Thank God For Film Festivals

Its always good to see my film on the big screen! I am doing my best to get my film out there as much as possible. Thank God for film festivals. Without them not a lot of films get recognize and on top of that ... I know its hard to get into one.  So much love for Reel Rasquache Art and Film festival. They really showd some love.

I am still waiting to hear back from some more film festival ... So I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Official Selection for a Film Festival 2013

I just got word that my film entered a film festival. Its been a long wait and something finally happened! I am just glad that someone... in this case a film festival saw something in my film. I can't even explain how it feels after all the time and hard work that goes into a project. It really feels good to get some kind of recognition! This is definitely a start. The ball is finally rolling and we'll see where it takes me.  The long await for the documentary is here. I hope to make some noise and get good vibes from people that watch the film.

Also, I just want to give much love to Reel Rasquache Art and Film Festival for giving me an opportunity.  Thank you for believing in my film!

The film festival will take place in Los Angeles in mid-May.

The First Movie Screening

I am happy to say I had a good screening last week. I learned a lot that day and it gave me an idea of what kind of film I had. I felt the energy and good vibe from the crowd. I kept watching the film and time to time I would peek towards the crowd to see if they were engage or not.  For the most part they looked like they were. I definitely feel that there isn't much films about the Central American culture. Or anything that is positive. But that night... for some reason I was feeling the same way as the audience were.  There was an energy and vibe that I was talking about. If you are a filmmaker and go  through this process of screening with the audience ... then you know what I am talking about. To put it in easier terms ... you'll know right away if your film is working or not.

There was somebody in the crowd that said she was "shocked." She didn't get into too much detail of what she said, but I had a feeling what she was talking about. Since my film was not only about music, but it was also on an educational tip about the culture.  And I had a feeling that people may of thought they were going to see a "long music video." But I felt the history of the Salvi culture tied in pretty good with the Salvi Hip-Hop.

The folks that put everything together for the screening did a good job! I would like to thank CAUSA, the group that gave love to my documentary.  This is the beginning of my doc to getting out there. Slowly, but surely I believe my doc will make its way.

Also, I like to thank the online LA Weekly for doing a write-up about the event and documentary. Much Love!  Here is the link to check out:

http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2013/03/salvadoran_hip-hop_film_junior_gonzalez.php

The CAUSA crew who promoted my screening in L.A. 

I was signing posters and T-shirts after the screening

That's it for now.  There will be other screenings coming soon. I will keep you posted.


Junior Gonzalez
The Filmmaker

The Screening

Its coming close to my screening date! I just made some posters and tshirts.  The posters I already have. The tshirts will take awhile to receive. I ordered a big bulk, so I can't wait.  TWO MORE weeks!

Mind Discharge

Happy late new year! Sorry for being so late!

As soon as I finished editing my doc, my mind just turned off!  I needed some time away and get back to a normal life (if that even exist). You can say I took a little break. It was nice to not worry about anything for awhile. I didn't want to take too much time off, but enough time necessary to get recharged again.

Its been a light six months or so. I've been mainly working, saving some money, and figuring out my next move. During my so called mini vacation,  I learned that I did not get into Sundance... Obviously, since the festival past already. Though I have to say, I was okay with it. It did not bother me at all. That's just been my path!  If you have been reading my blogs, I think you get the idea that nothing can really effect me at this point. You have to keep it moving! I think being sensitive and feeling down all the time gets tedious.  But I'm a fighter and I never will give up. It's in my blood and that's how I roll.
    
But I have to say a couple of good things happened along the way. Last November or so I was able to score an interview in Los Angeles with EFE News. EFE news is a big spanish news agency that has a worldwide audience.  According to Wiki, they are the 5th largest news agency behind big companies like the Associate Press.

A regional reporter from Los Angeles saw my trailer and contacted me for a possible interview.  Of course I said yes and the interview happened within a week that he contacted me.  The cool thing is that I was able to get Santos and Randy involved. So that worked out very well! We ended-up  doing  the interview in "Little Salvadoran Town" on Vermont.

