Sundance Interview 09: Cruz Angeles (Don’t Let Me Drown)

[IONCINEMA.com is proud to feature a select group of new and veteran voices as the ones that are showcased and nurtured at the 25th edition of the Sundance Film Festival. This is part of collection of emailer interviews conducted prior to the festival – I would like to thank the filmmakers for their time and the hardworking publicists for making this possible.]

Cruz Angeles

Eric Lavallee: How is it to co-write a project with someone (Maria Topete) you are so close to? Were duties split like household choirs? or is there a cohesion that occurs ultimately merging two voices into one?
Cruz Angeles: Co-writing was easy and fluid for us. Of course, there were disagreements, doors were slammed and temper tantrums flared. But like all healthy relationships, conflict makes it interesting and keeps the mental and emotional engines running. Maria and I first worked on an outline and then divided the scenes between us. We wrote before and after work and then during the weekend. We revised each other’s scenes over and over again until we both were content with the material. If the co-writing relationship does work and the screenplay is cohesive and coherent then yes, ultimately two voices merge into one. I think the biggest benefit to the script was the balance of gender perspective within the story. As far as household chores, like the script, we split the responsibilities. Nothing was different from the marriage and the writing. A good collaboration is just like any other relationship. You have to see eye to eye on at least the main premise and inevitably bicker about the details.

EL: I’ve been keeping tabs on Don’t Let Me Drown for a while now – you are one of the rare projects to receive support from both the Cannes Atelier and Sundance labs. Can you tell me how both experiences differ from one another?
They are very different from each other. Sundance is a much more involved and long-term relationship with the Institute. It’s more of a network of filmmakers, advisors, actors, directors, screenwriters and editors.
The Cannes L’atelier was a one-week workshop during the festival were we met European financiers, other producers and foreign sales companies. So it was set more like the IFP’s “No Borders.” It ultimately resulted in leads to foreign sales companies that have tracked the project and are interested in watching the finished film.
The Sundance lab helps you develop the script, find your directorial voice and they also help you go out with the script to production companies and investors. The way it usually works for most fellows is you start off with your screenplay at the Screenwriter’s lab in January where you have one-on-one discussions about your script with screenwriters. Maria and I had the good fortune of being advised by people like Walter Mosley, Frank Pierson, Allison Anders, Dylan Kidd, David Benioff, and Walter Bernstein. All of them had gems of advice that helped us go back to our draft and re-write, re-write, re-write. It improved and expanded the story. We’ve also remained friends with a few of the advisors and some have even showed up to our rough-cut screenings.

After the Screenwriter’s lab, during the summer there is the Filmmaker’s lab which is for the directors and it’s a four week intensive workshop where each week you chose a scene from the script and you rehearse, shoot, edit and get evaluated for it by the advisors. For me this was the most valuable part of the lab because I got a chance to grow as a filmmaker. The advisors reminded me to keep it real and be myself because what eventually turns out to be your talent and vision is your own idiosyncratic experience and style. The director’s lab also boosted my confidence and clarified my vision for Don’t Let Me Drown. The Sundance Institute has remained involved throughout the process and also provided us with editing advisors who watched rough-cuts of the film and gave us editorial feedback, which turned out to be very helpful. 

EL: Casting for the film: you got some big names in Damián, Gina and Ricardo. How did you manage to secure them?
From the very inception for the idea of the character Ramon, Maria and I always saw Damian playing that role. It would have been heart breaking for us to not have him on board. He is a true actor. He is all about the process. It was amazing working with him. He is someone who can very easily bring out the interior world of a character. Damian read the script and fairly quickly said yes to being in the film. Maria brought up the idea of offering the role of Diana to Gina Torres and in a very similar fashion she came on based on her being able to connect with the material. She gave us a very strong performance. Eyde Belasco, our casting director, suggested Ricardo Chavira for the role of Dio and Ricardo blew us away when he auditioned for the role. Maria and I knew it was a character that was a borderline machista stereotype so a big challenge for an actor. Ricardo was able to make him intense, real and vulnerable. I am very proud of all the performances. Yareli Arizmendi is another great performance to note, she really brought life to a character that is an amalgam of our mothers. It’s scary how much her character, Virginia, reminds me of my mom.

