If the atmosphere seems spiced with something other than pumpkin extract this month, don’t worry. That’s just the creamy mouth-feel (sorry!) of awards season, which is once again upon us in full-force. Look no further than this month’s Don’t-Miss Indies, full of auteur-driven storytelling from tip to tail, including plenty of Film Independent Spirit Award alumni. Want to receive screeners and vote for this season’s Spirit Award winners? Go ahead!
Fingernails
When You Can Watch: Now
Where You Can Watch: Theaters (limited), Apple TV+
Director: Christos Nikou
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White
Why We’re Excited: Film Independent Spirit Award winners Buckley (Robert Altman Award co-recipient for last year’s Women Talking) and Ahmed (Best Male Lead for 2020’s Sound of Metal) stars as Anna and Amir—two colleagues who work at the “Love Institute”, which has supposedly developed a test to...
Fingernails
When You Can Watch: Now
Where You Can Watch: Theaters (limited), Apple TV+
Director: Christos Nikou
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White
Why We’re Excited: Film Independent Spirit Award winners Buckley (Robert Altman Award co-recipient for last year’s Women Talking) and Ahmed (Best Male Lead for 2020’s Sound of Metal) stars as Anna and Amir—two colleagues who work at the “Love Institute”, which has supposedly developed a test to...
- 11/6/2023
- by Su Fang Tham
- Film Independent News & More
Exclusive: Ahead of its U.S. release on November 3, Eugenio Derbez-starrer Radical is off to a great start in Mexico. The film, which won the Festival Favorite Award when it premiered at Sundance in January, opened last weekend in Mexico, selling 631.7K tickets, outdoing the sophomore frame of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, as well as that film’s debut the previous session; both in terms of admissions.
Released by Videocine, this was the biggest local-language opening in Mexico since the Covid era began in both grosses and ticket sales. Radical grossed Mxn 43,339,719 ($2.36M) across the October 20-22 frame, which is just slightly under what The Eras Tour brought in across its second weekend. That’s because the Taylor Swift movie is being sold at event pricing with tickets going for Mxn 215 a pop versus Mxn 69 for Radical. The latter also had the highest per-screen average of the October 20-22 session.
Released by Videocine, this was the biggest local-language opening in Mexico since the Covid era began in both grosses and ticket sales. Radical grossed Mxn 43,339,719 ($2.36M) across the October 20-22 frame, which is just slightly under what The Eras Tour brought in across its second weekend. That’s because the Taylor Swift movie is being sold at event pricing with tickets going for Mxn 215 a pop versus Mxn 69 for Radical. The latter also had the highest per-screen average of the October 20-22 session.
- 10/27/2023
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Film Independent has set seven filmmakers for the 2023 edition of its Producing Lab, an intensive program designed to help creative, independent producers develop their skills and further their careers. The list includes Camila Grimaldi & Farah Jabir (AmeriGirl), Rob Cristiano (Gone by Morning), Daniel Tantalean (In the Summers), Valeria Contreras (Not My Name), Annalisa Shoemaker (Obsolete), and Fiona Hardingham (Smoke Country).
Film Independent looks to bolster its Fellows by introducing them to film professionals who can advise them on both the craft and business of independent producing. Each is paired with a Creative Advisor, with whom they’ll look to develop a project over the course of the program. Rebecca Green will serve as lead creative advisor for this year’s program, which will also feature an expansive roster of guest speakers: Jason Michael Berman, Apoorva Charan, Marissa Frobes, Nate Kamiya, Kristen Konvitz, Stephen Lee, Alex Lo, Lauren Mann, Jack Pearkes,...
Film Independent looks to bolster its Fellows by introducing them to film professionals who can advise them on both the craft and business of independent producing. Each is paired with a Creative Advisor, with whom they’ll look to develop a project over the course of the program. Rebecca Green will serve as lead creative advisor for this year’s program, which will also feature an expansive roster of guest speakers: Jason Michael Berman, Apoorva Charan, Marissa Frobes, Nate Kamiya, Kristen Konvitz, Stephen Lee, Alex Lo, Lauren Mann, Jack Pearkes,...
- 10/11/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Radical, the Mexican true-life drama starring Coda‘s Eugenio Derbez that broke out of Sundance as the 2023 Festival Favorite, has secured a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement that will permit publicity efforts ahead of its October 20 nationwide release, Deadline has learned.
Agreements of the sort do not guarantee actor participation in PR campaigns, only opening up the possibility for it amidst the SAG-AFTRA strike. But Radical is precisely the kind of film that would most benefit from it, as a small, star-driven awards prospect looking to perform at the box office. And it is expected that Derbez now will be out promoting the movie, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Related: SAG-AFTRA Tells Members It’s Ok To Promote Their Movies With Interim Agreements At Film Festivals
Among other major titles to have secured publicity-focused agreements from the actors guild recently are Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla and Michael Mann’s Ferrari,...