It was a very productive day and it felt good to get some recognition.  The article was  passed around to other media outlets and I got a little publicity that way.  Not bad for a small timer like me! Like i said, "I gots to keep it moving."

And the last thing that I wanted to mention is that I am finally getting a test screening of my documentary. I am very excited about that because I will have a good crowd and so I can get some  feedback. It's a big test to see how people will react to my film! That will happen at the end of March.   We will see!!!

And I wanted to say thank you to the field reporter from EFE news in Los Angeles. Much Love!

Thats it for now!


Junior Gonzalez
The Filmmaker

Sundance Film Festival

Yesterday was a big day for me. I finally sent out my doc to Sundance.  I'm really happy that I made the regular admission deadline. That was a huge weight off my shoulders. Originally, I was trying to make the early deadline, but that was not possible. There was too much work to do. What matters is that my film was mailed out on time!

This is going to sound funny, but I never thought I would make it this far. As you know already, I've been through a lot with this project and to be at this point is a big accomplishment. It really feels good! I don't think I had the opportunity to just relax and just soak everything in until now.

Yesterday, I was pretty much scrambling around to make sure I had a DVD.   It took me awhile to figure out how to put my movie on DVD, but I was able to work it out. Thank god! Once everything was done I checked my DVD and I actually watched it on my television set. To be honest that was a weird feeling... but in a good way.  Just to be able to watch my film on TV was actually kinda cool. It looked like a real movie! To see my film at this point was very interesting. It seemed like yesterday I was just going to my first Salvadoran Day festival in Los Angeles (the place where my Documentary was born).

I went to a coffee shop afterwards to fill out the admission form on-line. Once I was done with that, I ran to a close by post office. I had to hurry because they were going to close soon.  

I know Sundance is going to be hard to get into... I already know that! But I never want to say that I missed an opportunity. I feel like I did my part as far as making my film and mailing it out. That's all I can do to make something happen for myself. It's way better then not trying at all. I always shoot for the stars! This is all part of the process.  I can say that I've gone through it... I've worked hard and I have paid my dues!  I will always feel good about that. I know it is going to be a long wait until I get a response from Sundance, but I am not going to stress about it. If I don't get in, I still believe I have a good movie. Plus their are other major film festivals out there. Hopefully, one of them will give me a chance.  And If I do get in ... then I will take it from there.  But I don't want to get too ahead of myself. 

So now... all I will be doing is mailing out my film to other film festivals.

Wish me Luck!

Junior Gonzalez

The Filmmaker

Getting it Done!

I just got done with all my subtitles. Doing subtitles was no joke! The good thing is that my movie was probably 30% in Spanish. So it took me a couple of weeks to go through the whole movie. What took long is that I had to place the translations in their proper place and I have to make sure one is able to read it long enough as it appears on screen. It's all timing.

But what was more challenging was translating the lyrics from the rappers. That was interesting! There was so much meaning and metaphors that I had to really think about how to say it properly in English.  I kept playing every song over and over till I had it right.  I had to make sure the translations sounded correctly because sometimes when you're translating Spanish to English ...  it does not sound as effective or meaningful. Therefore, I had to get creative and capture the essence of what these rappers were saying. All in all I got it done!





Working on my doc mostly every night on my train ride after work from SF to SJ

Next time I am hiring someone to do the translations and subtitles. That's when I have a budget! Some day I will! No it will happen!

I made my film 16x9, that way it feels like a film. I added all the effects to certain video clips. It literally took all day yesterday for everything to render. RENDERING SUCKS! I hope someday final cut changes that part of the software! The system takes to long for something to render.  I hate to wait... but that's part of t he process! Once it was done rendering, I watched the movie again and this time around I was really feeling the film!
Well that mean I am done! The final final final step is putting it on DVD. Hopefully that process shouldn't be too difficult. I guess I will let you know.
But I am done!!!! It feels weird!!!

I still have time to make that SUNDANCE film festival deadline! I am crossing my fingers!



Junior Gonzalez
The filmmaker