This is Latino USA, the Radio Journal of News and Kurturre Latino US. Latino USA, I'm Maria in no Josa. We bring you stories that are underreported but that mattered to you, overlooked by the rest of the media, and while the country is struggling to deal with these, we listen to the stories of Black and Latino Studio United Latino Front, a cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of the movement. I'm Maria Ino Josa, Noaan.
I think we have a long way to go, but there are green shoots and the Latino community specifically has a lot of energy and community building that will pay dividends in the long run.
From Futro Media and PRX, It's Latino USA. I'm Maria no Rosa. Today a number of Latinos and Latinas and folks from Latin America have been nominated for Oscars. So what does this all mean about the state of Hollywood and Latino storytelling. In a few days, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will hold its ninety six
Oscars ceremony. It's a new opportunity for many in the movie making business to be recognized for Excellence in Cinema, and yet another year in which, unfortunately, representation from Latinos and Latinas Latine and LATINX on the big screen has remained somewhat stagnant. Just five point five percent of speaking
characters in Hollywood movies are Latino or Latina. This despite the fact that Latinos make up nineteen percent of the US population and have a buying power of three point four trillion dollars, and Latinos by lots and lots of movie tickets. This year, America Ferrera has earned her first OSCAR nomination for her supporting role in the movie Barbie.
I'm just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will.
Like us and that Coleman Domingo has become the first Afro Latino nominated for Best Actor for his performance as civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. We are going to.
Put together the largest peaceful protests.
Made up of angelic troublemakers such as yourself. But there are several other Latinos and Latin Americans in different roles in OSCAR nominated films who you might not have heard about yet. We're gonna speak with some of them today. We'll hear from Mike de Alberti, whose film The Eternal Memory is nominated for Best Documentary Feature about Alzheimer's will also here from producer and writer Phil Lord, nominated for
Spider Man Across the Spider Verse. But we're going to start with the movie Society of the Snow, nominated for Oscars in the Best International Feature Film category and Best Makeup and Hairstyling. I had a conversation recently with Roberto Ganesa, one of the survivors of the nineteen seventy two plane crash Indianes, on which the movie is based. We also spoke with Mattias Recalde, who is the young actor who
plays him in the film. Roberto Kansa, the survivor, is a cardiologist now in his native Uru Why and that's where he joined me for this conversation. Roberto, So, a lot of people now will only know you as Roberto from the plane crash when you were in your twenties. You are how old now, Antolo risperto seventy one? And frankly, you look amazing.
Roberto.
I just have to say you, you look amazing.
But you lied to me. You said you were twenty five and you look twenty seven.
May well, now that we've brought up age, right, what I want to tell you is that most people will not know now that you have become a very well established medical doctor in uru way, and that this is what you did with your life. Your life went way beyond what happened in the Andes in nineteen seventy two. So congratulations on a great career and on giving back
in this way. I was, I guess eleven years old when the plane crashed, and so I was watching on television in Chicago in my parents' apartment, and we were watching the footage of what was happening, a.
Film of what very nearly amounts to a real miracle, survivors of a plane crash and the Chilean Andes. The plane went down ten weeks ago. The forty five people aboard were given up for death.
We knew the story, and that's why I just want to say, in particular, it means a lot to be talking with you.
Oh, I got emotional. I am like a legend. I am like a walking bronze statue. It's very funny because it happens how people look to me and then my every day life. Thanks God, I don't buy all this popularity.
If you can just tell me, like what it was like. If you go back to nineteen seventy two, disco music was happening, right, you were happy, excited, and you're getting ready to board the plane. So what did your life look like?
Well?
I was a medical student and second year a medical student and playing rugby. I had made it the previous year to the national team, which I was very proud of, and we had done the trip one year before to Chile, so everything was fun.
You know, everybody focuses on what happens in the movie, right, this extraordinary period of about seventy days, But you have this other life. I mean, did you do a lot of therapy?
No? No, no, no. I mean when I came out of the Andes, was that you had an elephant sitting on my shoulders? Yeah? I was so happy, so happy did I and I walked out to the Andes to go to my life now to have an interview fIF years later in Latino with Maria so And when I was back at home, I saw people who were suffering lots more, the parents of my friends that had died. They wanted to talk to me. They wanted to know what did they say? What happened? I mean, they didn't
care about the way we had to survive. They care about what their sons were saying. And the rugby team was completely distorted and we had to rebuild a team, and the coach said, we'll need five years to get the team running again. And on that year we became champions. And the father of ar two real Nogaia that died on the plane crash, hugged me and told me, my son is not here, but you are here. So he
gave me a very strong responsibility and support. And I had to go to the faculty of medicine, and if I didn't study, I didn't get up with my exams, and I had my girlfriend, so I didn't have any time for the psychiatry to sit there and asking how I feel, How I do it? I mean, I am very kinetic and I like achieving things.
