeca All Access award recipient, and a 2008 No Borders Independent Film Week selection, with a synopsis...
- 5/24/2012
- by Courtney
- ShadowAndAct
More from the Latino scene from our woman in L.A., free lance festival programmer extraordinaire, Christine Davila, from her blog Chicana from Chicago:
Looking at yesterday’s announcement of Film Independent’s Los Angeles Film Festival reveals a healthy Latino presence among the 62 features and 48 short films in the program. Here’s how I break down the Latino/ Ibero/ U.S. Latino component of the program.
Chile continues to give Argentina a run for its cache of exciting and growing cinematic output from South America with the inclusion of Thursday Til Sunday (Isa & Distributor: FiGa) written and directed by Dominga Sotomayor ♀, in Narrative Competition.
Although the traveling Mexican film festival Ambulante is no longer a program spotlight, Mexican films continue to be a mainstay of the festival. There are four feature-length films and three short films from/about Mexico. In Narrative Competition, The Compass is Carried by the Dead Man (Isa: Kafilms, Argentina) written and directed by Arturo Pons [about a young Mexican aiming for Chicago], and in Documentary Competition, Drought by Everado González (recently awarded Best Documentary at FICG27) . Out of competition is the gorgeously shot documentary, Canícula, and although the funding is mainly stateside, Bernardo Ruiz paints a fascinating portrait of the risky journalistic practice and history of the seminal Tijuana weekly, Zeta in Reportero.
Also of note in the program is that four short films list Cuba as a co-production/origin of country.
But what of the U.S. Latino filmmakers and stories? Last year Los Angeles Film Festival was a great launchpad for Mamitas (Distributor: ScreenMedia, Producer rep: Traction Media), an authentic Chicano portrayal of young love set in Echo Parque written and directed by Nicolas Ozeki (a non-Latino), co-starring fast rising hot talents Veronica Diaz-Carranzo (Blaze You Out) and E.J. Bonilla. The film is currently in theaters now. (Big recommend,theater listings here-go support it!)
The closest we have to representing U.S. Latino in the features section is Four, the feature debut of Joshua Sanchez who hails from Houston, Texas. Based on a Christopher Shinn play, the July 4th-eve-set story is a snapshot of two disparate relationships tensely intertwined and their at-odd dynamics of desire. Coincidentally, E.J. Bonilla also stars (this guy is blowing up!). I would also include as U.S. Latino, Searching for Sugar Man, the documentary by Malik Bendjelloul about singer songwriter Sixto Rodriguez’s fascinating rise and fall into obscurity as a Uj.S. Latino story. As a matter of fact, the film seems to suggest that perhaps Sixto’s Mexican-American identity might have been a reason he was not embraced by the 60s and 70s mainstream. [Per Sydney: The film was snatched up at Sundance by Sony Pictures Classics and by Isa Protagonist who is screening it twice in Cannes.]
As for U.S. Latino shorts, Fireworks written and directed by Victor Hugo Duran, which is also incidentally centered around 4th of July, is an L.A. set story about boys trying to rap on girls.
My favorite Miami based hooligans, Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva, keep representing with their fresh and experimental short film, Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke. They are part of a collective of go-there filmmakers, Borscht Corp who had four crazy shorts screen at SXSW (and they were a riot to bootie shake dance with at SXSW Film’s Closing Night Party). You must carve out an hour and look at their work on the site (Nsfw!)
And lastly, in front of camera there’s some America Ferrera in Todd Berger’s It’s a Disaster (Isa: Maya), and rising boriqua actress April Hernandez Castillo, of hit webseries East Willy B, Dexter and other TV, is in The History of Future Folk [Per Sydney: one of 7 horror films in the festival, another being It's A Disaster per Dread Central, so take note Latino distributors like Lionsgate because horror films are a favorite of a certain Latino demographic!] by J. Anderson Mitchell and Jeremy Kipp Walker, described as a “sweet sci-fi musical comedy”. Below is the rest of the Latino and Ibero-American (includes Spain and Portugal). Descriptions provided by L.A. Film Festival, and bold cap commentary by me.
