MATRIX FILM FEST

1-Did you study in any film school or private course? Or did you learn to make movies on your own?

2-How many years have you been making movies and how did you get started in

movies?

 

Well, I started making movies a long time ago, not professionally. I took some courses with Felipe Cazals, with Jorge Fons and I worked on a script with a friend of mine, whose name is Mauricio Valle, where he went to Denmark, to Zentropa and we worked on a script there, well with the Organization of Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von Trier, it was a precious experience to learn different production systems.

 

3-One of the problems that we filmmakers have is that we are not like the actors or the technical team, who work with many different productions and can learn different ways of doing things. Normally we only attend our own shoots. Have you had the opportunity to assist in the shooting of other people or are you usually only in your own shoots? If yes, is there anything that caught your attention?

 

I have been in many films, short, medium and feature films and the short film that I remember the most is the one I made with Michel Franco called Entre Dos, a medium-length film, Sin Ton ni Sonia with Carlos Sammaand feature films, well, mine, Blanco de Verano with super nice experiences and as for me being an actor, well, I have tried to manage the production systems so that each position has a value and take it to the way I enjoy cinema, which is in the most organic way possible and there generating that the actor has the specific weight he deserves around the story.

 

 

4-What budget did you have for your project?

5-Is it self financed?

 

Well, the budget I had to make my debut film was about 70 thousand dollars, the film ended up costing 150 thousand dollars, so it was self-financed, but then I received help from some people who were interested in seeing the material I showed them and they helped me finish the film until post production

 

 

6-Any anecdote that you can tell us about the filming?

 

Well, many anecdotes, one that my children are part of the film, that my wife helped produce it, in all systems, well the part I spent on the street, this way of living the experience that, well, it transformed our lives, that and generate a project with a small crew and is now having these results.

 

 

7-What are you most proud of about this project?

8-And what less? What would you change if you could go backwards?

 

Well, everything about our film makes me proud, absolutely everything. In other words, how I defined doing it, how I fought with the system to get it going and have a result, and how people who love me and whom I love ended up contributing in many ways to be able to finish it. What am I not proud of? Nothing, I feel super proud of everything. And what would I change? I don't think I would change anything either because it was my first experience as a director and knowing the terms that exist in Mexico, so I feel very, very proud of the project we have.

 

9-Did you comply with the shooting plan or did it take longer than expected?

10-Fincher says that if a director can translate into a film 70% of what he had in mind, he can be more than satisfied. What % do you think you have achieved in this project?

 

Somehow I complied with the shooting system and with the times that we had premeditated. My film had to stretch out over time, so we had three stages of shooting for two weeks each. The first to obtain more resources, the second for the children to grow and the third to finalize things that I had in the ideas to complete it. Which brings us to the next question and that is if Fincher thinks that, um… I hit him, because I do think I have at least 70% of the movie that I had planned.

 

11-If you had unlimited budget. Which actor and actress would you like to work with?

 

No, well, if I had an unlimited budget, there would be tons of people I'd like to work with. I would like to work with Debra Winger, I would like to work with Daniel Day Lewis, Willem Dafoe, Gerard Depardieu, Dustin Hoffman, I don't know, with Emma Thompson, Emily Watson, with many people. I would like, I would like, as happened to me in my film, to have an advisor like Michel Franco, I would like to have Luc Besson as an advisor or Scorsese, because it would be a fantastic dream, to be photographed by Chivo Lubezky, what do I know.

What a nice question!

 

12-Your favorite movie? 

13-And manager? 

14-What is the scene that has impacted you the most?

 

 

My favorite movie, I have many, because they mean things to me. A Long Hot Summer, All The Mornings in the World, Cyranno de Bergerac, My Left Foot, The Boxer, The Big Blue, Papillon. That brings me to the scene that has impacted me the most in my life, which is when Steve McQueen throws himself out and leaves Dustin Hoffman alone up the hill in Papillon, it's a scene that made me cry, I saw it when I was 11 years old and I couldn't stop thinking about it for a long time.

 

15-If you could do a remake of a movie, what would it be?

 

If I could do a remake, well I have it planned, maybe in theater, first I want to do Cyrano de Bergerac, if I could do it in cinema it would be incredible, if not also do The Big Blue. If I had the guns and the canister in my mind and sensitivity enough like Luc Besson it's a movie I'd do a remake of.

 

16-Where do you see yourself 10 years from now? Do you think you will continue making movies?

 

In 10 years I see myself letting myself be directed by my son Emiliano, who wants to study cinematography, making my son Mateo the producer and run the business of what we want to do and I see myself still directing, making independent films, I really want to continue for this path and probably generate a large project that talks about things that are very decisive for human beings. That, yes, I do see myself making films from here until I die, as an actor and director and surely as a producer.