Latino Hispanic Culture, Art and Film at Bullfighter’s Cafe

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Since meeting Kristy Guevara-Flanagan at NALIP, we have been interested in featuring her documentary, “Going on 13″. Last week the film won Best Documentary at the Boyle Heights Latina Film Festival. Fortunately for us, we were able to get both Kristy and Dawn Valadez to give us their personal perspective on the film and their life as young women.
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BFC: Your documentary is about 13 years girls, what are you memories from that age?

KRISTY
I grew up in Silver Lake, Echo Park and Los Feliz. My mom was a high-school teacher and taught Drama and English. She was very creative but often frustrated with what she had to work with (the limitations of being a high-school teacher and not a Broadway director). She instilled in me a deep love of reading and an expansive appreciation for art and it makes me proud that I can today live the artist’s life that she couldn’t as a working, single mom. She was also the kind of teacher who changed her students’ lives by her unbridled passion. My step-dad (when she remarried) worked in television and was, subsequently, frequently unemployed. I remember waiting every Friday in line with him at the unemployment office down on Sunset which seemed to take forever. I definitely knew about the vagaries of the industry from a very young age.

At 13, I was curious about everything. I read insatiably. And I was ready to discover things for myself. I remember really needing to distance myself from my parents. And I remember them really not understanding what was (to them so suddenly) going on. I used to lie to them, just for the freedom of the lie. Growing up in an urban metropolis like Los Angeles meant I had access to just about anything, both a scary and awesome circumstance for a curious, adolescent girl to find herself in. I took the bus everywhere, traveling from the zoo to the beach to the garment district and then to the mall, loving every minute of it and discovering my Los Angeles.

DAWN
My early adolescence was really difficult. My parents separated when I was 12 and I was both happy and sad to see my father move out. I was going to local public school and I remember my first dance. I was both horrified and excited to attend it. It was at an old club (like the Lyon’s Club) on Vermont across from Barnsdall Square in Hollywood (later I went to see punk shows there); I don’t think it exists anymore. I remember dancing to “brick house” and having a lot of boys both laugh at me and want to dance with me. It was freaky in that LA teen kind of way. I begged my parents to send me to a catholic girls school for middle school because I had seen some cholas fighting at the middle school I was supposed to go to (King Jr. High)…once I got to the catholic school I hated it and by Jan I was at King…By March a boy who liked me that felt spurned by me wrote a petition to get all of my friends to not talk with me. 20 people signed it. I kept it until I was 25 then burned it. Suffice to say the time between 11-13 was really challenging–but as they say whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I am still alive!

I grew up in LA–between Hollywood, Los Feliz and Silverlake…one of my best friends lived in Echo Park. I spent a lot of time there. I lived in a one bedroom apt on Vermont and Franklin with my mom, dad(until 12), brother, and various aunts, uncles, cousins and other family members from Mexico. There were always tons of people sleeping over! Fun and crazy and crowded!

Neither of my parents made it past 8th grade. My mom and her family were migrant farm-workers and settled in Delano. My mom made it to LA to get her GED and a better job. She met my dad in night school. My dad was the youngest of 19 in and Irish family from Chicago. He came to LA after serving in the Marines in Korea. After getting his GED my dad was a printer at the Director’s Guild on Sunset Blvd. Being able to go to Disneyland with film producers and directors as a young child must have had an impact on me…they used to close the park for the families of the Director’s Guild. It was very exciting! I know I must have ridden on the rides with the kids of the great film directors of the late 60’s and 70’s but as a kid I just wanted to have fun and had no idea who was with me, and didn’t care. I am sure there are pictures somewhere…(the only one I remember is with Glen Campbell at a christmas party in 1971). The culture was a blend of Mexican, white, Californian and LA/Hollywood! My parents had friends of many races/ ethnicities. It was a very mixed environment.

My parents both encouraged me to be creative. My mom read to me every night, especially poetry, and she sang. I was into theater and music immediately and performed from elementary school through college. I used to take pictures and took a number of photography and animation classes at Barnsdall Park and at City College when I was older and then at UCSC and UCB in both undergrad and grad school–
that’s how Kristy and I met. I made super 8 films with my friends and my dad. My mom took me to museums, the opera, theater, and symphony. We were always doing something creative or experiencing something new. I have no idea where my mom got these ideas from, she never really experienced any of this growing up in the fields.

