From Avenues to Rockabilly Committed to Exploring the Humanity of Every Character
By Bel Hernandez
He grew up in Sacramento spending his summers in his parents’ movie memorabilia gift shop, watching Power Rangers and his favorite all-time film Lawrence of Arabia. Now an award-winning, MFA USC film graduate and producer of the Lionsgate release Fugitive Hunter, Aaref Rodriguez’s latest award-winning film Avenues is doing the film festival circuit while he is currently shooting his next script Rockabilly in the streets of East L.A.
Following in the steps of indie film’s “Rebel Without a Crew” Robert Rodriguez, and “lacking all the resource,” as Aaref put it, he donned many hats while making his directorial feature film debut with Avenues a film he wrote, directed, DP’d, edited and yes even played “guitarron” in some of the music cuts. With money in short order he told us, “We shot this film over eight weekends with a dedicated, yet small, crew. In addition, I decided to lens the film myself because I wanted to own each and every frame that ended up on screen.” Spoken like a true Rodriguez.
Aaref’s love of film began at age 14 when he and his friends would shoot on super 8, it’s where he began honing his editing skills. He was hooked and he planned his future accordingly.
He attended USC, first as a theater major then as a film major on a full scholarship. His ultimate plan was to attend NYU graduate school. But life happens and while still at USC he and a fellow student produced the feature Fugitive Hunter which was picked up for distribution by Lionsgate. This led to an internship at Screen Gems’ marketing department and upon graduating from USC, ended up a full fledged job in acquisitions at Columbia Pictures. Aaref’ was set and making great money when he realized “I want to make fims not be an executive, so I left. I wasn’t used to getting a big paycheck, so I didn’t mind being poor again,” he jokes.
Aaref quit his job at Columbia Pictures, applied for his teaching credentials at LAUSD and began teaching at Manual Arts High. He was now ready for graduate school and applied to the NYU Graduate Film Program as well as USC as a back up. Accepted to both, the offer from USC School of Cinematic Arts of a highly selective, fully funded, Annenberg Fellowship Award was just too good to pass up.
It was at USC that Avenues was developed, the assignment — make a short film from a poem without dialogue. The short, Pardon which was shot for $400 is about an ex-gang banger who has done is time in prison and is now out trying to lead a better life and reunite with his little girl who he is legally banned to contact. Encouraged by one of his mentors Patricia Cardoso (Real Women Have Curves), Aaref proceeded to develop the script into a feature which would be produce by his wife Kristin Cox Rodriguez under his Bad Man’s Son Productions banner.
“I really wanted to come out of school with a feature — one that could really serve as my calling card and speak about who I am as a filmmaker,” Aaref reveals. Avenues is just that, and award-winning to boot. Among the awards is the HBO U.S. Latino Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 21st Annual San Diego Latino Film Festival. A film about an ex-gang member, Avenues takes a different look at the gang life, or rather trying to leave the gang life. It’s told as a lyrical cautionary tale that calls for a change from within the Latino community; it’s a film of cycles, secrets and taboos. “Avenues is a film that’s very personal for me and I hope it communicates my voice as a storyteller,” Aaref texplains. Aaref lived in the L.A. area of Highland Park and home to the real life gang known as the Avenues, he wanted to write about what he saw in his community.
While Avenues is being shopped around for a distributor, Aaref is already shooting his next film Rockabilly about a music movement he has been a part of for several years — the world of the Latino Rockabilly artist.
Living in L.A. Aaref discovered the rockabilly scene of the east side of L.A., mostly comprised of young Latino/a performers who write and perform 50’s rock ‘n’ roll music in full 50’s garb, performing for their avid fans of Latinos and non-Latinos. As he got close to the scene he met Reb Kennedy who heads the indie record label Wild Records where many of these artist are signed. While in the U.S. these artists are virtually unknown, in Europe they are superstars, much like phenomena of Sixto Rodriguez, the subject of the Oscar nominated Sugar Man documentary. Kennedy and his artists are also the subject of an award-winning documentary called Los Wild Ones produced by producer/actress/comedienne Jessica Golden (The Adam Carolla Show). Currently Wild Records has a stable of 20+ of the world’s hottest rockin’ acts one of which Aaref recently directed a music video for, The Rhythm Shakers’ Broke His Heart .
Aareff has partnered with Kennedy to produce Rockabilly, which will ensure he has the pick of the best of the musical talent for the film which is set in the modern Rockabilly L.A. scene. The film follows a group of musicians, singers and roadies on concert. A unique modern story that as Aaref says “It’s a Latino film because there are tons of Latinos in it.” It’s the kind of personal film Aaref is intent on building his filmmaking career on. He is represented by Olmos Kontakto Entertainment www.olmoskontakto.com.
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