Narrative Competition:
o All Is Well – Portugal (Director Pocas Pascoal ♀, Producer Luis Correia Cast Cheila Lima, Ciomara Morais) – Strangers in a strange land, two beautiful Angolan sisters fleeing a civil war in their homeland struggle to survive in Lisbon. Pocas Pascoal’s deeply personal saga shows us the face of exile with quietly stunning power. North American Premiere
o The Compass is Carried by the Dead Man – Mexico (Director/Writer Arturo Pons Producer Ozcar Ramírez González Cast Gael Sanchez Valle, Pedro Gamez, Ana Ofelia Murguía, Eligio Melendez, Luis Bayardo, Marco Perez) – A young man and a dead man journey north through a subtly surreal desert landscape, picking up a wagonful of odd characters as they go in this darkly humorous satire of contemporary Mexico. North American Premiere
o Four – (Director/Writer Joshua Sanchez Producer Christine Giorgio Cast Wendell Pierce, Emory Cohen, Aja Naomi King, E.J. Bonilla) – Over the course of a steamy 4th of July night, a father and daughter, each trapped in loneliness, reach out for sexual connection — he with a self-hating teenage boy, she with a smooth-talking wannabe homeboy — in this psychologically complex, beautifully acted drama. World Premiere
o Thursday till Sunday – Chile (Director/Writer Dominga Sotomayor ♀ Producers Gregorio González, Benjamin Domenech Cast Santi Ahumada, Emiliano Freifeld, Francisco Pérez-Bannen, Paola Giannini) – With uncommon beauty and style, this Chilean road movie finds a family at a crossroads, as the daughter slowly realizes the divide between the adults in the front seat and the kids in back. North American Premiere
Documentary Competition:
o Drought – Mexico (Director Everado González Producer Martha Orozco) – Contrasting the lives of a cattle-ranching community with the arid northeastern Mexican landscape that surrounds them, this cinema vertité documentary paints a poetic portrait of a community on the verge of extinction. Us Premiere
o Sun Kissed – (Directors Maya Stark ♀, Adi Lavy ♀ Producers Jocelyn Glatzer, Maya Stark, Adi Lavy) – With remarkable strength of spirit, a husband and wife examine their lives and why their children and others have been struck with a rare genetic disorder in this powerful portrait of a small Navajo community. World Premiere ~ Okay Not Latino But It'S Native American So I’M Giving It A Shout Since There Are Not Enough Native American Stories.
International Showcase:
o Canícula – Mexico (Director José Álvarez Writers Sebastián Hoffman, José Álvarez Producer Mauricio Fabre Cast Hermelinda Santes, Esteban González, Mario García) – This is a hauntingly beautiful portrait of the rituals and crafts of contemporary Indians in remote Veracruz, who teach their boys to fly. ~ See My Interview With Jose Here.
o The Last Elvis – Argentina (Director Armando Bo Writers Armando Bo, Nicolás Giacobone Producers Steve Golin, Hugo Sigman, Patricio Alvarez Casado, Victor Bo, Armando Bo Cast John McInerny, Griselda Siciliani, Margarita Lopez) – John McInerny gives a staggering performance in this poignant tale of a Buenos Aires Elvis impersonator who only comes alive when he dons the King’s clothes to perform. How can he reconcile his dreams of glory with his dead end factory job and an estranged wife and daughter who can’t live inside his fantasies?
o Neighboring Sounds – Brazil (Director/Writer Kleber Mendonça Filho Producer Emilie Lesclaux Cast Irandhir Santos, Gustavo Jahn, Maeve Jinkings, W.J. Solha) – Kleber Mendonca Filho’s astonishing, suspenseful debut film focuses on one upscale street in the seaside town of Recife, where a private security team is enlisted to protect the residents from crime. By its startling conclusion, you feel you’ve seen all of Brazilian society exposed.
o The Strawberry Tree – Canada/Cuba/Italy (Director/Producer Simone Rapisarda Casanova) – Filmed in a small Cuban fishing village mere weeks before a hurricane decimated the entire region, this stunning documentary unknowingly captures the town’s final days even as it reframes the usual filmmaker-film subject relationship.
