“About three years ago, a 20-year-old boy was murdered in Santiago because he was gay. He was tortured for hours: his legs broken, a swastika carved on his stomach using shattered bottles, a piece of his ear torn out. By coincidence, that young boy was a fan of my work as a musician and I knew who he was because we’d spoken a couple of times. I met his family and they urged me to continue “speaking on behalf of boys like him”, not usually represented in the media or even art: in short, a gay and poor kid.”
This is what motivated Alex Anwandter, a widely acclaimed Chilean musician to make “You’ll Never Be Alone”/ “Nunca vas a estar solo”. However, he adds,
“This story, however, shifts its focus onto the father of the boy. This is my way of saying: it was not one boy, it’s many boys and girls, and women and men. And the life we should examine more carefully is not the boys’, it’s the rest of us. We who allow this to repeat over and over.”
Born in Santiago, Chile in 1983 Alex’s career as a musician started in 2005 to immediate and widespread acclaim in Chile and South America. His first four albums were released to critical and commercial recognition and subsequent touring the U.S., Europe and Latin America, becoming one of Chile's most renowned artists.
Growing up as a big cinephile, Alex Anwandter took to directing music videos for his own projects and other artists in 2005.
Named by Time Magazine as an artist “poised for U.S. stardom”, his music
and videos have been featured everywhere from Billboard to Vice Magazine and MTV, with NPR celebrating his video for “Cómo puedes vivir contigo mismo?”, an homage to “Paris is Burning”, for its courageous message of equality and non-discrimination.
In 2012 Alex Anwandter started preparing a new phase in his career.
Moved by the murder of young Daniel Zamudio, a gay boy murdered in a hate-crime in Santiago and fan of his work, Anwandter wrote his first script “You’ll Never Be Alone”. The film won both Sanfic’s and FICGuadalajara Work in Progress sections in 2015. In 2016 at its World Premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama it won the Teddy Award’s Special Jury Prize and went on to win Ficg’s Premio Maguey, its top Lgbt Award.
In Guadalajara I caught up with the producer, Isabel Orellana Guarello of Araucaria Cine and asked her the following questions:
Sydney Levine: How did you finance “You’ll Never Be Alone”?
Isabel Orellana Guarello: We financed the shooting with private investment and sponsorship provided by the Recoleta Municipality of Santiago and the association with the film school of University of Development ( Escuela de Cine Udd) and Ortega Maniques.
After the shooting we obtained help from the Postproduction Fund supported by Council for the Arts & Culture of Chile (Cnca).There was also an important amount of investment provided by 5Am Producciones & Araucaria Cine, the companies that produced the film.
Sl: Did you participate in pre-markets, workshops, etc.?
Iog: The film participated in two competitions of work in progress, one in Sanfic October 2014, just 2 months after we wrapped the shooting, and which we won. And after that the film participated at Films in Progress at FICGuadalajara,where we won two prizes provided by Retina HD and Red Melissa.
Also the project participated at Sanfic Net and Industry Days of Locarno Film Festival both in 2014 and 2015 as part of the catalogue of projects of Araucaria Cine.
Sl: How did you choose your actors?
Iog: For the main character of Juan we directly contacted Sergio Hernandez, whom we loved from previous collaborations with Raul Ruiz and Sebastián Lelio.
It happened in the same way with other cast members such as Edgardo Bruna (the boss of Juan), Antonia Zegers (the doctor) Camila Hirane (the bank executive).
For the young cast we did an open call organized by Ivan Parra Reinoso, We searched in several acting schools and finally reached out to Andrew Bargsted (Pablo) and her real-life best friend Astrid Roldan (Mari). Both had an amazing chemistry between them.
In the open casting call we also found Jaime Leiva (Felix, Pablo's lover) and Benjamín Westfall (Martin, the leader of the Nazi gang).
All together, they created an amazing casting of which we're very proud.
Sl: How did the producers come on board, and particularly Daniel Dreifuss (my friend)?
