[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Andrés Taboada, Filmmaker: I feel terrible. I mean at that point I think you’re running more of a scam than a business really. You’re promising people something that you’re not delivering…
Film Courage: When did you start submitting Alta California to film festivals?
Andrés: We finished the movie. It was officially done in November 2022. That’s when I started submitting, right away.
Film Courage: How many have you submitted to since then?
Andrés: A total of…let’s see 24 festival rejections plus four festivals we got into…so 29 to 30 festivals total. 30 festivals total.
Film Courage: How much money have you spent on festival submissions?
Andrés: It’s funny because the great thing about doing this is that when I do my taxes I put all the expenses there because you can get some break out of that. About $2,000 in total. That’s for just submission fees. Then there’s room and board and all that stuff. I spent way more during our festival run than I did making the movie.
Film Courage: How far did you travel with some of the festivals because you said you got into four or five?
Andrés: Yeah, four to five I think. Let’s see we got into the Smodcastle Film Festival, that’s in New Jersey, the Kevin Smith film festival. That’s our world premiere actually. Then we did the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Then they invited us to the Saint Augustine Film Festival and so we didn’t have to submit to that. Then we got into the Chandler Film Festival and then Dances With Films.
Film Courage: Chandler, Arizona?
Andrés: Chandler, Arizona.
Film Courage: For almost all of them you have traveled?
Andrés: Except for Dances With Films.
Film Courage: Are you paying for the cast and crew to go to or they’re on their own?
Andrés: I can’t, there’s just no way. I pay for myself but I told them…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
We all still do. I was like How much money can I invest in this movie and still be okay afterwards? That’s how the number $5,000 came to be and technically it was actually more like $4,500. $5,000 was like You can’t spend more than that. You spend more than that, you shut it down. That’s where it came from. It was a nice round number to go by.
Film Courage: Once you decided on that number, did you start doing allocations of this is how much I’m going to spend on this (craft services, locations for the actors)? …(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
About:
Andrés Taboada was born in Perú, where he stayed until a scholarship sent him off to finish high school in Germany. After receiving a B.S. in Biology from Cal State Long Beach and teaching in Southeast Asia, he moved back to Miami for a Master’s in International Education. While in grad school, he became a standup comedian. Andrés won the award for Best Comedic Actor at Miami WebFest and was a finalist at the World Series of Comedy. He then turned his focus towards Alta California, a bilingual dramedy, which he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in as “Perucho,” the hotel clerk. As the director of Alta California, Andrés won the award of Best Directorial Debut at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Alta California recently had a sold-out screening at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood, California as part of the 27th annual Dances With Films.
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