I feel so proud to see filmmakers like Iñárritu, Del Toro and Cuarón making compelling work in Hollywood. However, there’s still a lot of untapped talent and I wish the inclusion was just beyond a few names: Pérez Garcia
By Edgar Lopez
Los Angeles, CA – At the age of eight, Salvador Pérez García, an emerging and talented film editor from Guadalajara, Mexico, had a best friend—his father’s video camera. Despite being an introvert and shy kid, Salvador was curious and eager to learn to capture the real essence of his surroundings. Through the lens of his father’s camera, Pérez finally found a way to express himself . At that time Salvador’s favorite cast were friends and family, and the movie set was his home. Now, Salvador’s editing skills will be on display at the Tribeca Film Festival in the short film The Duke: Based on The Memoir “I’m The Duke”: By J.P. Duke.
Pérez García is a film editor with experience in narrative fiction, documentary and web content. He got his B.A in Audiovisual Arts at the University of Guadalajara, where he worked on several short films including Alpha and Chabela Querida, starring Mexican actress Patricia Reyes Spíndola. He also directed and edited a documentary about the making of Escuadrón 2011, an animated miniseries for the 2011 Pan American Games. During his years in college he directed and edited a short documentary titled La Huerta (The Orchard).
Pérez earned his MFA with a specialization in film editing from the American Film Institute where he received the prestigious Tom Yoda scholarship for his academic achievement.
The Duke: Based on The Memoir “I’m The Duke”: By J.P. Duke, was his thesis project at AFI. It had its world premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2016 and has also been selected in several other festivals including Cannes, at the Short Film Corner 2016; Vail Film Festival 2016; and most recently the Tribeca Film Festival Shorts Program, in New York.
Tribeca received more than 3,553 submissions from 23 different countries, but only 72 short films were selected, 45 of which are world premieres; 53 are in competition. The 15th edition of TFF will take place from April 13th to April 24th in New York City.
The Duke is a story about a football player who is struggling to adjust to life off the field after suffering concussions. It was produced by Dan Leonard; directed by Max Barbakow and edited by Salvador Pérez García.
The cast includes LaMonica Garrett (Sons of Anarchy), Catherine Urbanek (And Then What Happened), Amy Goddard (Another Day With You), Alejandro Patiño (A Border Story), Jeff Marlow (The Remnant), Zoe Worth (Shut up and Drive), Darren Bailey and Leslie Thurston.
Tribeca is considered one of the most important film festivals in the U.S and it is also a great opportunity for filmmakers to showcase their work with wider audiences.
Production team: (LR) Dan Leonard, Andy Siara, Max Barbakow, Nicholas Bupp, Derek J. Pastuszek, Salvador Perez and Kelly Fallon
LATIN HEAT: What does it mean for Salvador Pérez to be part of a project selected by the Tribeca Film Festival?
SALVADOR PEREZ: Tribeca is one of the most important film festivals in America, so it’s a big chance for the team and I to share this very topical story and become part of the conversation about CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy). It’s also a great platform to showcase our work with a wider audience and to connect with other filmmakers.
LH: Tell us a little bit about the editing process of The Duke.
SP: It was my second collaboration with director Max Barbakow, and it was a pleasure to build on that creative friendship with him. We were working with a non-linear narrative and a tone that goes from comedic to dramatic, with many surreal elements along the way, so that required a lot of hard work to get right. We wanted to really get inside the mind of our football player protagonist, who is facing the results of repeated head trauma while also dealing with his wife’s pregnancy and his own wishes to get back in the game, and that gave us a lot of room while editing to explore with different cutting patterns, pacing and sound design to help convey his state of mind. It was challenging, but also very fun and rewarding.
LH: When did you decide to come to the U.S and study your master’s degree at the AFI?
SP: It was some time at the end of 2012. I decided that I needed to take a turn in my career. I had a stable job where I was shooting and editing things, and it was a great learning experience in many respects, but it wasn’t narrative storytelling, which is what I really wanted to be doing. I needed the space to truly be able to pursue my goals beyond the opportunities that I had had up to that point. AFI?s unique emphasis on storytelling was exactly what I was looking for. I got to work on over a dozen shorts during my time there, had incredible and inspiring mentors and teachers and met a lot of very talented and driven people, all of which was a blessing.
LH: What are your short and long term career goals?
SP: I’m working on several things at the moment, so I would say my current short-term goal is to get those completed and just keep taking on more. I want to always be learning and developing as a filmmaker and hopefully that means that as I do, and on the longer-term, the scope of my work will grow. I would love to edit both film and TV and to continue to find directors whose sensibilities align with mine in order to build long-lasting creative bonds and make stronger projects as a result. Editors who come to mind as inspirations for my career path are Jonathan Alberts, Adam Penn, Affonso Goncalves (all AFI-grads) and Tom McArdle to name a few.
LH: What do you think about the inclusion of Latino filmmakers in Hollywood?
SP: It obviously makes me really happy and proud to see filmmakers like Iñárritu, Del Toro (who’s also from Guadalajara) and Cuarón gaining such notoriety and making such compelling work in Hollywood, but I’m also aware that they’re sort of the exception. There’s still a lot of untapped talent and I wish the inclusion were beyond a few names.
Editor Salvador Perez Garcia, director Max Barbakow and producer Dan Leonard
LH: New projects?
SP: Yes! I’m currently editing my first feature film, with director Karen Moncrieff (The Dead Girl, Blue Car). I can’t go into too many details yet, but it’s a very interesting project that was shot simultaneously in Los Angeles and London and has a very unique filmmaking approach, which has made the process very challenging but also very creatively fulfilling. I’m very excited about it! In addition to other freelance work, I teamed up again with director Corey Aumiller for a fun new short called Meat Beaters that should be coming out later in the year.
Apart from The Duke, I have two short films in the festival circuit now: Grill Dog (directed by Corey Aumiller), about two American kids who sneak out of their hotel in Mexico and end up stealing someone’s dog as part of their adventure and Solitary (directed by Derek J. Pastuszek), about a man who endures long term isolation on a solitary confinement unit.
LH: What is your opinion about the film industry in Mexico? Do you think the Mexican government supports emerging and talented filmmakers like you?
SP:I think support from the government varies, as there are initiatives state and country-wide, but I personally find that whatever support there is tends to go to people who have already achieved some degree of success. I’m not necessarily saying they don’t deserve that support, but I wish it were also open to artists in earlier stages of their career. There are a lot of people that have managed to navigate that and make excellent films with unique points of view, like Fernando Eimbcke, Ernesto Contreras and (most recently) Alonso Ruiz Palacios, all of whom I find incredibly inspiring. Most Mexican filmmakers who find wider success end up coming to the U.S to make more movies for a reason. And, it’s sad because it’s certainly not for lack of talent that projects struggle to move forward back home.
For more information on the screening of The Duke: Based on The Memoir “I’m The Duke”: By J.P. Duke the show time of the short film, please CLICK HERE.
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