Agreements of the sort do not guarantee actor participation in PR campaigns, only opening up the possibility for it amidst the SAG-AFTRA strike. But Radical is precisely the kind of film that would most benefit from it, as a small, star-driven awards prospect looking to perform at the box office. And it is expected that Derbez now will be out promoting the movie, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Related: SAG-AFTRA Tells Members It’s Ok To Promote Their Movies With Interim Agreements At Film Festivals
Among other major titles to have secured publicity-focused agreements from the actors guild recently are Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla and Michael Mann’s Ferrari,...
- 8/29/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Participant has partnered with TelevisaUnivision’s Pantelion Films and 3Pas Studios on Radical, the Eugenio Derbez-led film written and directed by Chris Zalla. Radical will be released in U.S. and Mexico theaters on October 20. Additionally, international sales have been made in several territories including the UK, Germany and Australia.
Radical will be distributed in the U.S. by Paul Presburger and Edward Allen’s Miercoles Entertainment on behalf of Pantelion Films. The announcement arrives following the film’s successful turn at the Sundance Film Festival where it earned the “Festival Favorite Award” from a field of 111 films.
“We are so excited to bring Radical to as wide an audience as possible, giving us the opportunity to share this powerful story with both Eugenio’s massive core audience as well as the specialty market. To reach these very different markets and audiences, we could not be more thrilled...
Radical will be distributed in the U.S. by Paul Presburger and Edward Allen’s Miercoles Entertainment on behalf of Pantelion Films. The announcement arrives following the film’s successful turn at the Sundance Film Festival where it earned the “Festival Favorite Award” from a field of 111 films.
“We are so excited to bring Radical to as wide an audience as possible, giving us the opportunity to share this powerful story with both Eugenio’s massive core audience as well as the specialty market. To reach these very different markets and audiences, we could not be more thrilled...
- 7/11/2023
- by Rosy Cordero
- Deadline Film + TV
A still from Radical by Chris Zalla, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute Radical Review — Radical (2023) Film Review from the 45th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie directed by Christopher Zalla, starring Eugenio Derbez, Daniel Haddad, Jennifer Trejo, Mia Fernanda Solis, [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: Radical: Powerhouse Addition to Maverick Teacher Victory Canon [Sundance 2023]...
Continue reading: Film Review: Radical: Powerhouse Addition to Maverick Teacher Victory Canon [Sundance 2023]...
- 2/14/2023
- by David McDonald
- Film-Book
Sundance 2023: ‘Radical’ directed by Christopher ZallaChristopher Zalla returns to Sundance (‘Padre Nuestro’, U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize 2007) thanks to one of Hollywood’s most innovative producers, Ben Odell and Eugenio Derbez, the top star of Mexico. Their company 3Pas has consistenly created entertainment for the Latinx community in new ways and now this powerfully inspiring story about a teacher deserves to be put to the test to see how it stands with a public along side with education classics as ‘Blackboard Jungle’, ‘Goodbye Mr. Chipps’, ‘Dead Poets’ Society’ and ‘To Sir With Love’. And yes, ‘Stand and Deliver’ as well, Edward James Olmos’ breakthrough and best film.
Director Christopher Zalla. Courtesy of Sundance Institute, photo by Erynne Dowe
With Mr. Zalla in Sundance is Mexican Superstar Eugenio Derbez, who appeared at Sundance in 2021 as Bernardo in Sian Heder’s Coda, top prize winner at Sundance and winner of three Oscars including Best Picture. InCoda he played an inspirational high school music teacher, and in Radical he is again such a teacher.
Every student in K -12 should be given the opportunity to see this film on the educational non-theatrical circuit as well as theatrical and streaming platforms. This is the film that will inspire children to become teachers like Sergio Juarez as played with all his heart by Eugenio Derbez, Mexico’s top comedian and movie star. The discovery of the joy of learning for the children on Matamorros, Mexico, a place where kids live in a world where they can’t be kids, was based upon a true story.
Eugenio Derbez — Co-Founder, 3Pas Studio — Lead Actor & Producer, Radical speaking at Illuminative’s Indigenous House, courtesy of the social justice organization IllumiNative, a Native woman-led racial and social justice organization dedicated to challenging the narrative about Native peoples:
“I started as a comedian in television. When I made the transition to cinema, I always tried to bring joy into each of my movies. Even though it’s drama, it’s part of our brand. I have a production company called Tripas Studios. Tripas means guts, so when you do everything with your guts, you can make all the decisions with your guts. When we are looking for a project, we always look for the three H’s: Humanity, Humor, and Heart. We need at least two of these elements to be in the movie. But I always need to put in some humor. Even though ‘Radical’ is a drama and a really sad and true story, you’re going to laugh a couple of times because humor makes everything easy. When you show me drama and a true story, I put in a little bit of joy, so you can digest the information much better.”
