richard glatzer Tagged Articles at Cinematical

American independent cinema frequently introduces us to customs and traditions we might not see otherwise. Films about unfamiliar wedding ceremonies, ethnic neighborhoods and religious ceremonies are given exposure year after year, thanks mostly to audiences who want to see something new or different. Sure, the films may often be the result of minority filmmakers representing their backgrounds for all to see, but it is the common moviegoers who curiously accept and enable these cultural showcases.

Now we have Quinceañera, which skips the representative filmmaker and fittingly shows us a community from a detached perspective -- our perspective, and the filmmakers'. Written and directed by two white guys (Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland), the film looks at the coming of age of a young Mexican-American girl, and of her L.A. neighborhood, Echo Park, from clearly an outsider's point of view.

The sun went down on Sundance without festival audience fave and jury winner Quinceañera finding distribution, but it didn't take long for the film to get picked up in the opening days of the European Film Market at the Berlinale. According to indieWIRE, Celluloid Dreams, which last year handled 40 Shades of Blue and Miranda July's Me and You and Everyone We Know, acquired Quinceañera for an undisclosed sum.

Cinematical reviewed Quinceañera during Sundance, and also interviewed directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland.

UPDATE: Cinematical just heard from director Wash Westmoreland, who confirmed that Celluloid Dreams are handling foreign sales for Quinceañera and are "knocking out territories left and right". American rights for the film, says Westmoreland, are "still up in the air, but we have some great possibilities".

Our friends over at Indiewire conducted their first ever poll of critics and journalists at Sundance, and found that the group of 50 critics they interviewed (which, we must point out, did not include anyone from Cinematical - should we be offended?) voted overwhelmingly for Ryan Fleck's Half Nelson as their fave dramatic film. Indiewire's story doesn't specify the scientific validity of their polling method, or how it was conducted. Was it a poll conducted by impartial, official pollsters? Or was it more the type of poll where you ask everyone you meet over many drinks at a Sundance party which film they liked the best, and then trust your half-fogged memory to keep accurate track of the results?

At any rate, according to their results, the runner-up, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland's Quinceañera, which won both the Sundance jury and audience prizes, and the other runner up, Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep, each received less than half the votes Indiewire  tallied for Half Nelson. The results Indiewire posted don't give us hard numbers, but if we remember our grade school math correctly, we can estimate that Half Nelson probably received somewhere around 25 votes, with Quinceañera and The Science of Sleep splitting the rest.

It wasn't all just snow and screenings at Sundance for the Cinematical; every chance we had, we were snapping pics as well. Here's a round-up of the best of our Sundance pics (more photos past the jump).

Everyone at Sundance had one thing in common - well, besides funny-looking-but-warm hats, big sunglasses, lip balm and a love of movies - cameras! Cinematical scoured the web hunting high and low for the best Sundance photos we could find, to capture the spirit, ambiance and fun of Park City and the Sundance Film Festival all in one place. It's the next best thing to being there. More photos after the jump...

Quinceanera, a feature film in the Dramatic Competition about a young Hispanic girl rejected by her family when she gets pregnant, is getting great audience response and a lot of buzz at the Sundance Film Festival. Cinematical sat down with the film's directors, Richard Glazter and Wash Westmoreland, to talk about their film.

Cinematical: You must have been thrilled to have Quinceanera accepted into Sundance. Did you anticipate how positive response would be to your film?

Wash: Well, of course you have fantasies about how your film will do; Richard and I both had our individual fantasies, but we didn't really talk about them openly - we didn't want to jinx it.

Richard: Until it's up in front of the audience, you just don't know how it's going to play.

Cinematical: How did you happen to work together on this film?

Wash: We're partners - outside of filmmaking, I mean - and we've also worked collaboratively a lot. It works well because sometimes you roll out of bed at 7AM and have a great idea, and you can start working immediately.

(more after the jump)

Fourteen-year-old Magdalena (newcomer Emily Rios) is a typical teenager: hanging out with her friends, having her first romance with a boy, doing her homework, and dreaming about her future. She wants nothing more in life than to ride in a Hummer Limo to her Quiñceanera - a traditional party celebrating a girl's fifteenth birthday. A Quiñceanera is a milestone in a young girl's life, a celebration of the successful transition from childhood to womanhood, and a ritual that ties young girls to their spirituality, to remind them to follow God and stay pure. At the film's outset, Magdalena is at her cousin Eileen's Quinceanera. Eileen's parents have a lot more money than Magdalena's, and Eileen's Quiñceanera is a fancy one. Everyone is having a great time, until Eileen's brother Carlos (Jesse Garcia) shows up and is punched in the face and kicked out by his father.

Magdalena's mother later tells her that her sister, Eileen's mother, has offered to let Magdalena use her cousin's ball dress for her own upcoming Quiñceanera. Magdalena is disappointed not to be getting a new dress, but she asks her mother if she can ride to her party in a Hummer limo instead. Magdalena's mother tells her that her father will not agree to it; he is a preacher and wants to keep the focus of his daughter's Quiñceneara on the spiritual aspect of the occasion. Magdalena begs her mother to ask her father anyhow, and her mother, who wants her daughter's day to be a special occasion, agrees to approach him about it.

Magdalena and her boyfriend Herman have been "messing around" but haven't consummated their relationship, so Magdalena is shocked to discover she is pregnant. When her conservative preacher father learns about the pregnancy, he reacts by kicking her out of the house. Magdalena goes to live with her great-uncle Tomas (Chalo Gonzalez) and cousin Carlos, who was kicked out of his house when his father discovered he had been surfing gay porn sites.