What exactly do you mean by kinetic? And what do you think that the fact that you were kinetic has to do with the fact that you survived.
My mother says that when I was in the cradle, I was moving my hands all the time, so and I wanted to go back. I didn't want my mother to cry for that son. So I want to tell her I don't cry anymore. I'm alive. And it was my driving force.
So would you say that this thing that you survived fifty years ago, you don't spend a lot of time thinking about it now or do you now? Because of the movie, all of this has come back in the last five years in the making of And how has that been for you or was it always with you?
Yes, it's with me, but I don't want to contaminate my life with all the time deandes. But nowadays with the film, and I see all the people so enthusiastic. The other day, it was in Miami and a teenager came around and she couldn't speak and say, are you Roberto? I cannot believe it's you. She was from Colombia. There's a lot of young people with a philosophy of the mountain, and I think that's a very good contribution to life. And that's the reason why I think that this film
should get the OSCAR, because it's changing people's life. Besides being a film, it's all a contribution to be a better person for people.
It is that film that's just like wow, somehow you can't survive anything the power of the human body and spirit. So I think you're right. It is a film that says just never, never give up, and that isn't truly a powerful message.
It's a contribution to humans behavior. I think we should treasure it and should get around.
So what was it like for you, Roberto to see the film?
Well, I thought, well, this is quite different than what happened in the mountains. And then I thought, but this is not a documentary, it's a film. And when I told the director, he said, Roberto, if we show what you went through.
People live the movie.
I want to have a movie that people will enjoy seeing the movie and they have a movie experience, not a torture. And this is the masterpiece of how he did the things to make it artistic. The spirit is there, the spirit we get. I get emotional when I see the movie. Then I have always tears pouring through my eyes when I think when I see how how God has been to me that has led us achieve what we achieve.
No, you're crying. We were saying we were not going to get emotional in this conversation.
But come on, when you see those helicopters flying over there, over the guys, and we were left with Nando walking maybe to die walking, and then we sell them to gorgeous, sexy helicopters to get them. I mean, if that's not the try off of human spirit, I don't know what it is.
And you use the word torture, can you just talk to me for a second about the use of that word torture to refer to what you live through in the andes.
It's never ending pain from for the soul and the body. But incredibly, incredibly, this film has no malignancy. This is a film that could be seen by twelve year old boys because there's no human malignancy. It's the ancient fight of men against nature. We're facing nature.
Roberto servis just a little bit.
I am. I am a cardiologist, so I can't fix it.
How can you men a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down? Oh? Can you stop? How about that? I'm a romantic, I'm a termal romantic. I can't start.
How can you.
Stop the rain?
Oh?
The song is Al Green's hit how can you mend a Broken Heart? It came out in nineteen seventy two, the same year Roberto survived that plane crash in the Andes.
Coming up, I asked actor Matthias RecA what it was like to play Roberto Kanessa in the film, some of the challenges that came up with some very intensely emotional and physical scenes in the movie, and what has stayed with him about the story of relentless survival stay with us, not byas hey, we're back before the break we heard from Roberto Ganesa, one of the sixteen survivors from the
nineteen seventy two plane crash in the Andes. The incredible story has been taken to the big screen and is now Spain's candidate for an Oscar in the Best International Feature Film category. In the movie, Roberto Carnesa is played
by Matthias ricalto Mesina. Before playing Roberto, Matiez had already gained some recognition in his native Argentina for his supporting role in the Netflix series Apache, but Society of the Snow is definitely a breakthrough for this actor, so I wanted to take him back to when he was first auditioning for the role and finding out who Roberto was. The character that he would be playing. And by the way, even though Matiez speaks English, he felt more comfortable chatting
with me in Spanish. So Matti, yes, I know that the process of auditioning for the film was just beautiful. And the moment when all of you find out that you were actually cast. How much did you know about Roberto before you played Roberto in the film?
