Director Diego Luna felt a compelling need to tell the story of labor union organizer/civil rights activist Cesar Chavez in a film. “His is a very universal story about change–change made by a community that was the weakest and most ignored in this country,” said Luna. “By uniting and raising their voice, they proved to the world that issues of others matter to all of us. The farm workers managed to collapse a huge industry and a whole structure built against them. The way they did it is what I find amazing. Instead of attacking those who were abusing them, they went out and talked to the consumers. They introduced them to the fathers and mothers behind the grapes that consumers were buying–parents whose kids couldn’t go to schools like consumers’ kids.
“The whole country reacted,” continued Luna. “Communities with no connection to the farm workers’ community reacted. The idea of the responsibility of a citizen to help others is a reminder of what we need today.”
Starring Michael Peña in the title role, Cesar Chavez is slated to make its North American debut at the 21st South By Southwest Film Conference and Festival which runs from March 7-15 in Austin. Cesar Chavez is part of this year’s SXSW Narrative Spotlight program showcasing high-profile narrative features.
Luna is looking forward to the festival based on what he’s heard from other filmmakers. “It’s described to me as a place where music, art and cinema find each other. I’ve heard amazing stories and I believe it is the right place for our film to come out. We’ve had some private screenings here and there to start to get the word out about the film. Every time we show it near the [Mexico/U.S.] border, the film triggers so many personal stories and reactions from the audience.”
Cesar Chavez was produced by Canana, a company founded in Mexico City in 2005 by actors/producers/directors Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal, and producer Pablo Cruz, who were recently joined by partner/CEO/producer Julian Levin. Canana has produced over a dozen features, establishing itself as a mainstay entertainment company in Latin America. Among those theatrical films are Gerardo Narango’s Drama/Mex and Miss Bala; Luna’s directorial debut documentary J.C. Chavez, and Abel; Bernal’s directing debut, Deficit; Michael Rowe’s The Well; and Cary Fukunaga’s Sin Nombre (a co-production with Focus Features). Canana expanded into TV in 2010 with the series Soy Tu Fan (on Canal Once) and has since turned out the shows Nino Santo and Alguien Mas. Most recently, Canana has extended its creative reach stateside, opening a Los Angeles-based branded content division under the aegis of partner/executive producer Eric Bonniot who has 20 years of experience in advertising and branded entertainment for such clients as Coca-Cola, Ford, Honda, Toyota, Chevrolet, Subaru, McDonald’s, Burger King, Budweiser and Coors Light. Bonniot earlier co-founded UNCLE, a digital development company that worked with VH1, The Discovery Channel, E! Networks and STARZ! He also served as exec producer on commercial and video content at A Band Apart.
Luna and his producer Cruz have moved to Southern California to be active in both features and branded fare. Luna explained his interest in shorter form and branded content. “In features you commit to an idea and it can take four years of your life. Branded content is a short intense ride where you learn, explore and experiment–and weeks later you’re back in your office to resume your film. I love directing so much.
I don’t want to have to wait until I put together another [feature] film. Branded content keeps you working, exploring and growing in ways you cannot on a feature. Feature films take less and less risk today than they did before. Staying active in branded content also enables you to meet amazing creatives and artists who can all spark something new and creative in you. Branded content is already plugged into new ways of communicating. Now we have people watching on their phones and hand-held devices. This is the future. We want to be a part of that future as directors and as a company.”
Luna added that Canana’s expertise in producing content in both Spanish and English could prove invaluable in the ad/branded entertainment space. Via Canana’s branded content division, Luna recently directed a web/TV piece for Honda Civic out of U.S. Hispanic agency Orci.
David Gordon Green
This marks the second straight year that director David Gordon Green has a film at SXSW. In 2013, his Prince Avalanche arrived in Austin, having won the Silver Lion Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival. This year, Green’s Joe makes its U.S debut at SXSW, having earlier been nominated for a Golden Lion and winning the Christopher D. Smithers Foundation Special Award at the Venice Film Festival.
“It’s an honor and a pleasure to be at South By Southwest again,” said Green, adding that the only drawback is that having a film there takes away from his norm of watching many movies at the fest. From his perspective as a movie-goer at SXSW, Green observed, “It doesn’t have the formality of an audience that you’ll find at Berlin or Venice. It’s more laid back and comfortable, more of an ‘everyman’ at the movie feel, people having popcorn and enjoying an evening’s entertainment. I remember one year going to a rowdy screening of Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell. In many ways South By Southwest represents the way I’d want my movie to be seen–by people who connect with film.”
Starring Nicolas Cage and Tye Sheridan, Joe tells the story of an ex-con–the unlikeliest of role models–who meets a 15-year-old boy and is faced with the choice of redemption or ruin. Based on a Larry Brown-authored novel with an adapted screenplay by Gary Hawkins, Joe takes place in the contemporary South, replete with elements ranging from friendship to violence. Green’s movie is part of SXSW’s Headliners lineup of films.
Green explained that he was drawn to Brown’s novel. “He’s an author who died a few years ago and I was lucky enough to have known him and to be inspired by him,” shared Green. “Gary Hawkins, a screenwriting professor of mine, wrote an adaptation of the novel and sent the script to me. I found that it did justice to the novel. I was excited to take it on. This was a passion project that has been in the back of my mind for so many years.”
Beyond an independent filmmaking pedigree that has made its mark on the festival circuit (All the Real Girls which won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance in 2003, and Snow Angels which was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival), Green has another high-profile track record in shorter-form fare–as a commercial director on the Super Bowl. He helmed the Clint Eastwood-starring, two-minute Chrysler spot “It’s Halftime in America” which broke on the 2012 Super Bowl and went on to earn a primetime commercial Emmy Award nomination.