BFC: You mentioned on your web site that you picked up a Super-8 camera. What was so magical about the camera that kept you in filmmaking?

KRISTY
In a funny way, it was more about my filmmaking teacher then the tools itself that changed my life. He was the first adult to listen to me and talk to me as an equal. He encouraged all of my ideas no matter how corny or goofy and merely helped me realize that vision. What an amazing experience! Of course, as a curious kid by nature, I loved the excuse of wondering around, observing the world and recording what I saw. I loved that taking pictures was a discovery of a moment. I couldn’t draw or play an instrument, but in taking pictures I didn’t have to start from a blank canvas which seemed so intimidating.

BFC: Directing documentaries can be a challenging endeavor. What do you find most challenging or does every project offer unique challenges? On the other end, what do you find most rewarding after finishing a film project?

KRISTY
Certainly every film has its unique challenges and documentaries can be especially unwieldy. I think the hardest part is always the editing, because it could go in so many different directions. You spend a lot of time in our case years collecting footage. You have an idea in mind, of course, but it takes a lot of time, patience and discipline to carve from that footage a provocative and meaningful film. And with documentaries there is so little money to be made, you can never support yourself just making the films. So it becomes a juggling act with how you pay the rent and how you will make your film and you end up wearing a lot of different hats: fundraising, writing, accounting, producing, directing, shooting, editing, not to mention promotion and distribution.

AND the biggest reward comes so late in the game: sharing with your audiences. It takes many months and most often years before that point comes, so it can be frustrating to keep going when you feel like the end is so far away. But then it does come and it is wonderful to have people from all different walks of life respond to the movie. It is an amazing experience to see the film that you have been working on for so long play on an enormous screen or broadcast on television to millions of viewers and then you really do realize the film has a life of its own. And that you have contributed something special.

DAWN
Every project has it’s own challenges. I think all films are collaborative efforts and collaborations are tough! It is difficult to work with other people when everyone has their own agenda. I think partnerships are perhaps the most difficult and the most rewarding. One the one hand we need each other to complete something as ambitious as this on the other hand we have different ways of looking at things, different personal challenges and different ways of tackling challenges and problems. Without respecting each other’s differences and making room for these differences (not everyone can do it MY way) we can fall into problems, conflicts and misunderstandings. At the end of the day we do have to ask ourselves, did the means justify the ends? In creative endeavors that are truly collaborative this question has to get asked repeatedly.

For me personally being a mom and working at really challenging social service/ non-profit jobs while making this film was excruciating. Balancing personal life with work, children and making the film was really a lot to manage. Unfortunately my personal relationships really suffered.

However, having GOING ON 13 land in the hands of the people that need it the most–girls, their families, teachers, youth workers–is very satisfying! The film has a home and a purpose and will give help to girls for years to come. This is the most rewarding aspect of the completed film, plus it is beautiful and we can all be proud of it.

BFC: We noticed you won a Golden Spirit Award for your documentary on Cecilia Rios. What drew you to this story?

KRISTY
I actually was a middle school teacher in Richmond, when Cecilia Rios, a young high-school Latina was killed, so the story felt very close and personal to me even though I hadn’t known her. A year later I went to get my MFA at San Francisco State University in film and the idea came from one of my first assignments: to observe a place and record it. I went to the site of her memorial which was in the stairwell (in an elementary school) where her body had been found. It was a year later and there were all these letters, cards, and grafitti from the community to her. I was really impressed by all the messages from her peers and from the younger students and I decided to interview them about her death and about the impact her death had on them. That was really when the idea for the film came together and I decided to juxtapose their responses to the more disaffected reporting of the murder from the nightly news.

BFC: What type of films or stories do you find interesting? Do you look for stories with females as the main subjects? If so why?