Well, no Roberto, no andel de Roe, Chantela or porcel Argentina and Argentina secte Chicota and to Familia.
Mattiaz said that he remembered hearing about the plane crash when he was little, because members of his family would be talking about this event that happened in nineteen seventy two.
Guando Guano, Roberto sawa Avia, Wido sants and likedro loses well, bileedro Lo san dis robertoo.
And then Mattias tells me that he ends up visiting his theater teacher, who happened to have a copy of the book that Roberto Canesa wrote about his experience in the Andes. It's a book that not everyone has, and Mattia says he found this kind of mystical.
Roberto dambien.
Jo Dennisoso.
He says, the first time Roberto and Jim met in person, they played tennis against another survivor of the plane crash. His name is Gustabo Serbino, along with the actor who played him in the Society of the Snow the real life and the fictional Ganessas actually beat the Serbinos in that game. Roerto, what was it like for you when you met Matis?
Well, it moved my heart because he was going to give his best to do everything, and I thought, I'm going to help you, but it's up to him how much he will receive.
So I'm wondering, and I know this is strange, Roberto, all of it is strange. Right, see yourself in your twenties pro how did Matias do?
Spectacular? Very good?
Very good?
So an iNeST momento, Matis, what have you learned from Roberto as a human being who is alive? Right? And what did you learn about Roberto as a character that you were playing during the entire filming process.
Poco a.
Pegno momentos roberta.
La okaycho.
Miguel Mattias told me that he appreciated how much Roberto values his family and his friends, and he learned from Roberto that while he was willing to step up and give so much of himself in that extreme situation, he liked Mattias also kept something private just to themselves, things that they didn't share with the others.
It's kind of crazy, but because this film has gone worldwide, all of those things that you say that you appreciate about Roberto the person are things that we're not learning about him, and the whole world is learning. So, speaking of which getting really huge. You know, when the film gets nominated for an Oscar, it is in fact a big deal. So I want to know where were the both of you when you found out that you actually had been nominated, your film had been nominated for an Oscar.
So what was your immediate reaction?
I was not very impressed. I mean, I think that there are so many stupid films around. There was about time to give time for important films speaking about human values and and and being made so well by by a Latin you know what, something that they deserved. I mean, these poor actors, they were all they they're putting snow
under under the clothes to fill the cold. They were and among themselves they build a group and they took care about about each other, and there was great I mean they suffered a lot until late o'clock when they went to hotel to get the whole shower.
Like Roberto Mattiz tells me that he actually wasn't that impressed with the Oscar nomination. He also said he knew the movie deserved the recognition.
Project, and then he said.
Winning would be a nice surprise.
Though.
Amos better better. Feliceo gle persona pargetto.
So Madias, I actually want to ask what was the hardest part of it all?
Wells and ke momento mafisi for momento momento an fico emotionali tegnico macon brigo.
Matthias said that re enacting the avalanche that took place seventeen days after the plane crashed, an avalanche that would kill eight of the initial survivors, was the hardest part of filming, physically, emotionally and.
Technically domnas dom madioso don remente mosonantes don de sa jenmertoos pienoes full momento mass mass manifici.
Mattias said it would take them two weeks filming inside a plane with real snow and ice in order to get those scenes, and yet Matthias adds that there were multiple hard moments during the filming.
Tomentolo Lacient.
Dies at l Now particularly.
He says it's because they chose to film chronologically, which meant that death became more and more present with every day that they were filming, because people were dying in real life, and then the actors had to interpret that along with the exhaustion, because all of the actors had to lose weight in order to stay true to the
story and their almost starvation. I know that watching the film, you're right, as Batia said, there are several things that happen, which is like getting punched over and over and over again. Things continue to happen, but when there is the avalanche, I did feel like, how do you just not give up? Was in fact the avalanche one of the worst things that happened? Or was it like hra was just one more thing?
No?
What was the worst? Yeah? I mean it's like when you they kick you on the floor. That's what I felt that I was being beaten on the floor, and and the state of spiritual stature was that I had envy for dead people. I thought they were they were better than me. That I was a worse person and I need to pay my sins because I didn't have anything. The think I had is life. And on the next day, Alito Spice says, this is a very important day and
today my sister's day. And next year we were like, we have a barbecue with cream and cheese and everything. I said, shut up, Calito's only stupid were dying here and you were speaking about your stupid party, and he said, Canisa, you have very ill tempered. I'm not going to invite you to the or barbar.