And this year, a month or so prior to the scheduled screening of his Joe at SXSW, Green saw his Maserati Ghibli sports car spot “Strike”–featuring chid actress Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild)–debut on the Big Game.
“I love the range of opportunities I’ve been fortunate enough to direct,” said Green whose commecialmaking home is production house Chelsea. “I’m able to make an independent movie that is a personal and passionate undertaking. Then on the flip side, I have work on the Super Bowl where the whole world is watching.”
Both “It’s Halftime in America” and “Strike” buck the trend in recent years of spots premiering online before the Super Bowl. The Chrysler and Maserati commercials, both from Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, Ore., made their worldwide debut during the Big Game telecast, and Green likes that dynamic. “It’s the element of surprise, a commercial being witnessed for the first time during the Super Bowl itself in homes all over America.”
“Endless” possibilities
Another production house active in commercials, Pulse, has a presence at SXSW. Pulse is slated to have the world premiere of its feature The Possibilities Are Endless at the festival. Directed by Edward Lovelace and James Hall, The Possibilities Are Endless tells the incredible story of Edwyn Collins, the Scottish songwriter who suffered a stroke, a trauma to the brain so severe that it effectively deleted the contents of his mind. After a career as an internationally acclaimed lyricist, he lost all language and was only able to say two phrases: “The Possibilities are Endless” and “Grace Maxwell.”
The film is narrated by Collins and his wife Grace, who pulled him back to life. More than just a story of determination against all odds, The Possibilities Are Endless is an intimate and life-affirming journey of rediscovery that celebrates how love, music and language shape our lives.
British director duo Lovelace & Hall’s debut feature Werewolves Across America explored life on the fringes of society in modern America. Their next film project, the Paramount-released Part of Me documented the unseen side of pop music star Katy Perry, which became a hit, grossing in excess of $32 million at the box office.
Following its SXSW premiere as part of the Visions program (denoting risk-taking artists showing innovation in documentary and narrative filmmaking), The Possibilities Are Endless will be released theatrically later this year.
The Possibilities Are Endless adds to the lineup of Pulse Film features over the years, including 20,000 Days On Earth, a fictitious 24 hours in the life of musician and international cultural icon Nick Cave which premiered last month at Sundance, LCD Soundsystem feature Shut Up And Play The Hits, Grammy & Grierson nominated Blur documentary No Distance Left To Run, and the documentary Who Is Dayani Cristal? (Sundance 2013, NYFF 2013). The latter was directed and shot by Marc Silver who is on the roster of commercial directors at production house Picrow. Who Is Dayani Cristal? also featured reenactment scenes with the aforementioned Bernal (of production house Canana) who was a producer on the film.
New wrinkles
SXSW is introducing an Episodic category, created to highlight innovative new work hitting the small screen, including HBO’s Silicon Valley, Showtime’s Penny Dreadful, AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire, Hulu’s Deadbeat, FOX’s COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey, and El Rey Network’s From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series.
Episodic joins another new component for 2014, SXsports, a convergent sports-focused track open to all film and interactive registrants featuring screenings and panel elements encompassing the many ways that sports embody such an essential part of the cultural landscape. Films screening as a part of SXsports appear in a variety of different SXSW program sections.
The 2014 SXSW Film Features Program consists of 115 titles. Among those are 76 world premieres, 10 North American premieres and 7 U.S. premieres, selected from a record 2,215 feature-length submissions. First-time filmmakers account for 68 films in the program, continuing a tradition of unearthing new talent.
SXSW Interactive
SXSW’s drawing power for the ad community extends beyond its film offerings. SXSW Interactive, which runs March 7-11 and addresses social media implications and applications, features speakers and panel discussions exploring myriad issues and topics of relevance to marketers. In that our preview of SXSW led off with the movie Cesar Chavez, SHOOT thought it apropos to single out a Friday afternoon (3/7) session on the SXSW Interactive schedule titled “What Would Cesar Chavez Tweet? Latinos & New Media.”
The discussion will explore how civil rights leaders and trailblazers who changed our nation in the last century would have used social media tools. Would they have had a more immediate impact, and could they have mobilized even more people? What would Cesar Chavez tweet?
As the Latino community grows both in size and its use of mobile technology, the potential for social media to empower this formerly disenfranchised group is greater than ever. This panel provides first-hand accounts of Latino-led campaigns that supported the confirmations of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, and initiatives for immigration reform. Presented will be an insider look on how these campaigns were run, and the contributions of social media to these campaigns.
This Latinos in Tech session at SXSW is free and open to the public. SXSW Interactive, Film, Gold and Platinum badges gain priority seating. Panelists are Aasil Ahmad, co-founder/COO, Discourse Analytics; Estuardo Rodriguez, principal, The Raben Group; Melody Gonzales, appointment program director for the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a coalition of 37 national Latino civil rights, non-profit and advocacy organizations; and Paul Chavez, president/chairman of the Cesar Chavez Foundation.
Agency sessions
Ad agencies are also conducting official SXSW sessions. For example, TBWA has several on the agenda, including an exploration of successfully marketing on Reddit lead by Rohit Thawani, head of digital strategy at TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles and Digital Arts Network (DAN) LA.
Liz Harper, general manager and head of digital at TBWA’s DAN, Sydney, delves into women’s roles in digital agencies and in digital arms of agencies. And leading a TBWA at SXSW session on motion computing experiments in a physical retail environment will be Juuso Myllyrinne, head of strategy at Pilot and DAN NY.