Eugenio Derbez at the Illuinative panel. Photo Credit: INDÍGENA for IllumiNative
[When asked what he wanted viewers to take away from Radical] “I want to celebrate education. I think education is the base for future generations. I feel that right now education, not just in my country, but worldwide, has been the same for the last 200 years. The same kind of structure, it’s twisted, we’re teaching kids to obey, sit down, shut up, do this, do that, memorize this. We’re teaching them to obey, we’re teaching them to memorize and we need to teach them how to learn.”
Radical shines a light on the incredible potential children can manifest when an innovative teacher empowers them to think for themselves. The Wired article by Joshua Davis (also a producer here) explains it is based on the life of teacher Sergio Juárez Correa, who with his students was the subject of a 2013 Wired magazine cover story titled A Radical Way of Unleashing a Generation of Geniuses. The article details Juárez’ rather incredible story as an unorthodox teacher in a poor Mexican border town called Matamoros. It is a forgotten poor city with little hope for its kids, particularly in the elementary school, where he uses a teaching method he stumbled upon seeing a Ted Talks video in which the students lead the curriculum in learning what they want to learn, not what officials dictate through testing and other methods.
Eugenio Derbez conducting a class on the solar system. Courtesy o Sundance Institut
After establishing the To Sir, with Love nature of this school and who the kids in the sixth-grade class are, we meet Sergio. He has turned over all the desks in his classroom and tries to convince the incredulous students to come aboard these “lifeboats” in the make-believe ocean for the kind of off-the-wall lesson they have never encountered before.
As we learn to know the students: Paloma (the nascent shining star Jennifer Trejo), who aspires to be a rocket scientist (That is true and her story is more incredible), Nico, Lupe and others surrounded by cartel culture and bullies, their fates take shape.
Derbez never has been better than in this film, one that’s for sale and, if there is any justice, will be picked up immediately by a distributor looking for a feel-good true story with real potential to make a difference. It co-stars Daniel Haddad, Jennifer Trejo, Mia Fernanda Solis and Danilo Guardiola.
Radical was produced by 3Pas Studios (Derbez’s label run by Benjamin Odell), in association with Epic Magazine and The Lift, and financed by TelevisaUnivision/ViX.
The film is seeking worldwide distribution in all territories, save Mexico. Andrew Herwitz of The Film Sales Company is representing the film.
Eugenio Derbez. Courtesy of Sundance Institute photo by Mateo Londono
“Three Steps” says Ben Odell, co-founder of 3Pas (as in 3Pas, Tripas or tripe, or Guts as Eugenio decribes them), when explaining to me the meanng of the pun. 3Pas in Spanish means three steps, but is also a play on words, something Mexicans like a lot. Personally, I too love tripas y menudo. Delicioso!
Ben and Tripas also won the 2007 Grand Jury Prize Winner at Sundance with the art house Spanish language thriller, Padre Nuestro. IFC changed the title to Sangre de mi sangre for its U.S. release. It also played at New Directors/ New Films at Museum of Modern Art in New York in the Spring of 2007, received two Independent Spirit Awards nominations, for Best First Feature (for which Odell was nominated) and Best Screenplay.
Ben is sure that his producing partner Eugene will go way beyond his current core Latinx market “He is so lovable to watch. He has a magic about him that is undeniable and transcends language and culture.”
When Ben and Eugenio decided to go together they knew it was The-One-Time-In-a-Career-To-Capitalize moment. It happened while Eugenio was making his breakout film Instructions not Included. They formed 3Pas to focus on brand-building based upon Eugenio’s popularity. They planned to go beyond his own work, in English and Spanish. 3Pas Studios signed a first-look deal with Pantelion in August 2014. Neither Eugenio nor Ben had any idea Instructions not Included would be so big. It was released in 2013 by Pantelion and grossed $44.5 million, making it the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S. It grossed another $55 million overseas making it the number one Spanish language movie in the world.
Before I met Ben, I always pictured him as my other friend whose last name is Odell, a slight and wiry, dark haired type. How surprised I was to see this big, handsome blond who exuded warmth and a good-willed wit and storytelling skill. Love at first sight! And I am sure I am not the only one who is smitten with him. I wish I could convey his spirit, humor and strength as he recounted his life and career(s) to me in the hour we spent together in his new spacious, airy and bright Santa Monica office where Ben Shalom-Martinez was the third person in the new company, manning a phone system not yet working.
