"Natalia Almada's chilling look at what happens when criminal drug lords are deified even in death, while their victims are completely forgotten might be wordless, but speks volumes about a problem that is unlikely to go away."
Jesus Henry Christ is based off my short film of the same title that I made while at Columbia University’s graduate film program. As the short film did well, producers requested the feature version. So, I took the title and the main character, Henry James Herman, a ten year-old with a photographic memory, and placed him in an entirely different context.
It was in the script. I mean, with her dresses, Xavier really wanted something 1950s/1960s, because from that, he wanted to mix contemporary references. Because love has no age. Even as generations change, love is the same. It was a way to attribute to older generations who felt the same way about love.
Iconic director Ken Russell was in town to receive a lifetime achievement award from Fantasia for his 50-plus years in the business, a career that has spawned many genre classics including Altered States, Gothic, and The Lair of the White Worm. But it was the little-seen and hard to find The Devils from 1971 that proved to be Russell's most controversial work, and Fantasia managed to snag a copy to be screened on Russell's big night. In the video, Russell discusses the true story behind the film and receives his award with the grace befitting one of the great filmmakers of all time.