An understated film that made a large impact in the independent film world of 2012, AQUI Y ALLA recently claimed Best Narrative Feature at the 2012 Lone Star Film Festival Juried Film Competition by charming the jury with long beautiful shots and meditative pacing. The story follows Pedro, who returns to Mexico after years of working in the United States in order to make a better life for his family. Upon his return, Pedro is confronted with the time he has lost, and the ever-present conflict between the desire to be ?here? and the necessity to be ?there.?
AQUI Y ALLA is Antonio Mendez Esparza?s first feature length effort and received incredible support by the festival community this past year. The film screened all over the world, including the Cannes Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, and AFI, among many other festivals. Esparza received a nomination for Best Breakthrough Director at the Gotham Independent Film Awards, and the film won Nespresso Grand Prize for La Semaine de la Critique at the Cannes Film Festival.
One of the film?s producers, Tim Hobbs, who attended this year?s Lone Star Film Festival, eloquently shed some light on the steps necessary for filmmakers after the cameras shut off. By understanding his audience, and the importance of marketing and distribution, Tim Hobbs continually works to ensure the availability of Pedro?s story to audiences outside the festival circuit.
How has your film been received so far? Which screenings (festival or otherwise) has it had, and how did the audiences respond?
The film has been very well received so far by juries, audiences, and top critics at important international festivals, starting with Cannes where it won the Critics Week Grand Prize and including Morelia, San Sebastian, Tokyo, Thessaloniki, New York and quite a few others. We?ve been fortunate to have won awards from all over the world. Although, it seems the film can be very divisive, in the blogosphere in particular. Americans have more slowly warmed up to it, and it?s been gaining important champions in the US over recent months.
In some ways, the filmmaking is not what audiences have been conditioned to expect ? particularly from Hollywood product, but also from the many independent films that use the same methods. The film is peaceful, observational, and very much focused on the casual little details that accumulate into, we believe, rich characterization and a powerful overall narrative. In our approach, we embraced what we saw as the poetry of the film, and tried to create as many pure moments as we could, moments of the kind that might forever live on in the characters? memories of home, family, childhood, and fatherhood. To do this, it was essential for us to allow for enough space for the seemingly insignificant to gather weight, and to allow the audience to bear witness to what is not said as much as what is, to the truth that often lies just below the thin veneer of appearances. Similarly, although the film never actually directly shows ?All?? (referring to the US, and meaning: ?over there? or ?beyond?, and recalling ?the afterlife? or ?the other side?), we have tried to powerfully express how the presence of ?All?? is so strongly felt at home that it is practically knocking at the door.
Where we have been successful, this approach has been warmly embraced. Although the film is calm and contemplative, it seems it resonates very emotionally for certain people. To see audiences, especially Mexican audiences, engaged with subtleties and layers of the film has been thrilling to see, as it makes us confident the film has a richness and depth that could give it a long life.
Where the film has been divisive, as near as we can tell thus far, it seems that certain viewers expected a more direct approach to the narrative, or otherwise more of the conventional filmmaking methods typically used to impress the audience: e.g. amplified emotions, stylized visuals, virtuosic camera movements, an emotional music score, and so forth. Also, it seems the film may sometimes be divisive in the real sense that one either sees the film or they don?t. By that I mean, a seemingly insignificant but pure moment can either seem pure or insignificant, but not really both. That may be a challenging concept, but it is not complicated ? it is really only a question of seeing, or not, what for us is the poetry of the film.
When you started making this film did you think about how you would define success for this project, and, if so, what did you have in mind?
We hoped for modest critical acclaim, and to reach our target audience successfully enough so that the film would generate a superior risk-adjusted return.
Who is your audience?
To focus on the US, we are targeting solid performance with the specialty film audience, and have also done our best to create a quality film that will speak directly to the audience of over 30 million Mexican-Americans in the US (and the 50 million Spanish speakers here more generally). The US Hispanic audience is a very strong film going audience that we believe has been underserved in various ways. Texas and the Southwest are crucial markets for the film, as much of our target audience resides there.
In your opinion, what are the marketing strengths of your film?
We think we have a compelling story that will hopefully resonate close to home for our audience. Additionally, we?ve been fortunate to have won some top awards this year, which can help get people to take a look at the film.
What sorts of marketing/publicity would you like to do that you haven?t yet, and what is preventing you from doing so?
As we open the film in local markets, we want to focus on publicity with important local Spanish-language media, especially radio and local print publications. We see grassroots marketing as a very important focus, and we wish we had all the time in the world to try to build as big a groundswell as we can. But, the film is also not yet available widely, so it?s important to push on this when there is actually a possibility of the audience seeing the film relatively soon in a convenient way.
What do you think is the most effective way to deliver your film to your audience? Why?
We believe some theatrical play is very important, for generating reviews to drive commentary and elevate the film above the fray, and for activating local target communities around the film to slowly build word of mouth. Programming on certain Spanish-language television stations is likely very important for ultimately reaching a majority of our target audience. Of course, the other media all play an important role as well.
Can you imagine a point at which you will be ?finished? working with this project and ready to devote full attention to the next? If so, at what point will this be?
Not really. We are ourselves directly managing all rights to the film throughout North, Central, and South America, and directly distributing the film in the US. Most likely, we will be directly managing some of the film?s rights for a long time, and doing this simultaneously with our other projects.
What are your long-term career goals?
Mainly, I want to grow our company organically to consistently work on films like this that we believe are visionary and innovative, to remain globally oriented, and to eventually reach a scale to where we are producing and distributing 5 films a year or more, and consistently delivering solid returns.
While Tim Hobbs wears many hats at Torch Films, he underlines the importance of Marketing and Distribution in the independent film world. Jon Reiss recently posted a great article on his blog called the Top 10 Things Learned in the IFP PMD Lab, which outlines the emerging necessity for a focused crewmember known as the PMD or Producer of Marketing and Distribution.
AQUI Y ALLA, which made Indiewire?s Top 5 Latino Films of 2012, recently wrapped its theatrical run in New York, and the film will screen at Palm Springs International Film Festival this week. You can watch the Official U.S. Theatrical Trailer below:
Source: http://lonestarfilmsociety.com/qa-with-aqui-y-alla-producer-tim-hobbs/
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