I told Ben I had read his mini bio in IMDb, and it made me want to know how he had gotten into the Latinx side of the business. I expected him to reveal that, in fact, and in spite of his name, he was Latino.
One year out of college, Ben said,
“I worked in editing with the Maysles Brothers. I was a P.A. on the first film John Turturro directed called “Mac”, and I was a reader for Art Linson. And that was my degree in Liberal Arts in Film. I wanted to be a screenwriter but I didn’t feel I had enough life experience. A family friend offered me a job in commercial production in Colombia. It was 1992 and my dad said: “if you love all things Latino, go learn Spanish and become an expert in the Latino market. It’s going to need people that understand it. No one was really talking about its importance then but that piece of advice changed my life. I moved to Colombia to learn Spanish and start what would be a life long journey in all things Latino, from U.S. Latino to Latin America. It’s not a single market but there is a connectivity between all of it.”
Ben grew up in Pennsylvania and when he was six years old, neighbors, who had old friends from Colombia, did an exchange of one of their children with a Colombian child. “My father ended up basically adopting that child for the year he lived with our neighbors and from that grew a friendship with this Colombian family.”
When he was 12 years old the whole Colombian family moved to Philadelphia. “I wanted them to adopt me. They were crazy, emotional, passionate, loving. It was a warmth and lust for life I hadn’t really experienced in suburban white America. And then I realized there was a whole country full of them.” At 15 he went with a friend to Colombia and loved it.
His father eventually married someone from that family. So Ben’s connection to Colombia, if not to all of Latin America was very organic. Colombia is not part of the “U.S. Latino market” per se, but Colombia and the rest of Latin America share certain characteristics and commonalities — views on life and death, family, spirituality — that end up working their way into storytelling that are shared throughout the U.S. Latino market and Latin America along with a larger emotional scale in the tone of their storytelling.
Odell lived in Colombia from 1992 to 2000. He also worked as a freelance journalist before becoming a Spanish language television writer and screenwriter there.
When he was in Colombia working in commercials, he met Tom Quinn, a journalist Iiving there for 25 years, working for Time Magazine and running an English language rag called The Colombian Post. In his youth, Tom had run with the likes of Hunter S. Thompson. He had lots of adventures and lots of stories of those days.
Ben asked Tom what was the most compelling story they could make into a movie that wasn’t about narcotrafficking, and Tom said one word: “Emeralds.” Colombia supplies 60% of the world’s emeralds. The mines in the Emerald Zone have strong drug laundering connections as well, as one might guess. The land is leased by the government to the three or four mining companies and they control everything with no supervision by the government.
Ben thought this was a great story to develop into a movie, and so he went back to New York to the contacts he had made including an exec at Tribeca Films. “They all said the same thing, great story but you are not a writer. Go write the script and then we’ll talk.” Ben returned to Colombia to do research.
In the meanwhile he began writing for Colombian TV. He had never written a feature film script, nor did he speak Spanish. He had, however, taken a course in feature film screenwriting with Robert McKee. And he had a girlfriend who was bilingual. He knew about Colombian TV and he saw the potential for legitimizing the story first as a TV show and then making it into a feature later.
Tom Quinn was very well known in Colombia as he was the Time News correspondent there at a moment when the magazine had a lot of power; the drug wars were one of its most consistent cover stories. They pitched it to Rti TV, and structured it like The Fugitive.
There is a drug, called burandanga, scientifically known as Scopolamine. It comes from a plant that grows wild in Colombia. The drugged one loses control of his or her will. Ben once heard a story about a man in a bar who wakes up in jail accused of a murder he can’t remember. This became the basis of the story. The lead goes into the Emerald Zone and drugged by burundanga, he kills one on the wrong side in a war going on there. He wakes up with no recollection and a full on civil war going on around him. He can’t get out of the Emerald Zone until he finds the man who drugged him. The title of this series that Tom and he pitched and in 1998 created was Fuego verde, like the 1954 Hollywood movie, Green Fire starring Grace Kelly and Stewart Grainger.
As a television writer, he eventually created and wrote over 300 hours of Spanish-language narrative television including Fuego Verde — the first-ever action series. It was one of the highest rated series on Colombian television. He also co-wrote the Colombian political satire feature film, Golpe de estadio, which was nominated for Spain’s Academy Award, the Goya in 1999, and was Colombia’s nomination to the Oscar in 2000. It is still one of the highest grossing Colombian films of all time.