Oh my god. Okay. So obviously the question has to be the role of humor in all of this, The role of laughter in your survival.
Looka between sublime and ridiculous. There's no limit, and to to laugh at your own disgrace, it helps you to get around suffer.
Bless Mattias, What do you hope that people get from the film? Like, what do you think is the message of the film?
At the COLLECTI and the personas.
Luas and Ma.
Confier okay, okay, car finale pass.
For Mattias, he says, the message of the film is the power of unity in the face of a common goal and a hope that there can always be a light at the end of the tunnel.
Momentos doos almost a second films, and.
He says it's also about the ability of human beings to overcome anything, including death. Mattias lost his father two months before he began filming. Roberto, what can you share with us about the thing that kept you alive? That miracle?
What is it being very strubborn or what do you want realizing that someday you're going to die? But what about the other days? And the dying is not that bad? When I was buried alive in the avalanche and I felt I was dying, it wasn't that bad. You are a chronicle.
Crier, then you're already read a chronicle crier, Roberto. We know that you have to go back to your patients. So thank you so much for your entire story and for spending some time with me and with Matthias and letting the USA.
And I am very, very proud of of Matthias. He did a great job in the film. He's like the voice of the conscious. He's he's always there, hearing and ready to make contributions in a very humble way, which is.
Not likely an absolute masterpiece.
Kisses Pieces, Bye Bye.
If Alicia is Mike de Alberti is the first Chilean woman to be nominated for an Academy Award. This is the second time one of her films is nominated for Best Documentary Feature. This time she's competing with the film The Eternal Memory, which is a documentary about the relationship between Chilean journalist Agusta gong Ra and his wife, the actress Aulina Urutia. They are coping with Gongorras Alzheimer's disease.
Gong Rah, the journalist, dedicated most of his career to exposing human rights violations during the dictatorship of Agusto Pinochet in Chile from nineteen seventy three to nineteen ninety and he was committed to keeping that memory alive. It is a powerful movie, and so I start my conversation with might say by telling her why I found her film
to be so incredibly relatable. I have to tell you your movie when it was really profound because my father, who was at a very accomplished medical doctor with a brilliant mind, also had Alzheimer's and basically my mom and my brother were told by my dad's doctor. Once he passed away, they said, had it not been for the amount of love that you gave doctor Rino Josa, he would have
died at least five years ago. So I wanted to ask you a little bit about what did you learn about love in the making of your film The Eternal Memory.
I think I learned that there is not only one way to understand love, there is not only one way to leave relationships. And I learned that when you have a love, even the tragical events or situations do not become dramas like you can live it in another way.
Your film opens with the story of a very well known journalist. His name is Agusta Gonra. His wife who is seventeen years younger than him, her name is Baulina Urutia, and she's this beautiful and captivating actress, and very quickly your film goes into their love story. But it's a love story surrounding Alzheimer's And at first I was just like, oh my god, how where and how does she find the patience to shower her husband who is losing his
memory with so much love and tenderness and patience. And I want to know more about your decision to open your film in this way.
Yeah, I started the film there because it's like a moment that it's so that represents so good the mood of the relationship, Like he got awake in the middle of the night, completely lost. So if I were there as a wife, probably I will get crazy like why
you don't remember me? But she made completely the opposite, like she last and she's like, well, and your wife we have been together for twenty years and he's like, really I have a wife, Yeah you have and in a very nice standard mood with a patient and with her capacity as an actress to repeat and repeat again
and repeat the emotion. This is because he was a good husband too, So like she makes something that is really important that he never felt that he has an empty space of memory because it's time that he forgets something. She's there to give the information.
Would you do.
About see As you know, it's a very intimate film. We basically spend all of this time being very intimate with the couple with Augusta and Paulina, which makes me think about how you end up getting introduced to them. I mean, there were a public couple, people knew them their high profile, but what made you say, you know what, let me put a camera in your house.
I was sitting in a university and she works there, and I realized that she bring him to her work, and I knew that he has Alzheimer, and he was so in society and they were so in love that for me, it was a big example of how we have to take care today as a society. The people that was working with her integrate him, and she was
not embarrassed and she didn't isolate him. And there were a couple that were in the world and were trying to be on society, and that was like my first emats and what I really wanted to represent with them.
