INTERVIEWS

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An Interview with Adrian Moran on his film Rigo, it's impact and how he came up with the idea of making a film on immigration.

The film is about a young boy Rigo, who resides in Mexico. He faces challenges like many others in his country; poverty, lack of education and insecurity. He decides to better himself and immigrate to the United States. He embarks on his journey with his best friend Lupita. He leaves behind his mother in search of the American dream to provide for his mother.

Let's hear from the film directors himself about his experience of making a film with
his adorable visions.

CULT CRITIC - What made you think and implement the idea of making a film on emigration?

ADRIAN - I was born in a border city between Mexico and the United States so I have personally seen what people struggle to try to cross the border to reach the United States and I decide for several anecdotes of people I talked to before
making the film, I decide to do it on immigration but through the eyes of a child
focusing in how the desperation and insecurity by the lack of opportunities in
Mexico takes a child to make a big decision and emigrate to the U.S.

CULT CRITIC -  After 10 or 20 years later you would be directing more films, but will Rigo have the same impact on you as of now?

ADRIAN - Rigo has been a film that will definitely have an impact on me after years from now because it was my first film that I wrote, produced and directed by myself. Rigo marked that evolution of working on projects for some other
film directors and film producers of working totally for myself, first time producing and
first time directing and that definitely makes it very special for me as my first
project above all very grateful for the learning that this project gave to me.

CULT CRITIC - Here I find there the most essential film characters, the protagonist Rigo, best friend Lupita and the mother. Who is your favorite film character?

ADRIAN - the protagonist “Rigo” is my favorite character, when I was creating him I was amused by the braveness that the character has, I believe a person needs a lot of courage to start the journey that Rigo starts in the film knowing the dangers that awaited him, is a character full of courage and decision at such a young age.

CULT CRITIC - Can you please share with us some fun moments during the film shooting?

ADRIAN - More than a funny moment it was a moment that left us all shocked because being in the desert on the border when filming we came across a group of migrants who really were going to cross into the United States, all of the film production saw as they were stopped by the United States border patrol trying to cross the rio grande river, river which separates the United States from Mexico, it was a surprising moment but at the same time sad because there were 4 children in that group of immigrants who were arrested, in funny moments it is difficult to choose one because I think that in reality throughout the filming of Rigo it was full of fun moments because we all knew how to get along to each other very well and it created a relaxed and fun environment for the film.

CULT CRITIC - How serious are you as a film director? How many retakes do you take for the perfect shot?

ADRIAN - This is a great question; I was very serious about it, I wanted to do my best as a first time film director and with first time film actors so we had over 50 takes for the same shot to choose the best one to be on the final material. You can imagine that it took hours to decide one small shot for scenes.

CULT CRITIC - How much do you think Cult cinema or independent movies have evolved?

ADRIAN - I think independent movies have being evolving a lot because now we have more accessibility to equipment to film rather than in past years and that makes more people are venturing into films and therefore a lot of new talent is coming up and for the ones doing films professionally or commercial have to be better on it, the quality of films has to be better due to the competition that now exists.

CULT CRITIC - Do you watch independent movies of other film directors? Since you are now a film director yourself how much of it is a risk to create good movies?

ADRIAN - I try not to do it much because I like to stay under my ideals in films and directing, many times watching other people's work influences a little in comparing your work to theirs and changing some decisions that you already had decreed for a film, I don't think it's bad, but personally it creates a point of comparison between mine and the work of other directors and I like to keep my
story steady to how I visualize it.

CULT CRITIC - How important is it to have a great story or script to create a film?ADRIAN - I think that a great story is extremely important for a film, if you have a good story. I believe that you already have an 80% confidence that it will be a good film, even though actors rely on the story to know whether to accept working a film.

CULT CRITIC - Can you point out three awe moments of your film Rigo?

ADRIAN - As I mentioned before one of the moments that amused me was when the group of migrants was arrested by the border patrol but also other is when my film actors exceeded each of my expectations and looked as if they already had a great experience, that left me impressed on this film, the good work that they, as their first time acting, looked as if they had years in the acting industry, this film would not be the same if it had not been for each one of them and finally the locations were incredible, we filmed in the desert of the border between cd. Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas and it was amazing to be filming where people actually tries to cross to United States.

CULT CRITIC - With so much intolerance going around in our society in recent times, do you think Rigo has a message to share with the film audience?

ADRIAN - Of course, Rigo has a message for the film audience, number 1, shows empathy with migrants and for everything they have to go throughout the way to have a "better life" risking their lives and their children’s lives, number 2 the main character shows courage and decision, I think that many people needs that braveness the character have and that we can learn it from the character “Rigo” and number 3, is a complaint to a government in Mexico that have the population with fear with so much insecurity and that people are tired of so much lack of opportunity and lack of work.

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