Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Tío Louie Reporta: Countdown to Cannes– 7 DAYS OF 7 NY LATINOS AT CANNES 2015 (Part 6)

HOLA is proud to present Tío Louie Reporta, where filmmaker and Executive Producer of Prime Latino Media, Louis Perego Moreno (also known as Tío Louie) interviews actors and multimedia-makers in the business.

Something is abuzz. With internationally acclaimed Latinos winning Academy Awards for Best Director two consecutive years, PRIME LATINO MEDIA is proud to announce that seven talented and accomplished Latino multimedia-makers and actors from the familia are climbing up the career ladder in a short film at the Cannes Film Festival from May 13-24, 2015. Acceptance into the Festival de Cannes with their film will benefit from a prime viewing position within the Short Film Corner. U.S. Latinos are taking the world over by storm in media and entertainment and our New Yorkers are part of the revolution.




Countdown: Day 6 of 7
ADEL L. MORALES: P.S. 432

From the Bronx to the Cannes Film Festival– now that’s a natural trajectory. As a Producer, Adel leaves an indelible fingerprint on a film crossing the Atlantic. And the pearls of wisdom he offers artists reverberate around the globe when he affirms, “Starting and finishing something matters,” as well as, “selflessness is important and bringing others along is what will make a difference.
        
Short film: P.S. 432
Producer:  Adel L. Morales (a Nuyorican from the Bronx)
Director:  Elizabeth Nichols
Synopsis: A New York City public school teacher, confronted with the reality of an exam-based system, is compromised to consider whether or not to cheat on the state test exams.

        Buddy, you are on a roll. You just had a short film that you wrote and directed while at NYU screen in April at the Havana Film Festival in New York. Tell me about the lead actress you cast and the nature of the film? Yes, Missing Grandma starred Sonia Manzano, a Bronx-born Nuyorican, and best known for playing María on [PBS'] "Sesame Street" since 1971. She plays a Latina grandmother who teaches her granddaughter to act like a lady and about sex with the hope of making up for the knowledge she lacked impart on her own daughter. The grandmother’s objective was to prevent a mistake that she and her own daughter shared.
Sonia Manzano of the film
Missing Grandma.
      Many of your shorts entail a moral dilemma reinforcing that life is not often black and white. Why are you drawn to this thread of storytelling? Having been educated in Catholic schools all my life coupled with my Caribbean roots, there’s always been this duality of the Roman Catholic religion and exposure to Santería and the spirit world through the women on my mother’s side. This taught me that there is no right or wrong in life. In the Catholic religion the priest would tell you what’s right or wrong– black and white– and then I went home and learned that there was no right or wrong. Plus, living under conflicting dualities when in spite of being an honor student who went to church, judged by being from the South Bronx because of what you wore or music you listened to, you were subject to an establishment’s view that I knew wasn’t black or white. Right or wrong is not fun.
•      You are someone who has always been committed to community, having been the President of NALIP-NY [the New York chapter of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers], helping Latino filmmakers, and now you have produced NYU’s Pre-Thesis Graduate Film Showcase which was comprised of 40 films. What is the message and why do you continue to do this with everything on your plate? What I did at the NYU Showcase ranged from securing the public venue, screening the projects to fundraising. I helped many of the filmmakers in the area of casting for their narrative projects. I’m a teacher and a coach. I’m an older brother and a first-born child and those variables have shaped who I am. I cannot go into a situation and not help. It gives me joy to help. I’m a big believer in karma and if I can help, only good will come out of it. I have seen blessings come from it. It’s selflessness in wanting to help– I enjoy it.
      As a narrative filmmaker what are your $0.10 [your opinion, or your "two cents", adjusted for inflation] for working with actors as a producer or director? I’m a SAG-AFTRA actor first. The director-actor relationship is very important. I am very aware of actors. You need to make them feel very important when they’re on set. Before rehearsals I sit down with them and have a meal. I try to develop a relationship so that there is a trust level before we step on set. Furthermore I give them the freedom to explore and experiment– it tightens the bond.


Louis E. Perego Moreno (Tío Louie) is President of Skyline Features, he is an interactive content producer and educator who for the past 33 years has owned a bilingual (English- and Spanish-language) multimedia and educational production company developing documentaries, television programming and advertising commercials featuring Latinos, Blacks, Women, Urban Youth and LGBT people. He is also the Executive Producer of Prime Latino Media, the largest network of Latino multimedia-makers and actors in the metropolitan New York area that gather once a month to interview proven leaders in the community.


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