Summer Showcase:
o La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus – USA/Guatemala (Director Mark Kendall Producers Mark Kendall, Rafael González, Bernardo Ruiz) – The journey and transformation of a yellow American school bus into a vibrant Central American camionetasensitively reveals both the beauty and violence of everyday life in Guatemala.
o Reportero – (Director Bernardo Ruiz Producers Bernardo Ruiz, Patricia Benabe, Anne Hubbell Featuring Sergio Haro Cordero, Adela Navarro Bello) – A look at the incredible danger facing journalists in Mexico through the eyes of investigative reporter Sergio Haro and other staff at Zeta, the defiant Tijuana-based newsweekly.~ See My Interview With Bernardo Here
o Searching for Sugar Man – (Director/Writer Malik Bendjelloul Producers Simon Chinn, Nicole Stott, George Chignell) – Years after fading into obscurity at home, the music of ’70s U.S. singer/songwriter Rodriguez became an underground sensation in South Africa. Decades after his disappearance, two fans uncover the startling truth behind the legend.
Beyond:
o Juan of the Dead – Cuba (Director/Writer Alejandro Brugués Producers Gervasio Iglesias, Inti Herrera Cast Alexis Días de Villegas, Jorge Molina, Andrea Duro, Andros Perugorría, Jazz Vila, Eliecer Ramírez) – The streets of Havana are alive with the undead in Cuba’s first zombie comedy, a wild and bloody romp that sinks its sharp satirical teeth into the Cuban body politic. Castro may not be amused, but you will be.
Short Film Competition:
Against the Sea (Contra el mar) – Mexico, USA (Director) Richard Parkin
Black Doll (Prita Noire) – Mexico (Director) Sofia Carrillo
Kendo Monogatari – Cuba, Guatemala (Director) Fabián Suárez
Scanning (Ecografía) – Cuba (Director) Aleksandra Maciuszek Mukoid
Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke – (Directors) Jillian Mayer, Lucas Leyva ~Crazy Talented! Miami Represent!
Fireworks – (Director) Victor Hugo Duran -
Kendo Monogatari – Cuba, Guatemala (Director) Fabián Suárez
Paraíso – (Director) Nadav Kurtz ~Doc Subject Is About 3 Mexicans
Scanning (Ecografía) – Cuba (Director) Aleksandra Maciuszek Mukoid
Voice Over – Spain (Director) Martín Rosete
For full lineup and more info go to L.A. Film Festival...
Looking at yesterday’s announcement of Film Independent’s Los Angeles Film Festival reveals a healthy Latino presence among the 62 features and 48 short films in the program. Here’s how I break down the Latino/ Ibero/ U.S. Latino component of the program.
Chile continues to give Argentina a run for its cache of exciting and growing cinematic output from South America with the inclusion of Thursday Til Sunday (Isa & Distributor: FiGa) written and directed by Dominga Sotomayor ♀, in Narrative Competition.
Although the traveling Mexican film festival Ambulante is no longer a program spotlight, Mexican films continue to be a mainstay of the festival. There are four feature-length films and three short films from/about Mexico. In Narrative Competition, The Compass is Carried by the Dead Man (Isa: Kafilms, Argentina) written and directed by Arturo Pons [about a young Mexican aiming for Chicago], and in Documentary Competition, Drought by Everado González (recently awarded Best Documentary at FICG27) . Out of competition is the gorgeously shot documentary, Canícula, and although the funding is mainly stateside, Bernardo Ruiz paints a fascinating portrait of the risky journalistic practice and history of the seminal Tijuana weekly, Zeta in Reportero.
Also of note in the program is that four short films list Cuba as a co-production/origin of country.
But what of the U.S. Latino filmmakers and stories? Last year Los Angeles Film Festival was a great launchpad for Mamitas (Distributor: ScreenMedia, Producer rep: Traction Media), an authentic Chicano portrayal of young love set in Echo Parque written and directed by Nicolas Ozeki (a non-Latino), co-starring fast rising hot talents Veronica Diaz-Carranzo (Blaze You Out) and E.J. Bonilla. The film is currently in theaters now. (Big recommend,theater listings here-go support it!)
The closest we have to representing U.S. Latino in the features section is Four, the feature debut of Joshua Sanchez who hails from Houston, Texas. Based on a Christopher Shinn play, the July 4th-eve-set story is a snapshot of two disparate relationships tensely intertwined and their at-odd dynamics of desire. Coincidentally, E.J. Bonilla also stars (this guy is blowing up!). I would also include as U.S. Latino, Searching for Sugar Man, the documentary by Malik Bendjelloul about singer songwriter Sixto Rodriguez’s fascinating rise and fall into obscurity as a Uj.S. Latino story. As a matter of fact, the film seems to suggest that perhaps Sixto’s Mexican-American identity might have been a reason he was not embraced by the 60s and 70s mainstream. [Per Sydney: The film was snatched up at Sundance by Sony Pictures Classics and by Isa Protagonist who is screening it twice in Cannes.]