In the film, Golpe de estadio, (Golpe de Estado means “Coup d’état”but it also could mean “Coup de Stadium”), an oil company has set up a camp for geological research in a small village in Colombia that has been named New Texas. It becomes the target of the guerrillas who are constantly clashing with police in the area. The confrontation is put on hold however during the TV transmission of the world Cup qualifiers.
For more about this and Ben, read my blog from several years ago here.
In summary, Tripas has created a feel-good story that has great potential to make a difference and is available for distribution.
EducationMexicoFilm FestivalsInternational FilmFemale Empowerment...
Director Christopher Zalla. Courtesy of Sundance Institute, photo by Erynne Dowe
With Mr. Zalla in Sundance is Mexican Superstar Eugenio Derbez, who appeared at Sundance in 2021 as Bernardo in Sian Heder’s Coda, top prize winner at Sundance and winner of three Oscars including Best Picture. InCoda he played an inspirational high school music teacher, and in Radical he is again such a teacher.
Every student in K -12 should be given the opportunity to see this film on the educational non-theatrical circuit as well as theatrical and streaming platforms. This is the film that will inspire children to become teachers like Sergio Juarez as played with all his heart by Eugenio Derbez, Mexico’s top comedian and movie star. The discovery of the joy of learning for the children on Matamorros, Mexico, a place where kids live in a world where they can’t be kids, was based upon a true story.
Eugenio Derbez — Co-Founder, 3Pas Studio — Lead Actor & Producer, Radical speaking at Illuminative’s Indigenous House, courtesy of the social justice organization IllumiNative, a Native woman-led racial and social justice organization dedicated to challenging the narrative about Native peoples:
“I started as a comedian in television. When I made the transition to cinema, I always tried to bring joy into each of my movies. Even though it’s drama, it’s part of our brand. I have a production company called Tripas Studios. Tripas means guts, so when you do everything with your guts, you can make all the decisions with your guts. When we are looking for a project, we always look for the three H’s: Humanity, Humor, and Heart. We need at least two of these elements to be in the movie. But I always need to put in some humor. Even though ‘Radical’ is a drama and a really sad and true story, you’re going to laugh a couple of times because humor makes everything easy. When you show me drama and a true story, I put in a little bit of joy, so you can digest the information much better.”
Eugenio Derbez at the Illuinative panel. Photo Credit: INDÍGENA for IllumiNative
[When asked what he wanted viewers to take away from Radical] “I want to celebrate education. I think education is the base for future generations. I feel that right now education, not just in my country, but worldwide, has been the same for the last 200 years. The same kind of structure, it’s twisted, we’re teaching kids to obey, sit down, shut up, do this, do that, memorize this. We’re teaching them to obey, we’re teaching them to memorize and we need to teach them how to learn.”
Radical shines a light on the incredible potential children can manifest when an innovative teacher empowers them to think for themselves. The Wired article by Joshua Davis (also a producer here) explains it is based on the life of teacher Sergio Juárez Correa, who with his students was the subject of a 2013 Wired magazine cover story titled A Radical Way of Unleashing a Generation of Geniuses. The article details Juárez’ rather incredible story as an unorthodox teacher in a poor Mexican border town called Matamoros. It is a forgotten poor city with little hope for its kids, particularly in the elementary school, where he uses a teaching method he stumbled upon seeing a Ted Talks video in which the students lead the curriculum in learning what they want to learn, not what officials dictate through testing and other methods.
Eugenio Derbez conducting a class on the solar system. Courtesy o Sundance Institut
After establishing the To Sir, with Love nature of this school and who the kids in the sixth-grade class are, we meet Sergio. He has turned over all the desks in his classroom and tries to convince the incredulous students to come aboard these “lifeboats” in the make-believe ocean for the kind of off-the-wall lesson they have never encountered before.
As we learn to know the students: Paloma (the nascent shining star Jennifer Trejo), who aspires to be a rocket scientist (That is true and her story is more incredible), Nico, Lupe and others surrounded by cartel culture and bullies, their fates take shape.
Derbez never has been better than in this film, one that’s for sale and, if there is any justice, will be picked up immediately by a distributor looking for a feel-good true story with real potential to make a difference. It co-stars Daniel Haddad, Jennifer Trejo, Mia Fernanda Solis and Danilo Guardiola.
Radical was produced by 3Pas Studios (Derbez’s label run by Benjamin Odell), in association with Epic Magazine and The Lift, and financed by TelevisaUnivision/ViX.
The film is seeking worldwide distribution in all territories, save Mexico. Andrew Herwitz of The Film Sales Company is representing the film.
Eugenio Derbez. Courtesy of Sundance Institute photo by Mateo Londono
“Three Steps” says Ben Odell, co-founder of 3Pas (as in 3Pas, Tripas or tripe, or Guts as Eugenio decribes them), when explaining to me the meanng of the pun. 3Pas in Spanish means three steps, but is also a play on words, something Mexicans like a lot. Personally, I too love tripas y menudo. Delicioso!