EL: For the films young leads in E.J. and Gleendilys Inoa, how did you find them and did you have a pre-conceived notion of what you were looking for prior to their casting? Did they relate to some of the 9/11 feelings you wanted to express in these characters?
From the start, I wanted to discover new talent for the younger roles by doing grass roots open-call casting sessions throughout New York City, particularly for the roles of Lalo and Stefanie. We went all over looking for young people and passing flyers. We used myspace to advertise the auditions. Neyda Martinez, a friend and NY-based publicist, wrote a viral email for us that hit a ton of Latino organizations and schools and we were able to get huge turnouts that way. There is a lot of untapped talent in Latino communities and I am very proud that we have accomplished our goal and introduced two fresh and very promising young actors to the American screen. EJ Bonilla, who plays Lalo, was a natural from the start. He came in with some serious charisma and a natural youthful innocence but also carried the organic and authentic feel of urban youth. Gleendilys Inoa came in raw with very little to no acting experience but with a true around-the-way-girl quality and with that natural firecracker demeanor that the character required. She was somewhat similar to Stefanie in that she wore her armor well. She did not offer vulnerability so easily. I worked with both of them for about eight weeks and went back to my theater roots to get them up to speed and develop their chemistry. I did have a pre-conceived notion of what I wanted for each role and it was harder to find Stefanie for that reason. Many of the actresses we auditioned did not have the flavor of the streets and the ones who did were very bad at acting or too old. We saw a ton of 25 year olds trying to play both roles actually.

EL: I read in an interview that you have an affinity for filmmakers from the neo-realist movement…did this figure into some of the aesthetic decisions did you make prior to shooting?
Yes, I kept watching Truffaut’s 400 Blows. It’s not that I wanted to replicate that style but there was a similar thing happening with Don’t Let Me Drown where the world of the parents defines how the youth act out on the street. There is a lyrical beauty to that film and he made us fall in love with Paris via the youth. I wanted to achieve that as well so that we could fall in love with New York as these kids fell in love with each other. The original shot list followed a certain aesthetic that Chad Davidson (the DP) and I discussed but many times on set that went out the door when obstacles got in the way and there was no chance of having time to execute what we had planned. So, scenes were covered in a very basic fashion. We shot a lot of oners but not always preconceived ones unfortunately. Rushing does not allow for good filmmaking and a lot of what was rushed is out of the film or not the strongest material. But what we set out to do was to achieve a lyrical but realistic style and try to always anchor the scenes on the kids which Truffaut did brilliantly. I feel the end result in Don’t Let Me Drown is more of a wistful romanticist visual approach with a touch of realistic rawness. I would call it lyrical realism. I wanted to shy away from the gritty way an urban environment is represented and find the beauty within the urban decay. I also wanted to avoid, when possible, the shaky dizzy handheld camera work continually used to add to the grit and hype the realism. It wasn’t always possible to avoid. When we needed to shoot faster we would just shoot it handheld even if slightly shaky but I am happy that most of our handheld is not heavy handed. Chad is better than a steady-cam.

EL:If you could name just one – what stands out as your most favorite experience you had during filming?
The first day of the shoot was one of the most exhilarating ones. It’s the day we shot the scene were Dionisio (Stefanie’s father) finds Lalo with Stefanie and a serious beating occurs. I had workshopped this scene at the lab so I felt fairly confident about coverage but it was great to see how the community was responding to the scene. We shot in South Williamsburg and we had people hanging out of the windows watching us work. The scene seemed so realistic that in one take we had a lady screaming and freaking out. She was yelling in Spanish “Leave the boy alone.” Of course, the cameras stopped running because our AD thought she was about to have a heart attack. But minutes later, the funniest thing happened as we were shooting, a police car drove toward us while Ricardo was whipping sand bags rigged behind EJ and the officers got out and pointed their guns at Ricardo never realizing there is a whole film crew in front of them. The roar of laughter from the community was hysterical. The police went off embarrassed and we all had a good laugh. It also served as a good ice-breaker for a crew who was warming up to each other.

