Intro: 25 Filmmaking Fun Facts About Me

Two Harrison Fords in case one gets sick or his hair catches fire.

1. When I was a preschooler, back in Mexico, the teacher thought I had some sort of mental deficiency, because my drawings looked too different to everyone else's. My mother discovered that the reason was that I was making narrative drawings (a sort of primitive storyboard) instead of descriptive like the other kids.

2. I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker when I was 14. I don't remember a specific movie that made me realize that, since I had already watched hundreds by then. But as a kid, the movie that most impressed me was Superman to the point that I wrote and drew a parody called Supervampire. As I couldn't wait for the movie's sequels to write my own, I actually anticipated some narrative elements in my comics that were used in the films.

3. The first movie I went to watch by myself at the cinema was The Color of Money by Martin Scorsese and was very impressed. My recent film 2 Strangers and a Foosball has several references to it. For years I wanted to be Tom Cruise. But now, I rather be Paul Newman. Or Scorsese.

4. When I was 17, I wrote, directed and starred in a 30-minute political satire in English called Agitator. One of the guys I showed it to said, "I liked it, but I don't agree with what you're trying to say." He's now a leader of the ruling party in Mexico and he might be a senator or president someday.

5. I went to film school in the USA and my very first film (shot on film) was called A Dead Racoon on the Road to Success and was way too experimental. Most of the cast were Scandinavians.

6. In college, I didn't mind losing points by making my films twice as long as the maximum allowed or by not following other rules. In one editing exercise, the professor said, "This is the most impressive thing I've seen done for this exercise, but if this were a real film, you'd be fired." My whole take on that exercise was on not following the script, either in movies or life.

7. I imported a huge box full of Mexican clothing and paraphernalia to the USA to make a pseudo Mariachi extravaganza called Maraca Man. I played a bit part, the Charro Cantor. The film has references to both Fellini and Steve Martin.

8. My thesis film, 4 movimiento: destrucción, was in Spanish with no subtitles. The applause by the English-speaking audience at the premiere was so powerful, it gave me the chills. To date, I haven't experienced such a thing again, but I long to.

9. My thesis film was shown at the Chicago International Film Festival (a very important festival), where it won an award. The image of that edition of the festival was Anna Nicole Smith referencing cinema divas Anita Ekberg and Brigitte Bardot.

10. My very first job was as an assistant editor of one of the most important Mexican films of all time, Like Water for Chocolate. We had 100,000 feet of material. The D.P. of that film, Lubezki, has now been nominated for several Oscars. Incidentally, my mother was his kindergarden teacher.

11. Alfonso Arau, the director-producer, was extremely bad in paying people back then, which created too many difficult situations. Among them, we, the editing team, kidnapped the rough cut to force him to pay our salaries. Also, I once caught the explosives expert (who was owed a lot of money) snooping around the production office. He had demolition eyes.

12. I've only worked in one Hollywood film (plan to do it again someday) but it was a huge production: Clear and Present Danger. The action and battle sequences were so intense and had to be repeated so many times, that it felt like going to war rather than to work. I almost got into many fights, first with the boom operator, then with all the Mexican A.D.'s and finally with a bunch of American stunt players. Also, Harrison Ford almost ran over me as he was on his way to jump onto an helicopter.

13. Harrison Ford was given the opportunity to conceive and direct a sequence that was not in the script. I was the boom operator for that and alternatively called him "Mr. Ford" or "Harrison" depending on the urgency. This entire sequence did not make it to the final cut.

14. At 23, somehow I got the job of being the program manager of a huge film festival. For lack of personnel, I also became the coordinator of the jury and other renown celebrities of the Latin American film industry. It was an incredible amount of responsibility, but it was also very nice to pal around with the big boys and girls.

15. When the festival was over, I decided to join a group of famous directors and travel to Cuba, to the most important Latin American film festival. The top dog (Miguel Littín) of the bunch had forgotten to get his visa, so the Cuban immigration wasn't letting him in, so he started yelling "Call Fidel, he knows me and he'll let me in." He wasn't kidding.

