toronto

continuing it's international release, angelito is heading to toronto, canada.

the brazilian film festival of toronto has a special category called brazuca, for films produced by brazilians living abroad.
on saturday, october 01st, 2011, at 2:30PM, the brazuca session will exhibit 3 short films at the carlton cinema in toronto. angelito will open the screening.

thank you cecília queiroz, executive producer of the festival, for the opportunity to show our work in canada.




foto by aaronkelly on flickr.

trailer

as requested, here is the trailer of our film.
enjoy!

caracas

angelito's next screening will happen in caracas, venezuela, at the festival internacional de cortos de caracas - chorts.

date: september 28th, 2011
time: 7 pm and 9 pm
place: cines unidos cc lider

unfortunately we won't be there to see how it goes, but all our energy and good thoughts will be aiming towards that movie theater.

photo by jason williamson, on flickr.
ps: if you have any friends in caracas, don't hesitate to let them know!

laliff

angelito had it's second and third screenings at the los angeles latino international film festival (laliff).
it was another great experience, at the egyptian theater on hollywood boulevard.

the festival is wonderful, very well organized. it gives the american public the chance to see many latin american films that would not necessarily play in theaters here. they had a carefully chosen selection of feature and short films. congratulations to marlene and lucía, the big women behind the festival, for such an amazing work.

vitor and i were there.
here are some red carpet snaps.

epidemic film festival

angelito had it's first public screening on may 6th, 2011.

it was a part of the epidemic film festival, promoted by the academy of art university in san francisco, ca. the event was at the golden gate theater, and the room was packed.


my heart was (as usual) pounding way too loud for me to understand what was going on. but it was amazing to feel the room and people's reactions there, in the dark.

to enhance the night's emotions, angelito was granted the two awards it was competing for, in the category narrative drama:

best director and best film

i can't denny that we were delighted and so happy.

 (photos by Boris Zubov - from the festival organization)

the poster

the poster was designed by our editor, celia marais. it was finalized by another collaborator, felipe fima.

it tells a lot about our story, how there is so much being said on silent moments, and so much being shown in empty spaces.

it is minimal, simple, raw.

based on the same concept, we made the postcard.

crew

another big step was securing the best crew and still keeping on budget. except for a couple of fellows, our crew did not get financially compensated to work on this film. everyone listed bellow is a filmmaker with his or hers own projects, and we really appreciate them taking their time to help angelito to become the film it is.

again, all we can do is thank these amazing artists for lending us their talent and embracing this project with such love.

here comes the gang.

director of photography
harold escotet is from venezuela, and he was living in san francisco while getting his mfa. he is a f***** talented and fearless dp, and we could not be happier with our choice. harold lives in la, and his current work can be seen on his website.

editor
celia marais is french, and an amazing fine artist. angelito was the first narrative she edited. we invited her for the job because we believe she is not only ultra-multi-talented, but she also has a great filmmaker's vision. more of her work here. she lives in san francisco with her husband and "our production baby", her son liam.

production designer
j.m.hall's great work was already recognized on a previous post. she has many of her own films uploaded for you to check out. penny is american, she lives in la, and works as a freelancer.

gaffer / electric
luis montijo / raman ravindran / bk kim
harold put together an amazing group of lighting magicians, from mexico, china and the us. they used our limited equipment (and limited crew) beautifully and very efficiently. they are still making movies, both in mexico and in the usa.

camera operators and assistants
dylan glockler / karen abad / mark austin heim
three amazing american cinematographers who took turns and came help on a few days. they also helped us prior to the shoot assembling a curious hand held mount, lending equipment, dumping footage and whatever else they could. they are now spread around the us, making amazing movies.

assistant director
tanyluz sciortino is a great and dear friend. with her charismatic approach, she kept everything moving and everyone happy. we have no idea how she did that. after a year working in nyc, tany has just returned to venezuela. we are anxious to see her new projects coming from within her culture.

script supervisor
juan gil garcia not only allowed us to photograph his home, he also provided us with the certainty that everything was exactly where they should be. juan just directed a beautiful short film called un buen hijo (in which our gaffer luis rocked as the director of photography).

upm
kate selzer came for most of our shooting days, and made sure everything was running smoothly. whatever wasn't, she'd put it right back into place. she is american, lives in san francisco  and works for ilm.

still photography/set pa
kevin yuille, a great vfx artist working long hours in la, did our still photography and helped the boys with the lighting. pablo russek, mexican, did all and a little more. he helped a lot on production design, lighting, camera, etc. he is a key figure who just moved to la.

