{"id":8139,"date":"2020-02-10T10:26:03","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T09:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.queerlion.it\/?p=8139"},"modified":"2020-02-12T10:35:04","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T09:35:04","slug":"usa-instinct-magazine-jose-is-the-queer-coming-of-age-film-we-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.queerlion.it\/en\/usa-instinct-magazine-jose-is-the-queer-coming-of-age-film-we-need\/","title":{"rendered":"Usa, Instinct Magazine: Jos\u00e9 is the Queer Coming of Age Film We Need"},"content":{"rendered":"

You might remember the thrills of your first, young love\u2014or lust\u2014and the butterflies in your stomach that make daily life fade to black whenever that person is near. Throw in the discretion of having to be a closeted gay boy and the idea of doing something that could potentially shatter your world makes the kisses all the sweeter. It\u2019s a story all too familiar. It is a universal coming of age tale of queer familiarity that unites us, regardless of where we are. Such is the story of\u00a0Jos\u00e9<\/em><\/strong>, a Guatemalan film by director\u00a0Li Cheng<\/strong>, that recently had its New York debut and will open in Los Angeles on February 21st<\/sup>\u00a0and select cities to follow.<\/p>\n

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JOSE production still \u2013 Enrique Salanic (left) Manolo Herrera (right), courtesy of YQ Studio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jos\u00e9<\/em>\u00a0follows the life of the titular Jos\u00e9, who lives with his mother in Guatemala City and works as a runner for a restaurant, chasing down cars to attract them to the local business. Jos\u00e9, portrayed by indigenous actor\u00a0Enrique Salanic<\/strong>, has a very close relationship with his mother, who is not-surprisingly religious and who attempts to support them as a street vendor. What Jos\u00e9\u2019s mother doesn\u2019t know is that her beloved and hard-working son is undergoing his sexual exploration and meeting up with random men who he finds on a dating app. Jos\u00e9 then hooks up with them in a local motel that charges by the hour, with some rather impersonal, yet personal scenes that depict Jos\u00e9 searching for more than just fun.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 meets Luis, played by\u00a0Manolo Herrera<\/strong>, a migrant worker from the rural Caribbean coast who peeks his interest. Luis arrives into Jos\u00e9\u2019s life to test his devotion to his mother and his responsibilities to the household, but to also awaken something in Jos\u00e9 that he cannot seem to find in his mundane quotidian life peppered by earth tremors synonymous to his inner turmoil.<\/p>\n

The film shows Jos\u00e9 and Luis unearthing their affinity for one another, taking them on somewhat of a road trip into rural areas of Guatemala, a historically conservative and Catholic country, with stringent laws and a homophobic reality.\u00a0Jos\u00e9<\/em>\u00a0tells the authentic story of two young lovers at a crossroads in their lives where they must decide to continue to explore their intimacy and a potential life of freedom or remain confined to the lives of tradition and complacency.<\/p>\n

In an interview, openly gay actor\u00a0Enrique Salanic\u00a0<\/strong>and Director\u00a0Li Chenge<\/strong>\u00a0offered some insight on their process in working on\u00a0Jos\u00e9<\/em>\u00a0and what the film represents for the country of Guatemala.<\/p>\n

DAVID LOPEZ: How did the story of Jos\u00e9 come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LI CHENG:<\/strong>\u00a0Well, long story, haha.. Back in 2016, myself and my producer, George F. Roberson, started to get very unhappy with how things were going in the USA, and we were especially troubled by the negative things we kept hearing about Latino people \u2013 it all seemed so disconnected from reality. So in August of 2016 we went to S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil to begin research for the story that became\u00a0Jos\u00e9<\/em>. We interviewed hundreds of young people about their lives, loves and dreams. The interviews and script writing was a one-year project, and we worked in a dozen Latin American countries. The\u00a0Jos\u00e9<\/em>\u00a0story emerged from this process of looking and listening<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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JOSE director Li Cheng, Courtesy of YQ Studio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DL: What made you want to tell this story?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LC:<\/strong>\u00a0We wanted to return to a sense of reality \u2013 to show things as they really are, to leave over-the-top drama behind, and to challenge stereotypes. Latin American films are often focused on white and rich people, although the vast majority of the people are poor and non-white, and really struggling with lack of opportunities \u2013 yet they have the same hopes for a decent life and love, and no one is telling their stories<\/p>\n