16. At this festival, I was treated, along with less than a dozen people, to a private piano performance by Fito Paez, one of the most importan Latin American rock stars (who's also a filmmaker). For some reason, some Cubans in the street thought I was one of Fito's band members.

17. I returned twice more to Cuba for the film festival. In those trips, I met Fidel Castro, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Fernando Birri, Fernando Solanas, Grampa Munster (who complained about everything and really looked like a 150-year-old vampire) and so many celebrities as to compile a Who's Who list of Latin American cinema. I hung around with huge female stars, but only got a few kisses on the cheek (most of them from Soledad Silveyra, an Argentine mega star). Also, when leaving for the airport, I shared a cab with a Mexican star (Pilar Pellicer) and somehow we fumbled up the passports and ended with each other's. Fortunately, the migration officials were in a good mood.

18. I wrote several feature length screenplays in both English and Spanish, won a few awards and got a script read by New Line Cinema, but mostly didn't achieve anything, because screenwriting is both the easiest job in the world and the most difficult one (particularly when trying to get money out of it).

19. My most successful screenplay made it to the semi-final round at the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE), but was discarded for being considered a genre movie and too expensive. Although it didn't get produced, I was able to cast the film with an outstanding ensemble of young actors and actresses and the script was enthusiastically read by everyone at the Mexican office of Columbia Pictures (Sony). Again, it wasn't taken as it was considered too expensive (they wanted to do extremely cheap movies).

20. When I decided to focus on short films, I wrote down my dream cast and my dream D.P. for my film El Paje and I got every one of them. The D.P. (Prieto) has now been nominated for a couple of Oscars. Nonetheless, I was not able to get funding. By the time my mother (instead of me or the government) came up with the money, I had to recast some of the roles and look for another D.P. Still, the cast was made up of all A-list people. In retrospect, maybe it was too big a film for being my first after college. On the shoot's first day, I had to direct 60 people, some of whom weren't sure even who the director was.

21. El Paje was screened at 12 film festivals, mainly those focused on Latin American films. It was also broadcast by a cultural channel during prime time. According to Nielsen, 100,000 people watched it in Mexico City. Later on, it was shown on cable to every country in Latin America and recently it was shown on a tiny Spanish-speaking cable channel in Quebec. In spite of everything, the only award I got for this film was a teddy bear (and I gave it to the producer, my mother).

22. My next film, Dhampira, was done on video and with a tiny budget, but again I aimed for an A-list cast. Barbara Mori, one of the most famous and most gorgeous TV actresses in Latin America, agreed to play the lead, but we weren't able to match schedules. The Mexican legendary actor Roberto Cobo did play on it. 50 years earlier, he had worked with Luis Buñuel, one of the greastest directors of all time and my idol, along with Fellini, back when I was in college. Cobo is one of the most excentric people I have ever met and also one of the most fun. Regretfully, he died a year later.

23. Dhampira was shown at 8 film festivals, mainly of horror and fantasy, and somehow it may be my most important work to date. It was shown on cable to the whole of Latin America and found a niche with the vampiric/gothic community in Mexico City, where it has become almost a cult movie. I got to attend some of those vampiric events, where I saw many weird things, besides my movie.

24. I haven't attended a film festival as a filmmaker (only as a regular civilian) since I moved to Canada. Nonetheless, my last film went to Cannes (although nobody watched it). I hope to come along the next time I have a film in Cannes. And I'll force people to watch it if necessary.

25. Several months before I decided to move to Canada, when my short Dhampira was programmed in the Transylvania Film Festival, a Mexican newspaper (Milenio) ran an article on me. Three fourths of the page were dedicated to my story, while the bottom part was dedicated to no other than Celine Dion, as a sort of flashforward of where I was going to end up. After 4 years in Quebec, Canada, I still haven't shared the page again with her. But I'm working on it.

Eduardo Soto-Falcon