As for U.S. Latino shorts, Fireworks written and directed by Victor Hugo Duran, which is also incidentally centered around 4th of July, is an L.A. set story about boys trying to rap on girls.
My favorite Miami based hooligans, Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva, keep representing with their fresh and experimental short film, Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke. They are part of a collective of go-there filmmakers, Borscht Corp who had four crazy shorts screen at SXSW (and they were a riot to bootie shake dance with at SXSW Film’s Closing Night Party). You must carve out an hour and look at their work on the site (Nsfw!)
And lastly, in front of camera there’s some America Ferrera in Todd Berger’s It’s a Disaster (Isa: Maya), and rising boriqua actress April Hernandez Castillo, of hit webseries East Willy B, Dexter and other TV, is in The History of Future Folk [Per Sydney: one of 7 horror films in the festival, another being It's A Disaster per Dread Central, so take note Latino distributors like Lionsgate because horror films are a favorite of a certain Latino demographic!] by J. Anderson Mitchell and Jeremy Kipp Walker, described as a “sweet sci-fi musical comedy”. Below is the rest of the Latino and Ibero-American (includes Spain and Portugal). Descriptions provided by L.A. Film Festival, and bold cap commentary by me.
Narrative Competition:
o All Is Well – Portugal (Director Pocas Pascoal ♀, Producer Luis Correia Cast Cheila Lima, Ciomara Morais) – Strangers in a strange land, two beautiful Angolan sisters fleeing a civil war in their homeland struggle to survive in Lisbon. Pocas Pascoal’s deeply personal saga shows us the face of exile with quietly stunning power. North American Premiere
o The Compass is Carried by the Dead Man – Mexico (Director/Writer Arturo Pons Producer Ozcar Ramírez González Cast Gael Sanchez Valle, Pedro Gamez, Ana Ofelia Murguía, Eligio Melendez, Luis Bayardo, Marco Perez) – A young man and a dead man journey north through a subtly surreal desert landscape, picking up a wagonful of odd characters as they go in this darkly humorous satire of contemporary Mexico. North American Premiere
o Four – (Director/Writer Joshua Sanchez Producer Christine Giorgio Cast Wendell Pierce, Emory Cohen, Aja Naomi King, E.J. Bonilla) – Over the course of a steamy 4th of July night, a father and daughter, each trapped in loneliness, reach out for sexual connection — he with a self-hating teenage boy, she with a smooth-talking wannabe homeboy — in this psychologically complex, beautifully acted drama. World Premiere
o Thursday till Sunday – Chile (Director/Writer Dominga Sotomayor ♀ Producers Gregorio González, Benjamin Domenech Cast Santi Ahumada, Emiliano Freifeld, Francisco Pérez-Bannen, Paola Giannini) – With uncommon beauty and style, this Chilean road movie finds a family at a crossroads, as the daughter slowly realizes the divide between the adults in the front seat and the kids in back. North American Premiere
Documentary Competition:
o Drought – Mexico (Director Everado González Producer Martha Orozco) – Contrasting the lives of a cattle-ranching community with the arid northeastern Mexican landscape that surrounds them, this cinema vertité documentary paints a poetic portrait of a community on the verge of extinction. Us Premiere
o Sun Kissed – (Directors Maya Stark ♀, Adi Lavy ♀ Producers Jocelyn Glatzer, Maya Stark, Adi Lavy) – With remarkable strength of spirit, a husband and wife examine their lives and why their children and others have been struck with a rare genetic disorder in this powerful portrait of a small Navajo community. World Premiere ~ Okay Not Latino But It'S Native American So I’M Giving It A Shout Since There Are Not Enough Native American Stories.
