Quinceañera (2006)

Wissenswertes

• Auszeichnungen: 2 · Nominierungen: 0. Darunter: Sundance Film Festival/Großer Preis der Jury – Bester Spielfilm; Sundance Film Festival/Publikumspreis – Bester Spielfilm

Quinceañera is a 2006 American independent drama film written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. Set in Echo Park, Los Angeles, the film follows the lives of two young Mexican American cousins who become estranged from their families—Magdalena because of her unwed teenage pregnancy and Carlos because of his homosexuality—and are taken in by their elderly great-uncle Tomas.

Production

Quinceañera was written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, filmmaking partners and a romantic couple. They conceived the idea for the film in January 2005, based on their own experiences as a white gay couple moving into the predominantly Latino working-class neighborhood of Echo Park, Los Angeles, as the area underwent gentrification.

They were inspired to make a film about the traditional quinceañera celebration after being invited to their fifteen-year-old neighbor's ceremony. With producer Anne Clements, they pitched the idea to three investors—immigrants to the United States from Greece and Israel—who agreed to provide $300,000 to finance the project. (The budget was later raised to $400,000.) Glatzer and Westmoreland then wrote the screenplay over three weeks in February.

Casting for the film took place over March 2005 through the internet, a Los Angeles-based organization for Latino actors, and word of mouth. Glatzer and Westmoreland chose to cast non-union actors; none of the cast except Chalo González belonged to the Screen Actors Guild. Most of the actors were nonprofessional and had never acted in a film before.

The film's casting director, Jason L. Wood, ended up playing the character of James, and Glatzer and Westmoreland cast their cleaning lady in a small role. They borrowed props from their cleaner's niece, who had recently had a quinceañera, and mimicked her video of the ceremony to create part of the film.

The film was shot over eighteen days in April 2005. It was filmed on location in Echo Park inside Glatzer and Westmoreland's house and in three houses on their block that their neighbors allowed them to use for little or no money. Many of Glatzer and Westmoreland's Echo Park neighbors also stood in as extras.

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