In our interviews, one seven-teen year old had recently come out to his mom as gay, and she replied, \u201cThat\u2019s ok, but you\u2019ll never know true love\u201d \u2013 the inference being that somehow homosexual relationships could never rise to the level of love that\u2019s reserved only for heterosexuals, and that homosexual relations are only some sort of extreme and exploitative and animalistic sex (which are common tropes of homosexual sex, even in queer cinema). We felt we couldn\u2019t leave that unchallenged.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

DL: How did you go about casting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LC:<\/strong>\u00a0Industry people told us it would be impossible to make the film in Guatemala due to widespread homophobia, and since, they said, no actor would kiss another man. So we had concerns about casting\u2026and so we turned to social media and reached out to networks of young people, and we had an overwhelmingly positive response to our casting calls. In the end more than 500 people attended castings, and it was very difficult to decide since there are so many highly skilled people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

DAVID LOPEZ: How did you become attached to the project?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ENRIQUE SALANIC:<\/strong>\u00a0I worked as an actor in the film\u00a0Days of Light<\/em>\u00a0directed by Sergio Ramirez. The\u00a0photographer, Alvaro Rodriguez, recommended me to Li Cheng. After talking to Li\u00a0about the project, I became engaged with the story as I felt that it was time that\u00a0somebody told it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

DL: Do you identify with Jos\u00e9 in any way?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ES:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes, I think many people will too. Jos\u00e9 goes through human experiences and emotions that are very relatable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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JOSE production still \u2013 Enrique Salanic Courtesy of YQstudio LLC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DL: How was your process in becoming this character?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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ES:<\/strong>\u00a0I was very fortunate to have talked to many people across the LGBQT+ community, before and during the filming process. This helped me gain a broader perspective on the different realities that are lived day to day in Guatemala, and as time went by, I realized it was a reality lived by many people around the world. To convey and synthesize all of these stories was perhaps one of the hardest parts of Jose\u2019s character.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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JOSE production still \u2013 Enrique Salanic (left) Manolo Herrera (right) Courtesy of YQ Studio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DL: How has this film been received in Guatemala?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LC:\u00a0<\/b>Some social media in advance of the film\u2019s first screening in Guatemala was negative \u2013 but at\u00a0Jos\u00e9<\/em>\u2019s recent premiere in a Guatemala City film festival, with the all-Guatemalan cast and crew on the red carpet, there were two side-by-side sold-out theaters in a fancy shopping mall, with a long line of people who couldn\u2019t get in \u2013 that\u2019s successful by any measure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

DL: What do you hope this film will do for the people of Guatemala and the LGBTQ+ community?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ES:<\/strong>\u00a0I hope\u00a0Jos\u00e9<\/em>\u00a0plants a seed of hope and strength for future generations; in\u00a0order for them to live peacefully without the fear of being harassed, attacked or even\u00a0killed for who they are. It\u2019s a movie that makes the audience question themselves,\u00a0the society, and the reality that they live in.\u00a0I hope you have the chance to watch\u00a0Jos\u00e9<\/em>\u00a0and spread the message of love, hope\u00a0and strength.<\/p>\n

LC:<\/strong>\u00a0Jos\u00e9<\/em>\u00a0is our love letter to Guatemala \u2013 we hope people will see it, feel it, and debate it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jos\u00e9<\/em>\u00a0is the first Central American film to premiere at the Venice Film Festival and has taken home numerous awards on the festival circuit, including the Queer Lion Award<\/strong> <\/span>and Best Film at the Boston LGBT Film Festival.<\/p>\n

Experience Jos\u00e9 now in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Pasadena CA, Miami, San\u00a0Diego, Palm Springs CA, Fort Lauderdale FL, Aventura FL, Boca Raton FL, metro Phoenix (Tempe), Lake Worth FL and more. Find tickets:\u00a0http:\/\/www.outsiderpictures.us\/movie\/jose\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Instinct Magazine<\/a> by David Lopez10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might remember the thrills of your first, young love\u2014or lust\u2014and the butterflies in your stomach that make daily life fade to black whenever…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[421],"tags":[1394,1397,1014,1006,704],"class_list":["post-8139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-review","tag-coming-of-age","tag-instinct-magazine","tag-jose-en","tag-queer-lion-2018-en","tag-usa","post-item","post-even"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t