production design miracles

usually, on low budget films, production tries to find locations that are 'production design ready'.
we couldn't. maybe we just don't have that many friends in sf. or at least not that many friends willing to let us film inside their houses. but penny, our production designer worked her magic, stripped her house, my house, vitor's house, tany's house, some ikea shelves, did many pick ups and many returns.

for example, this was the "briefing" for luisa's house.

this is what the location originally looked like

and this is what it looked like dressed as luisa's apartment

ufff, if you knew how much money and crew she had to do those things... 

locations

finding locations was a very hard part of the process. as any ultra-low-budget-short-film, we used our friends' places. let's just say that we asked for a lot of favors to get this film done. it is not easy to open your door to a film crew. even if we try really hard to stay out of the location's owner's way, we will always cause some disruption.

our friend alejandro allowed us to film in his studio for one afternoon, while our dear friends juan and miguel allowed us to invade their home in san jose, and practically live there an entire weekend. 

so, all we can do is thank these people, for opening their homes, letting us camp there, move everything around, letting us stay longer than scheduled, etc, etc.

so... thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you...

casting

angelito's casting process was a rather long one. we did many casting sessions, but we do not regret it. in the end we have casted amazing actors, that delivered such strong performances. we were lucky to have such dedicated, talented artists diving into this experience with us. and all for the love of art, since our budget was... well, lets leave that for another post.

maggie's character was the first role to be filled. julia smyth came to one of the first sessions and quickly won vitor's heart. when i came to see the call backs, she naturally slipped into the role, and i had no doubts about it.

we were struggling to find danny and luisa. it took us many months of intense search.
one day, angela carrizosa saw an add on craigslist. she had just arrived from colombia, where she was starring a feature film (karen llora en un bus).  she came to our casting session, and she was physically so different than the luisa i had in mind. but at the moment i saw her expressive eyes in action, there was absolutely no doubt about it.

it is very hard to direct children, but it is even harder to cast them. child actors sometimes come trained, and have the reactions very planned ahead. we didn't want anyone too trained but we also didn't want anyone completely raw, since we had a tight shooting schedule. john benson had worked with a friend on a short film, and came with great references. we met john one afternoon, and had him improvise many moments with vitor. he was perfect.

for jose's character, we wanted mainly someone that had good intimacy with luisa. so why not try out angela's brother in law? that is how josé ramìrez came into the game.

the only last step was to get this cast together, and check out the chemistry between them. which, as you can imagine, worked out so well.

the idea

one of the "frequently asked questions" at film festivals is: where did the idea come from?

here, we want to be truly honest. the idea came from vitor's head. it was embraced by me. the script came from six months of long weekly encounters, lunches, coffee breaks, beers and whatever else we both did together to make this happen. we also counted with the incredible help and guidance of the screenwriting instructor and dear friend donna laemmlen.

angelito's script had, like any other film, many drafts. it was read by many people and we took lots of advices. we also decided to leave aside many other comments, in order to stay faithful to the story we wanted to tell.

but more important than the idea, is the inspiration. it came from a bunch of different places.
for a long time, i was completely obsessed about making a film about immigrants in the us. with both of us being immigrants it is easy to understand why.
in the mean time, vitor had a few brazilian friends that were nannies in the us. they told him the most amazing stories, enough to make a feature film.
we were both raised by single mothers, who struggled to handle household, parenting and profession in the best way possible. so, we were both raised with the presence of a nanny. trust me, there is a little bit of the little me, and a little bit of the little vitor on that kid on the screen. and there is a little bit (or a lot) of midi, isabel, ide, aparecida, leoni, claudia and all the other amazing women that somehow helped us to become who we are today.

cheers to inspiration and life experiences.

(illustration credit: tony dowler, or orkboi, on flickr.)

a note

yes, we are filmmakers. yes, wanted to make a short film. our project, back in the days, was supposed to be a film called the antagonist.

the antagonist was a very different story, concept and style of film. even before having a script, the antagonist already had a blog. we were working tirelessly on this project.

but one day, on the steps of the union square in san francisco, angelito's idea came. it swept us of our feet, it became a passion, then it became a script, then it turned into a (beautiful) film.

yes, we are very proud of our baby. and i guess we were so busy making this film, that we never made the blog for it. let's just say that we'd rather have a film with no blog, than a blog with no film.

angelito is now getting out there into the world, and many people have asked us where is the webpage. well, here we are, better late then never. this blog is going to go back in time and tell you a little about what was the process of making this short film.

bon voyage :-)