A Neighborhood Affair

Quniceañera

Directed by Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland

Quniceañera is a charming feature about 15-year-old Magdalena (Emily Rios), a coming of age Latina within the rapidly gentrifying lower class, mostly-Hispanic neighborhood of Echo Park, Los Angeles. 

Glatzer and Westmoreland are Anglos (Richard’s from New York, Westmoreland’s from Yorkshire, England), as well as a gay couple who’ve been making films together since 2000, but they became interested in the traditional celebration of a girls’ 15th birthday only after they moved to Echo Park. 

GLATZER: A neighbor asked us to photograph her Quinceañera, and we thought it’d make an interesting film—not necessarily directed by us. Then, six months later, we were discussing how Echo Park has such different cultures living right next door to each other, and we hadn’t seen a film about that.

WESTMORELAND: To our neighbors, it didn’t matter that we’re white guys or a gay couple. We just fit in, but we noticed they were having other issues—like kids who had sexual problems that were alienating them from their parents.

GLATZER: We developed a story about kids forming an “outsider” family within their extended family, like Magdalena and her cousin Carlos [Jesse Garcia] do with their Uncle Tomas [Chalo Gonzales].

WESTMORELAND: Uncle Tomas is based on my great uncle. He’s an unusual character—in the history of cinema, there aren’t many great uncles who’re significant characters.

GLATZER: Magdalena’s turning 15, so Quinceañera fits in. I’m Jewish and had a Bar Mitzvah. That’s parallel, but a Quineañera’s more—with a court, choreographed dances. A low-income family’s putting on a show. I was impressed how communal it is—that people sponsor different aspects.

MERIN: As non-Latinos, how’d you know you’d get details right, give issues appropriate weight?

WESTMORELAND: We consulted Latino friends who knew the turf well—who’d had Quinceañeras and family dramas. We didn’t want to set ourselves up as Grand Poobahs of Latino culture. We used their comments to make script revisions, hopefully moving it towards a true representation.

GLATZER: Our actors provided a wealth of knowledge about the way things should happen. Their feedback kept us on course. The test is that when we show Quinceañera to Latinos, it passes muster with them.

WESTMORELAND: Yes. Miguel Arteta, the director who presented our award at Sundance, loved the film, and Patricia Carzodo of Real Women Have Curves is a huge fan, and other people we respect have made such positive comments. That makes us feel great.

You steer clear of showing poverty, gangs or other such hardships. Why?

GLATZER: We didn’t want to make a conventional, these-are-slums depiction of Latino culture. That’s been done.

We show poverty differently. Magdalena’s family’s poor—her father’s the storefront preacher, but he works as a security guard. Their house is poor—and it’s the house next to ours that rents for $400 a month. We show everyday life as we experience it on our block. It’s about foreground—we didn’t want deprivation in the foreground.

WESTMORELAND: There’re different economic circumstances within this extended family—Carlos’ parents are more upwardly mobile than Magdalena’s. We wanted to show class differences within the Latino community, as well as between the Latino community and the gentrified community. 

GLATZER: It’s odd to see families renting houses for $400 per month, next door to properties that just sold for $700,000. I think we’re accurate. There’s economic deprivation, but we haven’t seen people thrown out of their homes, or shot.

WESTMORELAND: The neighborhood’s not riddled with drugs or gang violence. We portray what’s there.

The gay couple in the film exploits Carlos and young Latinos in general and, economically, they exploit the situation. Why’d you portray them that way?

GLATZER: To address homophobia in the Latino community and coded racism in the gay community. When non-gay filmmakers treat gay subjects, they do it carefully. We, as gay filmmakers, have more freedom to be critical. We wanted to open discussion about these issues. I find when people—not just in the gay community—fetishize another race, there’s implicit condescension. You may have a sexual thing for someone, but not have that person over to dinner. We thought it’d be interesting to present that and see how it goes down in the world.

WESTMORELAND: There’s a balance. Carlos is a new character type—a gay guy who’s accessed sexuality via the Internet, so he’s identified with his Latino culture, developing his gay identify outside gay bars and other gay meeting places.

But there’re lines indicating these guys just have a penchant for seducing Latino boys. I think that’s honest. I admire you for it.

WESTMORELAND: We talked a lot about the characters’ lives outside the film’s 90-minute running time. This gay couple bit off more than they can chew—pardon the expression. There’s pressure on their relationship because James is making money, Gary’s not working. They’re renting their back house for a song; if they fixed it up, they could have income from it. They’re part of the economic situation. Cultural dynamic triggers what happens in the story, but there’s also the sense of economics at work.

How do you share director’s responsibilities? 

WESTMORELAND: A bit like this interview, we fill in each other’s words. Bits and pieces fit together. One provides the bit the other’s lacking, so we just about cover the bases.

GLATZER: We’re so comfortable enough with each other, I can say “Wash, you have a take on this scene, so do it, and I’ll make lunch.” Because we’re confident in each other, we can get work done not half as fast, but more efficiently.

WESTMORELAND: The rise of co-directing’s very interesting—you’re seeing more co-directors then before. Little Ms. Sunshine was co-directed. Half Nelson, too. There’s always close collaboration between directors and editors. There’s this mystique of the lonely, single male director that’s been posited, [but] the direction of a film must obviously be unified and come from a singular source that transmits it to crew and cast.

So when you disagree….

WESTMORELAND: We bat it out in secret because if you do it in public, it’s going to send tremors through…

So it’s seamless?

GLATZER: People who’ve worked with us say we’re pretty solid.

Do you each have specific strengths?

GLATZER: We came to our relationship with different strengths. I’m from a writing background. Wash’s from a visual and technical background. But we’ve educated each other so we share each other’s original strength.

You started co-directing films in 2000, and how long have you been together?

WESTMORELAND: Eleven years.

So it took a while before you…

WESTMORELAND: Well, films don’t happen over night.