EL: Anatomy of a scene: What was the most difficult sequence during production?
The police beating a drunk guy at the park when Lalo first spots Stefanie was the most difficult and frustrating to shoot. This was one where we did not follow my shot list. I wanted Lalo’s discovery to be more subjective and through his point of view but it would have required at least 5 hours to shoot and we only had about 2 or less. Furthermore, we had extras that were completely wrong for the scene and they were told to wear formal wear so wardrobe had to spend extra time trying to dress them in more appropriate costumes. Even so I still have some guys wearing suits at a birthday party. We had to shoot the angles of Lalo and the boys without the huge crowd and it limited my coverage. It’s the scene I am the most disappointed with. It’s not easy trying to wing a crowd scene especially when all the elements are not available.

EL: What kind of lessons from your short film filmmaking experience were the most useful for yourself in making your feature debut?
Learning how to be resourceful and keep things simple are things I learned from my short filmmaking. I spent the whole summer location scouting for the majority of the exteriors because I knew that if I wanted consistency in my color palette and wanted to make the film feel more cohesive and, for that matter, more expensive looking that I had to go look for locations myself. I also learned that you have to remain flexible on set otherwise you miss out on opportunities. When I was directing my short films, sometimes I was so set on a preconceived way of shooting something that I missed out on opportunities that were right there in front of me. So, I am always looking for better options for coverage, performance and locations. You have to keep searching because it keeps you artistically lose and its easier to adapt to unfavorable situations and find other creative opportunities when things don’t go as planned. This unfortunately frustrates an AD who wants to stay on schedule but you always have to do what’s best for the film because no one cares if you made your schedule when what you have on screen is not working.

EL: Now that we find ourselves in a post-post-9/11 world where the home invasion means a completely different thing, what are you hoping that future audiences will take away from this film?
I am hoping that future audiences will take away that love and hope are powerful tools to combat hardship. I am hoping that they will take away that youth are a reflection of their parents but can grow up to be different and better than them by escaping the negative cycles that plague some families. I see the film resonating with Latino audiences now and in the future because I feel we’ve made a film that is not over-idealizing nor trivializing us to death. I think the world of the film, the characters, and the dialogue are very much idiosyncratically specific to an urban Latino experience but the underlying subtext is human. The emotions and psychological journeys of the characters anyone can understand. And that’s always been my goal to bring a universal story that any audience can understand but with the cultural specificity that will legitimize the work within a community that feels continually misrepresented. Don’t Let Me Drown is a universal refreshing and honest love story with characters that are complex. I am hoping future audiences will continue to take away that and see that the post-9/11 milieu adds depth and immediacy to the story. I expect that future audiences will see this as a document in history of how a Latino community was coping with an American tragedy. And in addition, how this Latino experience is nothing less than American. As a filmmaker and storyteller, it has always been my aim through my work to bring visibility to the invisible, the invisible stories that are consistently left outside of the mainstream news fare and that get lost in history. I decided to use this opportunity to document what was going on in the Latino community after 9/11 but while always anchoring it in the universal. Don’t Let Me Drown is first and foremost about love in the time of tragedy. This story can happen anywhere and at any time. It’s message can cross all boundaries because love and hope is all you need to survive in hard times.

EL: Apart from creative control and I imagine final cut, what chief quality did you appreciate the most by up-and-coming producers Lars & Jay?
These guys are hustlers and work very hard. They work so hard they hardly brush their hair. I’m joking. Jay and Lars understand that in order to make good films and develop long-term relationships you have to trust and respect the director’s vision. Lars and Jay have had a very democratic approach to making decisions on the film and have been hands-off in the creative process. I really appreciate that because having too many cooks ruins too many films. I think they understand that quite well. The other thing is that they have integrity and want to make good cinema and not just commercial popcorn movies. This is something important to respect because a lot of producers are interested only in the bottom line.

Cruz Angeles‘ Don’t Let Me Drown receives its World Premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in the Eccles Theater on Sunday, January 18th at 12:15p.m.

Here are the other screenings:…

Public Screening 2 – Monday, January 19th at 11:15am – Racquet Club
Public Screening 3 – Wednesday, January 21st at 5:30pm – Library Center Theater
Public Screening 4 – Thursday, January 22nd at 12:00pm – Sundance Institute Screening Room
Public Screening 5 – Friday, January 23rd at 6:00pm – Broadway Centre Cinemas 6, Salt Lake City
Public Screening 6 – Saturday, January 24th at 8:30am – Racquet Club