Ben and Tripas also won the 2007 Grand Jury Prize Winner at Sundance with the art house Spanish language thriller, Padre Nuestro. IFC changed the title to Sangre de mi sangre for its U.S. release. It also played at New Directors/ New Films at Museum of Modern Art in New York in the Spring of 2007, received two Independent Spirit Awards nominations, for Best First Feature (for which Odell was nominated) and Best Screenplay.
Ben is sure that his producing partner Eugene will go way beyond his current core Latinx market “He is so lovable to watch. He has a magic about him that is undeniable and transcends language and culture.”
When Ben and Eugenio decided to go together they knew it was The-One-Time-In-a-Career-To-Capitalize moment. It happened while Eugenio was making his breakout film Instructions not Included. They formed 3Pas to focus on brand-building based upon Eugenio’s popularity. They planned to go beyond his own work, in English and Spanish. 3Pas Studios signed a first-look deal with Pantelion in August 2014. Neither Eugenio nor Ben had any idea Instructions not Included would be so big. It was released in 2013 by Pantelion and grossed $44.5 million, making it the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S. It grossed another $55 million overseas making it the number one Spanish language movie in the world.
Before I met Ben, I always pictured him as my other friend whose last name is Odell, a slight and wiry, dark haired type. How surprised I was to see this big, handsome blond who exuded warmth and a good-willed wit and storytelling skill. Love at first sight! And I am sure I am not the only one who is smitten with him. I wish I could convey his spirit, humor and strength as he recounted his life and career(s) to me in the hour we spent together in his new spacious, airy and bright Santa Monica office where Ben Shalom-Martinez was the third person in the new company, manning a phone system not yet working.
I told Ben I had read his mini bio in IMDb, and it made me want to know how he had gotten into the Latinx side of the business. I expected him to reveal that, in fact, and in spite of his name, he was Latino.
One year out of college, Ben said,
“I worked in editing with the Maysles Brothers. I was a P.A. on the first film John Turturro directed called “Mac”, and I was a reader for Art Linson. And that was my degree in Liberal Arts in Film. I wanted to be a screenwriter but I didn’t feel I had enough life experience. A family friend offered me a job in commercial production in Colombia. It was 1992 and my dad said: “if you love all things Latino, go learn Spanish and become an expert in the Latino market. It’s going to need people that understand it. No one was really talking about its importance then but that piece of advice changed my life. I moved to Colombia to learn Spanish and start what would be a life long journey in all things Latino, from U.S. Latino to Latin America. It’s not a single market but there is a connectivity between all of it.”
Ben grew up in Pennsylvania and when he was six years old, neighbors, who had old friends from Colombia, did an exchange of one of their children with a Colombian child. “My father ended up basically adopting that child for the year he lived with our neighbors and from that grew a friendship with this Colombian family.”
When he was 12 years old the whole Colombian family moved to Philadelphia. “I wanted them to adopt me. They were crazy, emotional, passionate, loving. It was a warmth and lust for life I hadn’t really experienced in suburban white America. And then I realized there was a whole country full of them.” At 15 he went with a friend to Colombia and loved it.
His father eventually married someone from that family. So Ben’s connection to Colombia, if not to all of Latin America was very organic. Colombia is not part of the “U.S. Latino market” per se, but Colombia and the rest of Latin America share certain characteristics and commonalities — views on life and death, family, spirituality — that end up working their way into storytelling that are shared throughout the U.S. Latino market and Latin America along with a larger emotional scale in the tone of their storytelling.
Odell lived in Colombia from 1992 to 2000. He also worked as a freelance journalist before becoming a Spanish language television writer and screenwriter there.
When he was in Colombia working in commercials, he met Tom Quinn, a journalist Iiving there for 25 years, working for Time Magazine and running an English language rag called The Colombian Post. In his youth, Tom had run with the likes of Hunter S. Thompson. He had lots of adventures and lots of stories of those days.
Ben asked Tom what was the most compelling story they could make into a movie that wasn’t about narcotrafficking, and Tom said one word: “Emeralds.” Colombia supplies 60% of the world’s emeralds. The mines in the Emerald Zone have strong drug laundering connections as well, as one might guess. The land is leased by the government to the three or four mining companies and they control everything with no supervision by the government.
Ben thought this was a great story to develop into a movie, and so he went back to New York to the contacts he had made including an exec at Tribeca Films. “They all said the same thing, great story but you are not a writer. Go write the script and then we’ll talk.” Ben returned to Colombia to do research.