Iog: I met Daniel Dreifuss at Sanfic Net in 2014. I pitched the project to him since I felt he could connect with this story and he definitely did. Then he finally came on board as Executive Producer of the film in 2015.
Sl: Does the film have Chilean distribution and if so what is the plan?
Iog: The film has already secured Chilean distribution and we're expecting soon to have the specific release dates. The film is gaining a lot of attention back in Chile and audiences are waiting for it after its success at the Berlinale and Guadalajara.
Does it have an international sales agent?
Iog: Yes, the international sales are handled by Wide Management, a French company. We actually met them at Films in Progress 2014!
Sl: How did you come to this project?
Iog: I came on board in February 2014, after meeting Alex through a common friend.
When I read the script - that he'd been working for 2 years already- I was profoundly moved by it. We started working right away. The shooting was in July 2014, so everything was pretty fast.
Sl: Does this depict Chile today?
Iog: Unfortunately yes. Just the same day we received the Teddy Jury Award at Berlinale, a Chilean transgender boy was shot and killed in San Bernardo, Santiago. His name was Marcelo Lepe.
These homophobic killings will continue to occur if there is not deeper reflection about our society and our actions. That's why we made “You'll Never Be Alone”.
Sl: Will this film go toward changing the situation?
Iog: We hope so. We still believe that cinema can make strong change of hearts and minds. So we're eager to show the film in Chile and also Latin America, and hopefully open some debates around the issues of homophobia and social injustice depicted in the film.
We also have a plan with the Municipality of Recoleta to show the film at high schools inside their Sexual Diversity Program, when we complete our commercial release.
It's very important to us that the film is discussed inside Chile and we're making all our best efforts for that to happen.
Sl: What are your current and next projects?
Iog: The director Alex Anwandter is currently releasing his new album "Amiga" in April. So new music videos and songs are coming up from him.
About me as producer, Araucaria Cine is currently producing a feature documentary with director Roberto Collio (“White Death”) and Rodrigo Robledo, named “Petit Frère” which will compete at Focus Chile in Visions du Reel 2016. Also I'm developing a feature doc with Maria Jesus Valenzuela, “Interna." Both projects were funded by the Council of the Arts & Culture and Corfo Chile.
This is what motivated Alex Anwandter, a widely acclaimed Chilean musician to make “You’ll Never Be Alone”/ “Nunca vas a estar solo”. However, he adds,
“This story, however, shifts its focus onto the father of the boy. This is my way of saying: it was not one boy, it’s many boys and girls, and women and men. And the life we should examine more carefully is not the boys’, it’s the rest of us. We who allow this to repeat over and over.”
Born in Santiago, Chile in 1983 Alex’s career as a musician started in 2005 to immediate and widespread acclaim in Chile and South America. His first four albums were released to critical and commercial recognition and subsequent touring the U.S., Europe and Latin America, becoming one of Chile's most renowned artists.
Growing up as a big cinephile, Alex Anwandter took to directing music videos for his own projects and other artists in 2005.
Named by Time Magazine as an artist “poised for U.S. stardom”, his music
and videos have been featured everywhere from Billboard to Vice Magazine and MTV, with NPR celebrating his video for “Cómo puedes vivir contigo mismo?”, an homage to “Paris is Burning”, for its courageous message of equality and non-discrimination.
In 2012 Alex Anwandter started preparing a new phase in his career.
Moved by the murder of young Daniel Zamudio, a gay boy murdered in a hate-crime in Santiago and fan of his work, Anwandter wrote his first script “You’ll Never Be Alone”. The film won both Sanfic’s and FICGuadalajara Work in Progress sections in 2015. In 2016 at its World Premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama it won the Teddy Award’s Special Jury Prize and went on to win Ficg’s Premio Maguey, its top Lgbt Award.
In Guadalajara I caught up with the producer, Isabel Orellana Guarello of Araucaria Cine and asked her the following questions:
Sydney Levine: How did you finance “You’ll Never Be Alone”?