And one of the things that happens with the Eternal Memory is that because Baulina is an actor, at certain moments you're like, wait, am I watching a film or am I watching a documentary? So can you actually describe for me, like the moment, the worst moment when you had I don't know how many hundreds of hours of tape and then the decisions that you made to help you understand the through line was going to be.
Yeah, I think that I was very lucky, as do you say, because as she's an actress. For me, it's the first time that it's super fast to them to get used to the camera and in the editing. Yeah, I think it's the challenge that all the documentary filmmakers have that to have so many hours that I always said that the documentary filmmakers are like a sculptor artist, that we have a big rock and we have to take out, take out, take out to make the figure appear.
I think that all the portraits that we see in cinema about Alzheimer, we always see the dark side and not everything. It's a nightmare, and that is something that we have to understand.
The Eternal Memory premiered in Chile last year, just as the country marked the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Salvador the president who was deposed and murdered in a military dictatorship that took over in nineteen seventy three.
Soloso El.
Elcandro Santiago.
So I was alive on September eleventh, nineteen seventy three, when the democratic government is destroyed and the dictatorship begins, and your film, for many people is again it's about that memory too, but in many ways it is a deeply political film.
It's a it's a deeply political film because my characters are so commit with politics, like Agusto work for preserve the historical memory. So the film it's trying to make the same exercise that he did of his life in his job, like he he has a clandestine news cast report on everything that was happening in the country during dictatorship. So I think that's the film. It's trying to make the same that he did during all his life.
Mike, Dy, was it a big deal for you to get nominated for an Oscar? Was it something or were you more just like, oh, okay, well that's that's nice.
No, it's it's always a big deal. It's a lot of work behind that. It's a lot of people working on that, and it means the possibility of continue shooting and that it's for me the power of awards and nominations.
Which means that it makes your hustle as a filmmaker just a little bit easier. Thank you so much, Mike, definitely see that is it's a it's a beautiful film.
Thank you, Thank you very much.
That was director Mike de Alberti speaking to us from London, where she is busy working on her next documentary, and no, she would not reveal what it's about. Coming up, I speak to Cuban American producer Phil Lord about all things Spider Man. Stay with us, Yes, m Phil Lord is already an Academy Award winning producer. His movie Spider Man Into This Spider Verse got the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in the year twenty nineteen.
Yeah, gotta go.
If you want me to drive you, we gotta go now personal soufur goalwards.
Okay, seriously, Dad Walkin would have been fine.
Breaking news.
Spider Man saves the day, a guess.
Phil Lord has also made a name for himself alongside his producing partner Christopher Miller, for films like the Lego Movie, twenty one and twenty two, Jump Street, and now the Spider Versus trilogy. But even though Phil Lord is Cuban American, there's not a lot out there about his Latini dad, which is why that's where I wanted to start. So, Phil, it's really great to have you on the show, and thank you so much for making time with us.
Oh my gosh, it's an honor to be here.
Oh well, thank you, Phil. So we are talking on Zoom we're both on camera and your ID on your computer here in zoom, says Phil Lord Ibetankour.
Metancud is my mother's family name, as she's born in Cuba, moved to this country in nineteen sixty, moved to Philadelphia, and down the line met my father, who's an American, at a music therapy convention in I think Minnesota.
That's a great story. So can you just paint a picture of little Phil Tummatte? How did your mom call you Philippe Philippe? So take us back to a little Philippe half Cuban kid growing up in Miami and you're watching movies and you're like, hey, I want to do that? Or were you thinking I'm going to be a medical doctor?
Oh?
I mean it was.
My parents are both their first love is music. My father ran a dance company in South Florida, which was a bit of an merging cultural landscape for modern dance. And they and you know, we're still like a refugee family, so it was all about like what can you do so that you won't starve? But my parents, you know, they also understood and instilled in my sister and I
love of the arts. So it's not a surprise that by the time I was, you know, ten years old, that it was something that I was going to do.
I think they knew it before I did.
So jumping super fast. How does one get from the kid in Miami who's like dreaming like maybe I'll go into the arts to you're now in Hollywood and you're producing and writing major motion pictures.
I mean a short answer is you get there by accident, right, Like I went to college, I met my writing producing directing partner, Christopher Miller.
There.
Neither of us are one in a million at filmmaking, but we work hard. We come from strong, supportive families. We have, we're creative, and we're sometimes smart. And when you compound those things, they can add up to one in a million.
Right, and then you win your first oscar actually for your Spider Man into the Spider Verse Best Animated Feature in twenty nineteen.