International Showcase:
o Canícula – Mexico (Director José Álvarez Writers Sebastián Hoffman, José Álvarez Producer Mauricio Fabre Cast Hermelinda Santes, Esteban González, Mario García) – This is a hauntingly beautiful portrait of the rituals and crafts of contemporary Indians in remote Veracruz, who teach their boys to fly. ~ See My Interview With Jose Here.
o The Last Elvis – Argentina (Director Armando Bo Writers Armando Bo, Nicolás Giacobone Producers Steve Golin, Hugo Sigman, Patricio Alvarez Casado, Victor Bo, Armando Bo Cast John McInerny, Griselda Siciliani, Margarita Lopez) – John McInerny gives a staggering performance in this poignant tale of a Buenos Aires Elvis impersonator who only comes alive when he dons the King’s clothes to perform. How can he reconcile his dreams of glory with his dead end factory job and an estranged wife and daughter who can’t live inside his fantasies?
o Neighboring Sounds – Brazil (Director/Writer Kleber Mendonça Filho Producer Emilie Lesclaux Cast Irandhir Santos, Gustavo Jahn, Maeve Jinkings, W.J. Solha) – Kleber Mendonca Filho’s astonishing, suspenseful debut film focuses on one upscale street in the seaside town of Recife, where a private security team is enlisted to protect the residents from crime. By its startling conclusion, you feel you’ve seen all of Brazilian society exposed.
o The Strawberry Tree – Canada/Cuba/Italy (Director/Producer Simone Rapisarda Casanova) – Filmed in a small Cuban fishing village mere weeks before a hurricane decimated the entire region, this stunning documentary unknowingly captures the town’s final days even as it reframes the usual filmmaker-film subject relationship.
Summer Showcase:
o La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus – USA/Guatemala (Director Mark Kendall Producers Mark Kendall, Rafael González, Bernardo Ruiz) – The journey and transformation of a yellow American school bus into a vibrant Central American camionetasensitively reveals both the beauty and violence of everyday life in Guatemala.
o Reportero – (Director Bernardo Ruiz Producers Bernardo Ruiz, Patricia Benabe, Anne Hubbell Featuring Sergio Haro Cordero, Adela Navarro Bello) – A look at the incredible danger facing journalists in Mexico through the eyes of investigative reporter Sergio Haro and other staff at Zeta, the defiant Tijuana-based newsweekly.~ See My Interview With Bernardo Here
o Searching for Sugar Man – (Director/Writer Malik Bendjelloul Producers Simon Chinn, Nicole Stott, George Chignell) – Years after fading into obscurity at home, the music of ’70s U.S. singer/songwriter Rodriguez became an underground sensation in South Africa. Decades after his disappearance, two fans uncover the startling truth behind the legend.
Beyond:
o Juan of the Dead – Cuba (Director/Writer Alejandro Brugués Producers Gervasio Iglesias, Inti Herrera Cast Alexis Días de Villegas, Jorge Molina, Andrea Duro, Andros Perugorría, Jazz Vila, Eliecer Ramírez) – The streets of Havana are alive with the undead in Cuba’s first zombie comedy, a wild and bloody romp that sinks its sharp satirical teeth into the Cuban body politic. Castro may not be amused, but you will be.
Short Film Competition:
Against the Sea (Contra el mar) – Mexico, USA (Director) Richard Parkin
Black Doll (Prita Noire) – Mexico (Director) Sofia Carrillo
Kendo Monogatari – Cuba, Guatemala (Director) Fabián Suárez
Scanning (Ecografía) – Cuba (Director) Aleksandra Maciuszek Mukoid
Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke – (Directors) Jillian Mayer, Lucas Leyva ~Crazy Talented! Miami Represent!
Fireworks – (Director) Victor Hugo Duran -
Kendo Monogatari – Cuba, Guatemala (Director) Fabián Suárez
Paraíso – (Director) Nadav Kurtz ~Doc Subject Is About 3 Mexicans
Scanning (Ecografía) – Cuba (Director) Aleksandra Maciuszek Mukoid
Voice Over – Spain (Director) Martín Rosete
For full lineup and more info go to L.A. Film Festival...
- 5/2/2012
- by Christine Davila
- Sydney's Buzz
Gird your loins, Los Angeles, the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival is coming, and this time, the fest is bringing strippers with them. Lots and lots of (cinematic) strippers. The festival has already announced four titles, which include the North American Premiere of Woody Allen‘s To Rome With Love as the festival’s Opening Night Film, along with Gala screenings for Benh Zeitlin‘s Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lorene Scafaria‘s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, and Ava DuVernay‘s Middle of Nowhere, but it’s high time Laff unveiled their full slate. And what a slate! As announced today, the festival will close with the World Premiere of Steven Soderbergh‘s Magic Mike and will also feature the World Premiere of Alex Kurtzman‘s People Like Us. Other titles announced today of note include Sundance favorites The Queen of Versailles, Teddy Bear, The House I Live In, Celeste...