KRISTY
I AM drawn to gender issues as the main subject of my films. I see so many one-dimensional portraits of women on screen and it can be very frustrating. As a viewer, as a teacher, as a filmmaker. And I like to make different kinds of films that explore ideas of gender from a variety of lenses: from straight forward cinema verité-style documentary like GOING ON 13, to more abstract thought-provoking pieces like my short BLOW THEM UP. As a film teacher I am consistently discouraged by how many student film treatments involve a woman getting assaulted, raped or murdered. It’s a high number every semester and its something that I don’t fully understand. But women on screen are more often than not the foil to a male character’s journey of exploration and development. For that reason alone, I prefer to put women center stage. For women of color, the breadth of stories is that much more narrow!

DAWN
I am interested in women’s stories. I think that the vast majority of films, fiction and non-fiction, are about men and men’s experiences. I think that there are so many stories to be told about women and girls and especially women of color. I am interested in the stories of everyday people–I think the ordinary is extraordinary when framed from a historical, political and social perspective. Stories about people overcoming obstacles by just being themselves and brave inspire me.

BFC: “Going on 13″, is a story about four girls you follow four years, without giving away too many surprises, what surprised you most in filming the girls?

KRISTY
I thought the film would be able to cover more of the specificity of puberty. But no one wanted to talk about getting their period! What was I thinking?! What did come through over the years in which we shot was a very intimate portrait of how each girl comes into her own self and discovers her independence, her power and and her self-worth. Each girl discovers that in a very real and subtle way after many challenges put in front of her. For for each girl that process and the challenges were very different depending on her personality or her familial circumstance or just timing! But its all there in the film. They are resilient and powerful and vulnerable and growing every step of the way!

DAWN
For me the biggest surprises now don’t seen that surprising! I think the girls are fully engaged in their own development–they are active participants, not blank slates waiting for adults to fill them up. They are living dynamic lives regardless of the circumstances of their home, income, race or ethnicity or gender. They want to grow up to be healthy, strong, contributing members of society. They want to do the right thing–from their cultural and social perspective. Their parents influence them but they spend so much time in school their teachers, classes, school environment and friends have a huge influence on them as well. We ALL need to interact with girls and youth in general to support them in their efforts to grow up strong, healthy and whole.

BFC: Would you say the girl’s culture influenced their daily lives? What do you think people take away (learn) from seeing the documentary?

KRISTY
There are many styles of parenting shown in the film and in every case, the family cares deeply about their daughter and wants to give her the best opportunities. I love seeing that diversity and audiences really respond to that, too. People who work with girls also love seeing the family life in such close-up detail. They may see one face of the girl at school, but there exists a totally different daughter at home. This film is really able to show that in a way that more fully represents the girl herself and the family.

DAWN
ABSOLUTELY[culture is an influence]! I think the film clearly shows that and hopefully gives viewers from all cultures and backgrounds insight into that truth!

That girls need YOU to keep talking with them, to listen to them, to be in community with them. Our actions in our society whether that is as a parent, teacher, media maker, politician has an impact on girls lives. Yes, they are resilient but they also need us to provide them with decent fully staffed schools, health care that works, respect for cultural and gender differences, etc…

BFC: Do you have any new projects in the works?

KRISTY
I am currently in production on the feature documentary, THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE AS TOLD BY WONDER WOMAN, and as you may expect it is about female superheroes! The film is really an inquiry into the very American concept of superheroes, and the role women have played in the superhero genre. The film not only looks at our evolving values about women as agents of strength, authority and leadership, but also reminds us of the need, no matter our gender, race, class or sexual orientation, for stories that tell us we can all be heroes.

DAWN
I am working on two projects that are collaborations. I am associate producer on a film by Hima B (Straight for the Money) that is a workers rights film about strippers called Licensed to Pimp (2011).
The other one, Library Girl, I am Producer/ Director with Robert Arnold (Key of G), featuring Penelope Houston of the famed punk rock band of the late 70’s, the Avengers (she’s a librarian!). The focus is on the patriot act, and the fate of our right to privacy and access of information via our libraries (due 2012).

Visit this web site for more information or to purchase the DVD. www.goingon13.com

PM11/09