Spider Man, I mean this guy swings in once today zip zeps up in his little mask and answers to no one, right, yeah, dad, Yeah?
So how does that connection happen? Right there?
Thing that's great about Spider Man and comics is when you know when Marvel was coming to prominence in the sixties. Their whole idea was populism. Their character We're not from outer space, and Spider Man is not someone who.
Has power because it's his birthright.
He has power because he was chosen at random, and he succeeds because he's got a big heart.
And so we we've always tried.
To ignore any artificial barriers between you know, the stuff that people enjoy on mass and the stuff and the things that make us feel transported in an art museum or in a concert hall.
Mmmm hmm, Holy Phil. Okay, Okay, so look, I'm just gonna be really honest with you. I'm not you know, comic books. Okay, to be honest, I'm not like a big Spider Man like, oh my God, like I have to be there, right. But I will tell you this. I did watch this film that is nominated. Bro. I freaking loved it. I was bro so surprise. It's not the glitzy glam of Superman and Clark Kent. It's like my neighborhoods meets Barrios. There's all of these hints, right.
One of my favorite, of course, is when the mom says bendiscion or he asks for the bendiscion, which is just like, so, the truth is is that I really did fall in love with Miles Morales in this film, and it is a big deal to see an Afro Latino teenager as Spider Man and as essentially kind of ruling New York City. Tell me why, why were you like, Yeah, he's got to be Afro Latino for sure.
First of all, you're gonna make you making me tear up?
Oh my god?
Why just because it's so lovely that that you connected with the movie with you know, so many people put so much energy into the details and we hope that they aggregate into a you know, a feeling he did, and we try not to like, you know, we wanted those things that you noticed.
We want that to feel commonplace.
Miles comes from two creators, an Italian woman named Sarah Picelli, an illustrator, and Brian Bendis a comic book creator lives in Portland.
And they.
Brian has two daughters from Africa, and he was looking around for comics to you know, turn them on too, and there he said that there wasn't enough. So he's like, I'm gonna write one. So when Amy Pascal, our producer came to us and said, will you do a Spider Man movie animated? We said no and hung up. You know, maybe two minutes later, we said, well, what if it was about Miles. At that time, Miles is the is the most popular new comic book in the Marvel universe.
And we called Amy back. We said, what if it's Miles Morales. Who's Miles Morales? He's a you know, Afro Puerto Rican kid with an intact family.
She says, I love it, and she hung up.
I love it, gobye, do it?
I love it? Gobye.
But the choice to center Miles and his family was really little and easy.
How much do do the production teams and writers take into consideration that, you know, thirty percent of movie ticket sales are bought by Latinos, and latinas.
An over index for animation.
By the way, Oh that's a new one that I didn't know. So Latino and Latina viewers over index in terms of their connection to animation.
That's right.
And I wish I was a sociologist and can tell you why.
Interesting. Interesting anyway, So I thought that there would be a whole lot of frankly kind of corporate thinking about well, We definitely want to make sure that this is a Latino Afro Latino focus because it's going to help us with the movie sales. And you're like, nah, it wasn't It wasn't like that, But in fact it is a brilliant marketing strategy and just well factual inclusivity, right.
Yeah, we want to represent the world as it is, so we want to if you go to New York and you look and listen like this is what you see and you're almost you're being a dishonest, not very effective artist if you don't represent the world that way. Apart from the strategic and commercial premise that if we meet the audience where they are, we can all, you know, win big, it really just starts with wanting to make a good movie.
I mean it does ultimately. I mean it is about making a good movie, which means that when you make a good movie and it's different and it connects with people, it means that you get nominated for an Oscar. So when you heard that you were nominated again, what happened?
I mean, we're very proud and happy for the crew more than anything else. You know, every movie is a risk. This movie is a big one. It's a huge financial investment from the studio. You're very grateful that the movie resonates, because when a movie like this is a hit, and this is the third highest grossing domestic release of the year, Okay, humble Bragg, just yeah, sorry, it means that people will make more.
So why do you think that Spider Man, in the whole story of Spider Man, continues to resonate.
I mean, he's one of us, and it's as simple as that. That's what makes Miles unique from most of the other Spider people is that his parents are both alive and they're together. And one of the things I've learned making movies is conflict is over rape. Did There's a big difference between watching people in a fight and two people trying to get along and watching people in harmony is so entertaining.