Isabel Orellana Guarello: We financed the shooting with private investment and sponsorship provided by the Recoleta Municipality of Santiago and the association with the film school of University of Development ( Escuela de Cine Udd) and Ortega Maniques.
After the shooting we obtained help from the Postproduction Fund supported by Council for the Arts & Culture of Chile (Cnca).There was also an important amount of investment provided by 5Am Producciones & Araucaria Cine, the companies that produced the film.
Sl: Did you participate in pre-markets, workshops, etc.?
Iog: The film participated in two competitions of work in progress, one in Sanfic October 2014, just 2 months after we wrapped the shooting, and which we won. And after that the film participated at Films in Progress at FICGuadalajara,where we won two prizes provided by Retina HD and Red Melissa.
Also the project participated at Sanfic Net and Industry Days of Locarno Film Festival both in 2014 and 2015 as part of the catalogue of projects of Araucaria Cine.
Sl: How did you choose your actors?
Iog: For the main character of Juan we directly contacted Sergio Hernandez, whom we loved from previous collaborations with Raul Ruiz and Sebastián Lelio.
It happened in the same way with other cast members such as Edgardo Bruna (the boss of Juan), Antonia Zegers (the doctor) Camila Hirane (the bank executive).
For the young cast we did an open call organized by Ivan Parra Reinoso, We searched in several acting schools and finally reached out to Andrew Bargsted (Pablo) and her real-life best friend Astrid Roldan (Mari). Both had an amazing chemistry between them.
In the open casting call we also found Jaime Leiva (Felix, Pablo's lover) and Benjamín Westfall (Martin, the leader of the Nazi gang).
All together, they created an amazing casting of which we're very proud.
Sl: How did the producers come on board, and particularly Daniel Dreifuss (my friend)?
Iog: I met Daniel Dreifuss at Sanfic Net in 2014. I pitched the project to him since I felt he could connect with this story and he definitely did. Then he finally came on board as Executive Producer of the film in 2015.
Sl: Does the film have Chilean distribution and if so what is the plan?
Iog: The film has already secured Chilean distribution and we're expecting soon to have the specific release dates. The film is gaining a lot of attention back in Chile and audiences are waiting for it after its success at the Berlinale and Guadalajara.
Does it have an international sales agent?
Iog: Yes, the international sales are handled by Wide Management, a French company. We actually met them at Films in Progress 2014!
Sl: How did you come to this project?
Iog: I came on board in February 2014, after meeting Alex through a common friend.
When I read the script - that he'd been working for 2 years already- I was profoundly moved by it. We started working right away. The shooting was in July 2014, so everything was pretty fast.
Sl: Does this depict Chile today?
Iog: Unfortunately yes. Just the same day we received the Teddy Jury Award at Berlinale, a Chilean transgender boy was shot and killed in San Bernardo, Santiago. His name was Marcelo Lepe.
These homophobic killings will continue to occur if there is not deeper reflection about our society and our actions. That's why we made “You'll Never Be Alone”.
Sl: Will this film go toward changing the situation?
Iog: We hope so. We still believe that cinema can make strong change of hearts and minds. So we're eager to show the film in Chile and also Latin America, and hopefully open some debates around the issues of homophobia and social injustice depicted in the film.
We also have a plan with the Municipality of Recoleta to show the film at high schools inside their Sexual Diversity Program, when we complete our commercial release.
It's very important to us that the film is discussed inside Chile and we're making all our best efforts for that to happen.
Sl: What are your current and next projects?
Iog: The director Alex Anwandter is currently releasing his new album "Amiga" in April. So new music videos and songs are coming up from him.
About me as producer, Araucaria Cine is currently producing a feature documentary with director Roberto Collio (“White Death”) and Rodrigo Robledo, named “Petit Frère” which will compete at Focus Chile in Visions du Reel 2016. Also I'm developing a feature doc with Maria Jesus Valenzuela, “Interna." Both projects were funded by the Council of the Arts & Culture and Corfo Chile.
- 4/7/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
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