The Little Engine That Could (The Good, The Bad & Tio Umberto)

The Chicon Chapters (Chp 5)

The Good, The Bad & Tio Umberto: A tiny film born out of failure, that crawled its way to the top of a mountain.

https://youtu.be/VOdlfFgMkvc

I was apart of a fellowship in New York, trying to green light a short about a Latino teenager who travels back in time to a family in party in the 1970s and learn the importance of his culture through the film's events.

But this was a case of being blinded by ambition, thinking I'd be supplied with my biggest budget ever and wanting to do something I just wasn't ready for. After a year of being unable to get the green light in my fellowship, I parted ways with the program. This was around the time I was gearing up for my first move to LA and I felt the need to shoot one more thing before my time in NYC came to a close. So, I took the unproduced script and pulled out a single element that I could make into a simple. low budget but fun short... A scene where my main character played dominoes against his uncle.

Using one location was a great way to force me to think about how to tell a story with lighting. I needed convey the emotional states of the characters visually and the equipment from Giant Island Ent. made it possible to do just that.

I had 6 months. Write, crowdfund, produce, direct, before I hightailed it to LA. I brought on Brandon Hugo Arroyo (of Giant Island Entertainment) as producer and knew I wanted to work with Joshua Colon and Sophia Radix (I'd write the lead roles for them). Easy enough, they were all already onboard for the last short before it went under.

I became fascinated with this idea of a tyrannical uncle constantly winning at a game of such cultural significance, showcasing the feeling I got when I watched my own family do battle at the table when I was a kid. It eventually became an allegory for cultural identity insecurity. Defeating Tio Umberto would be seen as a rite of passage, a way to prove one was worthy of their Latino culture.

This was also my first time crowdfunding, which I found to be incredibly challenging (what can I say, I've got the proud Latino "Never ask for money" gene) but it blew me away how generous people were in supporting my vision for the film.

Joshua Colon and Sophia Radix had already signed on to be in my prior film before it fell through. I thank the heavens everyday that Tio Umberto gave me the chance to work with them despite it.

This project moved FAST and being able to get it done in the short amount of time is just a credit to Brandon's producing skill and how on-point the entire team was from the cast to the crew. We raised $850 dollars for a two day shoot in my parents basement (Jesus, we were all sweating buckets down there in the middle of July), just a month before I moved to the West Coast where it took me another eight months to edit... Then ANOTHER 4 months to before we heard from any film festivals (this process is always extremelyyyy long).

But it all came to a head when we got word about where our little short would premiere - The Warner Brothers New York Latino Film Festival! It's no surprise that you get rejected a ton in this industry (I could fill up houses with the amount of "no's" I've gotten) but this yes felt SO sweet.

It really dawned on me how special this little project was while watching it in a sold out theater at NYLFF. Here was out little $850 film, shot in a hot ass basement as a result of its original idea failing to take off and it was playing next to Sundance produced, $75,000 budget films - ONE OF WHICH HAD MARIO LOPEZ (and was fantastic, I met the director she is the sweetest person in the world!). It felt incredibly validating to be in the same room as those giants... And the red carpet was a nice touch too.

My DoP Miguel Alvarez has to be the FLYEST guy I know. If only you could see the tux he whipped out for the actual screening.