And taking a Latino family with all of that nuance and saying check this out.
Okay.
Miles's grades are pretty good.
A and AP physics.
That's my little man, and AP studio arts.
He takes after his uncle.
A minus in English, she's a tough grader, and a B in Spanish.
Mommy, I so know that's my fault.
My faults, and I.
Just missed a few classes, just a few class you know, a big surprise of the movie.
The first time we showed it to an audience.
You know, we were saying to ourselves, half this movie is people flying around and doing cool stuff, and the other other half of the movie is people in rooms talking, usually just two people having long conversations.
And they're like, well, I know they're going to like half this movie.
And somebody in the audience said, you know, this is a coming of age story for the kids and the parents.
And you're saying, this is like super intentional on your part, like as as a writer and producer, very intentional.
So what's critical to making that work is Miles desired he's going to get back home to his family, and that that chase represents something deeply emotional, which is I thought I was going to be part of this group. I thought they were going to be as supportive, more supportive than the people that I left back home, and.
I was wrong. They betrayed me, and now I'm on my own.
Like people in a story having an emotional experience, what, Peter, why did you betray me?
Like that's what it's really about.
And ultimately, always listen to your mother for real.
You know, I think my mother would relate to this like you. You could give them the answers to the quiz, but you're not.
They're not ready. They have to find it themselves.
So talking talk about finding things by ourselves. Can we talk for a moment about the state of Latinos and latinas latinx Latine folks in Hollywood. Does it feel like twenty twenty four is a little bit different or is it like, Nah, this is how it goes, and it is still always and continuously a hustle.
It's always a hustle.
I speak as someone, you know, a white Cuban from Miami who has not faced a great deal of discrimination growing up.
It's like it's just different down there, right.
However, the oscars are a very small sample size and there's a lot of noise in the data. I think this year we have a lot to celebrate America. Ferreira's nomination is historic and wonderful. She's a wonderful filmmaker. She's got a long way to go this year. There's also a nomination for Flame and Hot, one of my favorite movies of the year. Aha, it's not a rise and fall story. It's a rise and rise story, a good idea.
It's a spicy cap It's gonna change everything.
It will see our factory and you're a janitor. We're gonna go hang out.
There is a crazy idea and.
The first Afro Latino cole Men Domingo.
That's it and so not bad.
I think we have a long way to go, but there are green shoots, and the Latino community specifically has a lot of energy and community building that will pay dividends in the long run.
And so what do you recommend in terms of continuing to try to make that happen.
The boring answer is you have to have intention and you have to have insistence.
So you need you can't.
Just go like, here's our one Latino project and oh, whoops, it didn't work out. You have to have ten and you have to put the intentionality and resources towards developing it.
And of course everyone thinks Hollywood, you know, once you're there, it's easy. It's a hustle, and it's a hustle for Latino and Latina stories in particular, which leads me to what's coming up next in terms of the Spider Versus trilogy. Am I gonna love it as much? Dimelo Felippe, Mama, Who's that?
The next picture is about really interesting emotional ideas, Really about the question of what do you do with your disappointment and anger and the feelings of betrayal that Miles is left with at the end of this movie. How does Miles take that those feelings and turn them into something beautiful. That's kind of what we're trying to make the next picture about.
Phil Lord ivetur M. Yes, thank you so much for having this conversation with me about the Spider Verse. Congratulations on your nomination for an oscar.
Thank you very much.
I hope you win asdatis. Thank you so much, Spider Man Beyond the Spider Verse. The final part of the trilogy will be released later this year, and the oscars will be seen on Sunday, March tenth, and good luck to all the nominees. This episode was produced by Marina Pena. It was edited by Andrea Lopez Cruzado. It was mixed by gabriel Lebayez. The Latino USA team also includes Vittoria Strada, Renaldo Leanos Junior, Dori mar Marquez, Marta Martinez Mike Sargent,
Nor Saudi and Nancy Trujillo. Penille Ramirez is our co executive producer. Our director of engineering is Stephanie Lebau. Our senior engineer is Julia Caruso. Additional engineering support by j J. Carubin. Our marketing manager is Luis Luna. Our theme music was composed by Saniel Roubinos. I'm your host and executive producer Maria no Josa. Join us again on our next episode. In the meantime, look for us on social media and remember not teva Yes a stele proxima.
Chaou Latino USA is made by Possible, in part by the Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide, The John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Alonso come to.
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