In the meanwhile he began writing for Colombian TV. He had never written a feature film script, nor did he speak Spanish. He had, however, taken a course in feature film screenwriting with Robert McKee. And he had a girlfriend who was bilingual. He knew about Colombian TV and he saw the potential for legitimizing the story first as a TV show and then making it into a feature later.
Tom Quinn was very well known in Colombia as he was the Time News correspondent there at a moment when the magazine had a lot of power; the drug wars were one of its most consistent cover stories. They pitched it to Rti TV, and structured it like The Fugitive.
There is a drug, called burandanga, scientifically known as Scopolamine. It comes from a plant that grows wild in Colombia. The drugged one loses control of his or her will. Ben once heard a story about a man in a bar who wakes up in jail accused of a murder he can’t remember. This became the basis of the story. The lead goes into the Emerald Zone and drugged by burundanga, he kills one on the wrong side in a war going on there. He wakes up with no recollection and a full on civil war going on around him. He can’t get out of the Emerald Zone until he finds the man who drugged him. The title of this series that Tom and he pitched and in 1998 created was Fuego verde, like the 1954 Hollywood movie, Green Fire starring Grace Kelly and Stewart Grainger.
As a television writer, he eventually created and wrote over 300 hours of Spanish-language narrative television including Fuego Verde — the first-ever action series. It was one of the highest rated series on Colombian television. He also co-wrote the Colombian political satire feature film, Golpe de estadio, which was nominated for Spain’s Academy Award, the Goya in 1999, and was Colombia’s nomination to the Oscar in 2000. It is still one of the highest grossing Colombian films of all time.
In the film, Golpe de estadio, (Golpe de Estado means “Coup d’état”but it also could mean “Coup de Stadium”), an oil company has set up a camp for geological research in a small village in Colombia that has been named New Texas. It becomes the target of the guerrillas who are constantly clashing with police in the area. The confrontation is put on hold however during the TV transmission of the world Cup qualifiers.
For more about this and Ben, read my blog from several years ago here.
In summary, Tripas has created a feel-good story that has great potential to make a difference and is available for distribution.
EducationMexicoFilm FestivalsInternational FilmFemale Empowerment...
- 2/11/2023
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
From To Sir, With Love through Stand and Deliver and Dangerous Minds, inspirational dramas about dedicated educators overcoming the apathy of disadvantaged students to expand their horizons generally stick to a formula carved in stone. But when that formula works, it works. In rare instances, a movie in this narrative ballpark breaks the mold, like Laurent Cantet’s The Class, with its granular documentary-style textures and illuminating social and political context. Writer-director Christopher Zalla adheres to the subgenre’s conventions and doesn’t stint on sentimentality, but Radical more than earns its surging emotional payoff.
Given its assault on the tear ducts combined with its resolute channeling of hope even in the wake of tragedy, it’s no surprise that the film snagged Sundance’s Festival Favorite Award, voted by the audience. That should help give it an acquisitions nudge, along with a big-hearted lead performance from superstar Mexican actor and comedian Eugenio Derbez,...
Given its assault on the tear ducts combined with its resolute channeling of hope even in the wake of tragedy, it’s no surprise that the film snagged Sundance’s Festival Favorite Award, voted by the audience. That should help give it an acquisitions nudge, along with a big-hearted lead performance from superstar Mexican actor and comedian Eugenio Derbez,...
- 1/27/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Every few years there comes another drama that focuses on a teacher facing seemingly insurmountable odds with a group of students who are challenging to teach. Typically, these movies, such as "To Sir, with Love" starring Sidney Poitier, "Stand and Deliver" with Edward James Olmos, "Lean on Me" led by Morgan Freeman, or "Dangerous Minds" with Michelle Pfeiffer, take place in urban settings where the school is overridden with crime and drugs, resulting in students who have no respect for authority and no interest in learning. Of course, that all changes when each film's respective teacher offers up some kind of revelatory lesson that sparks the interest of the young minds who maybe just need an opportunity to leave their rough upbringing behind.
The new Sundance-selected drama "Radical," written and directed by Christopher Zalla and starring Eugenio Derbez, is one of those movies, but there's something a bit different about...
The new Sundance-selected drama "Radical," written and directed by Christopher Zalla and starring Eugenio Derbez, is one of those movies, but there's something a bit different about...
- 1/27/2023
- by Ethan Anderton
- Slash Film
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Participant and Pantelion Films releases the film in theaters on Friday, November 3.
The figure of the selfless teacher with an idealist mindset about education has abundant onscreen representation. Of these, Edward James Olmos’ lively, Oscar-nominated portrayal of Jaime Escalante, who taught math to marginalized teens at James A. Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, in “Stand and Deliver,” serves as quintessential example of these admirable paladins of knowledge in American popular culture.