- 5/1/2012
- by Kate Erbland
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
The opening night movie of the Los Angeles Film Festival — Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love — was announced three weeks ago (along with screenings of Sundance winners Middle of Nowhere and Beasts of the Southern Wild), but today the rest of the line-up was unveiled, with the headline news being that Steven Soderbergh’s male stripper romp, Magic Mike, starring Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey, will close out the June fest.
In the narrative competition, there are notable entries from Cory McAbee (The American Astronaut), Jared Moshé (a familiar name as a producer, making his first film as director), and Alex Karpovsky, whose other 2012 effort, Rubberneck, just premiered at Tribeca. Among the other premieres are the Uganda-set Lgbt doc Call Me Kuchu, the star-studded directorial debut of screenwriter Alex Kurtzman, People Like Us, and indie stalwart Spencer Parsons’ Saturday Morning Massacre.
A full list of the newly announced screenings...
In the narrative competition, there are notable entries from Cory McAbee (The American Astronaut), Jared Moshé (a familiar name as a producer, making his first film as director), and Alex Karpovsky, whose other 2012 effort, Rubberneck, just premiered at Tribeca. Among the other premieres are the Uganda-set Lgbt doc Call Me Kuchu, the star-studded directorial debut of screenwriter Alex Kurtzman, People Like Us, and indie stalwart Spencer Parsons’ Saturday Morning Massacre.
A full list of the newly announced screenings...
- 5/1/2012
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
HollywoodNews.com: Today the Los Angeles Film Festival, in conjunction with Presenting Media Sponsor the Los Angeles Times and Host Partner L.A. Live, announced the Closing Night film and official Us and international selections for the 2012 Festival. Guest Director, Artists in Residence and Conversations with special guests will be announced later this month. The 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival will screen a diverse slate of nearly 200 feature films, short films, and music videos, representing more than 30 countries, along with signature programs such as the Filmmaker Retreat, Poolside Chats, Coffee Talks, music events and more. As previously announced, Woody Allen’s To Rome With Love will be Opening Night, sponsored by Virgin America, and Lorene Scafaria’s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere and Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild were selected for the Galas section.
Returning to downtown Los Angeles and headquartered at L.
Returning to downtown Los Angeles and headquartered at L.
- 5/1/2012
- by Josh Abraham
- Hollywoodnews.com
Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell indieWIRE in the comments below. "Four" Director: Joshua Sanchez Writer (Play): Christopher Shinn Writer (Adapted screenplay): Joshua Sanchez Executive Producer: Neil Labute Cast: Wendell Pierce ("The Wire"), Emory Cohen ("Afterschool"), E.J. Bonilla, Aja King Adapted from Pulitzer Prize-finalist Christopher Shinn's play by the same name, "Four," Joshua Sanchez's first feature, takes place in lonely suburbia during a Fourth of July evening. ...
- 7/29/2011
- Indiewire
Initially reported last summer… now with a production update… Wendell Pierce of The Wire fame is set to star in an indie film, titled, Four, an adaptation on an off-broadway play by Christopher Shinn, which will be executive produced by Neil Labute, and directed by Joshua Sanchez, who also wrote the script based on the play.
Four had its world premiere in 1998, in London. Shinn has written about 8 original plays.
Shooting of the film adaptation, said to be budgeted at $500,000, was scheduled to start last September, in Hartford, Ct, where the play is set. But it didn’t. Why? Well, in an update from the filmmaker, principal photography was postponed to June 2011, because of the season change, which would affect the look and feel of the film; and some of the financing for the film was delayed.
However, the production team fully intends to complete the film this year; although...
Four had its world premiere in 1998, in London. Shinn has written about 8 original plays.
Shooting of the film adaptation, said to be budgeted at $500,000, was scheduled to start last September, in Hartford, Ct, where the play is set. But it didn’t. Why? Well, in an update from the filmmaker, principal photography was postponed to June 2011, because of the season change, which would affect the look and feel of the film; and some of the financing for the film was delayed.
However, the production team fully intends to complete the film this year; although...
- 2/27/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Wendell Pierce ("The Wire," "Treme") has joined the cast of a $500,000-budgeted film adaptation of Christopher Shinn's off-Broadway play "Four" reports California Chronicle.
The story juxtaposes two struggling relationships of two couples. The first is a 16-year old white boy and a closeted married black man he met on the Internet. The second is the closeted man's 16-year-old daughter, and her 20-year-old drug-dealing boyfriend.
Joshua Sanchez directs the film from his own script. A month-long shoot kicks off around the Hartford area beginning September 13. Christine Giorgio produces.
The story juxtaposes two struggling relationships of two couples. The first is a 16-year old white boy and a closeted married black man he met on the Internet. The second is the closeted man's 16-year-old daughter, and her 20-year-old drug-dealing boyfriend.
Joshua Sanchez directs the film from his own script. A month-long shoot kicks off around the Hartford area beginning September 13. Christine Giorgio produces.
- 8/20/2010
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Wendell Pierce of The Wire fame is set to star in an indie film, titled, Four, an adaptation on an off-broadway play by Christopher Shinn, which will be executive produced by Neil Labute, and directed by Joshua Sanchez, who also wrote the script based on the play.
What’s Four about? Its synopsis from the film’s website: “On the 4th of July in Hartford, Ct, June, a 16-year-old white boy, meets up with Joe, a closeted, married black man he met on the Internet. On the same night, in the same city, the black man’s 16-year-old daughter Abigayle, agrees to go out with Dexter, a white 20-year-old low-level drug dealer. In and around the city, on the American night of Independence, these 2 couples get to know each other, moving from strangers to intimates. In lonely landscapes of movie theaters, fast food restaurants, darkened churches and public parks, they...
What’s Four about? Its synopsis from the film’s website: “On the 4th of July in Hartford, Ct, June, a 16-year-old white boy, meets up with Joe, a closeted, married black man he met on the Internet. On the same night, in the same city, the black man’s 16-year-old daughter Abigayle, agrees to go out with Dexter, a white 20-year-old low-level drug dealer. In and around the city, on the American night of Independence, these 2 couples get to know each other, moving from strangers to intimates. In lonely landscapes of movie theaters, fast food restaurants, darkened churches and public parks, they...
- 8/20/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
NEW YORK -- The Tribeca All Access mentoring program announced 32 new projects to help aspiring filmmakers, including films chronicling a lynching survivor and Christian wrestlers, along with two high-profile names: producer Lawrence Bender and actor Joe Mantegna.
The narrative and documentary films in the fourth annual program, presented by Tribeca Film Festival, American Express and Tribeca Film Institute, will allow their directors and screenwriters to meet with more than 100 investors, development execs, producers and agents.
Notable narrative projects include Tze Chun and Sheila Dvorak's sperm donor odyssey Artificial Dissemination, Joshua Sanchez's romantic drama Four from producer Gill Holland, screenwriters Aaron Greer and Fran Kaplan's lynching biopic Fruit of the Tree and Priyanka Kumar's The Flicker's Dance, a tale of an ill boy featuring actors Mantegna, William Mapother and Ione Skye.
Docus include Barb Lee's "Adopted: The New American Family," Karen Hayes' "The Foolishness of God: Desmond Tutu and Forgiveness," Jae-Ho Chang and Tara Autovino's Ultimate Christian Wrestling and Jessica Sanders' music-themed Samba from exec producer Bender.
The narrative and documentary films in the fourth annual program, presented by Tribeca Film Festival, American Express and Tribeca Film Institute, will allow their directors and screenwriters to meet with more than 100 investors, development execs, producers and agents.
Notable narrative projects include Tze Chun and Sheila Dvorak's sperm donor odyssey Artificial Dissemination, Joshua Sanchez's romantic drama Four from producer Gill Holland, screenwriters Aaron Greer and Fran Kaplan's lynching biopic Fruit of the Tree and Priyanka Kumar's The Flicker's Dance, a tale of an ill boy featuring actors Mantegna, William Mapother and Ione Skye.
Docus include Barb Lee's "Adopted: The New American Family," Karen Hayes' "The Foolishness of God: Desmond Tutu and Forgiveness," Jae-Ho Chang and Tara Autovino's Ultimate Christian Wrestling and Jessica Sanders' music-themed Samba from exec producer Bender.
- 3/23/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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