In the well-intentioned drama “Radical,” Eugenio Derbez boasts similar, if more subdued charisma as unorthodox elementary teacher Sergio Chavez. This crowd-pleaser based on a remarkable true story documented in a Wired article by Joshua Davis (also a producer here), marks the Sundance return of director Christopher Zalla, whose 2007 debut “Padre Nuestro” won the top jury prize in the U.S. Dramatic competition.
The role...
The figure of the selfless teacher with an idealist mindset about education has abundant onscreen representation. Of these, Edward James Olmos’ lively, Oscar-nominated portrayal of Jaime Escalante, who taught math to marginalized teens at James A. Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, in “Stand and Deliver,” serves as quintessential example of these admirable paladins of knowledge in American popular culture.
In the well-intentioned drama “Radical,” Eugenio Derbez boasts similar, if more subdued charisma as unorthodox elementary teacher Sergio Chavez. This crowd-pleaser based on a remarkable true story documented in a Wired article by Joshua Davis (also a producer here), marks the Sundance return of director Christopher Zalla, whose 2007 debut “Padre Nuestro” won the top jury prize in the U.S. Dramatic competition.
The role...
- 1/20/2023
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Indiewire
Idealistic teachers propel some of the most shamelessly schmaltzy tearjerkers of cinema, but whether we like it or not, we all respond to them at some sincere, emotional level. Christopher Zalla’s resolute crowdpleaser “Radical” is a heart-tugger in the mold of such old-school “inspiring teacher changes everything” tales as “To Sir With Love,” “Dead Poets Society” and even recent Oscar winner “Coda,” with which it shares star Eugenio Derbez. It’s a conventional film with broad audience appeal — watch it without tissues at your own risk — and hits all the expected notes.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing for a film centered on time-honored themes. Based on a true story, Zalla’s script is inspired by a decade-old Wired article titled “A Radical Way of Unleashing a Generation of Geniuses” — the writer of which, Joshua Davis, serves as a producer here. In the piece, Davis zeroed in on...
That’s not necessarily a bad thing for a film centered on time-honored themes. Based on a true story, Zalla’s script is inspired by a decade-old Wired article titled “A Radical Way of Unleashing a Generation of Geniuses” — the writer of which, Joshua Davis, serves as a producer here. In the piece, Davis zeroed in on...
- 1/20/2023
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV
The last time Mexican superstar Eugenio Derbez had a film at Sundance was just in 2021. The movie was Coda, and it not only swept all the top prizes at the fest that year, it went on to win three Oscars including Best Picture. He had a supporting role in that film as an inspirational high school music teacher, and now in Radical, which just had its world premiere at Sundance on opening night at the Eccles Theatre, he essays another inspirational teacher. This time it’s a true story and one in which he plays the lead role of Sergio Juarez.
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Juarez (full name Sergio Juarez...
Related Story 20 Titles To Heat Up Chilly 2023 Sundance Festival Related Story Ryan Coogler On Sundance & 'Fruitvale Station' A Decade Later & How 'Creed' May Be The Most Park City Franchise Ever Related Story Brett Kavanaugh Investigation Documentary 'Justice' From Doug Liman Added To Sundance Lineup
Juarez (full name Sergio Juarez...
- 1/20/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
International comedy star Eugenio Derbez has touched down in Utah for the world premiere of his latest dramatic turn in “Radical,” one of the opening night presentations at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
Variety has an exclusive first look at the project, the story of an outside-the-box teacher in a crime-ridden Mexican border town.
The film is directed by Christopher Zalla, who won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize in 2007 for “Sangre de Mi Sangre.” In the exclusive clip, Derbez can be seen changing the physical layout of a classroom — and removing his own desk — at a hard-knock school known more for discipline than academic encouragement. Already getting pushback from the establishment faculty, Derbez admits he wants to try something different.
The film marks Derbez’s return to Sundance after the record-breaking sale of “Coda,” which would go on to win the Oscar for best picture. “Radical” was chosen by the festival...
Variety has an exclusive first look at the project, the story of an outside-the-box teacher in a crime-ridden Mexican border town.
The film is directed by Christopher Zalla, who won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize in 2007 for “Sangre de Mi Sangre.” In the exclusive clip, Derbez can be seen changing the physical layout of a classroom — and removing his own desk — at a hard-knock school known more for discipline than academic encouragement. Already getting pushback from the establishment faculty, Derbez admits he wants to try something different.
The film marks Derbez’s return to Sundance after the record-breaking sale of “Coda,” which would go on to win the Oscar for best picture. “Radical” was chosen by the festival...
- 1/19/2023
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
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