David Ponce de León
“My family originally come from Castile in Spain, before coming to the Americas. My ancestors first came to Florida and Puerto Rico as the first Spanish Governor in 1500. The Ponce de León family have had a very long history with both North and Latin America, so it's natural for me to have a strong connection with both countries.”
“They are a very special group my family. My grandmother actually carried a .22 pistol in her purse for protection! We were very close the two of us and I dedicated my first feature film, ‘Road to Juarez’ to her because she was such an amazing soul. For the time I lived with her, she was a huge part of my inspiration for writing this story. My mother was an actress and a radio announcer here in the US and my grandfather was a street performer and a guitarist in Morelos. So I guess you could say I come from a wild group of Mexican artists and Spanish explorers!”
“My start in the film industry came with my first internship at Esparza/Katz Productions. Moctesuma Esparza and Bob Katz were the biggest producers of Latino Films in Hollywood at the time. One of the best parts of this job was to drive Mr.Esparza and Mr.Katz around in my car. Bob Katz used to tell me (between cigarette inhalations), ‘Good producing is putting asses in seats’ and that really stuck with me. What I learnt from Moctesuma Esparza and Bob Katz could never be learnt at any film school. I never made a dime out of Esparza/Katz Productions, but what I learnt was invaluable.”
“After high school, I then went on to UCLA, where I was accepted into their prestigious conservatory acting program at the famed School of Theatre, Film Television. It was incredibly hard to get into with only 15 placements for the next three years. Having teachers like Mel Shapiro of the New York Public Theatre Fame, and Jose Luis Valenzuela, founder of the Latino Theatre Company direct you as an actor, gives you incredible insights into the craft. By the end of my degree, I also decided to do their directing classes and was lucky enough to be taught by professors like Michael McLean and Delia Salvy. I really found UCLA to be an incredible schooling for this business.”
“To add further to this experience, UCLA also had an overseas exchange program, so I ended up in London seeing classical productions and shows by the Royal Shakespeare Company. While I was away, I managed to travel throughout Western Europe seeing all of these amazing theatre productions, which really got my creative juices flowing.”
“My first break came right out of college, when I was cast as a lead for the film 'Chupacabra', where I played the lead FBI agent. I found that while I was working with the director on set, he kept using me to be a conduit between his technical abilities and the sort of direction he needed to give the actors. After a while, I became his liaison for what he wanted from his actors. In the end, I was helping to put the scenes together from a very theatre perspective to make sure they would work. Then the director and DP would tweak them from a shooting perspective. In working this way, I found that I was really passionate about making 'beats' work. I really fell in love with the idea of being a director on my first film as an actor!”
“From then on, my acting career really took off and I was doing a heaps of TV commercials and series like ‘Crossing Jordan’ and the ‘The Parkers’. At this stage I was doing really well out of acting, however, I remember sitting in my trailer one day thinking is this it? Is this everything? Is this what it's all about? It was like that moment in 'Scarface!' Right then, I felt like I was playing the right sport, but the wrong position. That was until I came upon Robert Rodriguez’s book, ‘Rebel without a Crew’. This book was to change my whole life forever.”
“From then on, I did any gig I could. Directing commercials, documentary pieces, EPKs, 'the making-of’s, music videos, pretty much anything I could where I could direct. Anything that kept me learning I would do. The take out message from ‘Rebel without a Crew’, I think, is ‘shoot and cut’. Go find a camera, shoot and cut, and then repeat the whole thing over and over again!”
“To get a shot at directing a feature in this industry, I always knew I was going to have to write my own script that would hopefully give me some kind of leverage. I wrote my first screenplay called ‘Heart of the Son,’ which I wrote with all my heart and soul. I then read a book by Richard Walter, a professor at UCLA on screenwriting that really broke down the structure of screenwriting for me. The way I see it, if you are going to write, then you are just going to write. As they say, unfortunately most of what you end up writing in your first script you should throw in the trash. And that’s pretty much what I did.”
“Writing my next screenplay called ‘The Cage’ is where I got my first real break. You see I had been a street basket ball player for several years and for over a decade I played with an older cat named Reuben Gonzalez! He was a tough as nails scrapper, especially when he was on the opposing team, but we became good friends over the years. Then, at UCLA, I discovered that this was the same Reuben who’s book and play called ‘The Boiler Room’ was required reading! Reuben then introduced me to Scott Rosenfelt, who was the producer on films like ‘Home Alone’, ‘Mystic Pizza’, and ‘Smoke Signals’. Scott championed my script 'Road to Juarez' which gave executive producer, Cesar Ramirez the confidence to then jump in.”
“The second short I directed and co-wrote was called ‘The Substitute for Love’ which aired on BET on national cable and got into a few festivals. After that, I just kept on writing short form stuff, until I started my first feature, ‘Road to Juarez’.”
“I can’t really tell how this story came to be, because there were so many different incarnations of a similar story. 'Road to Juarez’ just kept on evolving and changing. And then when Juarez hit the news, everybody seemed to be talking about the crime and underworld there. But as things were happening in Juarez, I started looking at all of the ways of turning the negatives into a positive. As you can imagine, there was no way I was actually going to shoot a film in Juarez. Fortunately, my script was all about the things that happen on the road there!”
“I also came up with the idea to dedicate part of the proceeds of this film to the FEMAP Foundation, an organisation honoured by CNN heroes dedicated to helping the children of Juarez affected by the extensive violence there.”
“My idea for 'Road to Juarez' was to fuse the genres of films like 'Motorcycle Diaries' and ‘Blow,' so that you had these latin sensibilities, but wrapped around a structure reminiscent of the great crime dramas we grew up with like ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Casino’. Though authenticity was of paramount concern, but I also wanted to present it in such a way that it would be universally appealing.”
“The one thing I learnt with the whole feature process is the work never stops. You had better find a script that you absolutely love, because you are married to it for three to four years, minimum.”
“Three quarters of this film was actually shot here in LA and Lancaster with it needing to look like it was authentically shot in Mexico. We then took a small unit to Mexico and worked with an amazing local production house called ‘Fungi Films’; who were invaluable to the production of this film.”
“My aim was to have the locations, the wardrobe, I mean everything, looking so authentic that anyone from Mexico couldn't even tell it was shot here in the US. It was so important to me personally that it look absolutely authentic, whereas in reality it was in fact a tapestry of filmmaking slight of hand.”
“We were very fortunate that the film has been embraced by Mexican audiences and US audiences alike. So far, we have headlined at ‘The OAXACA Film Festival’, ‘Puebla Film Festival’, ‘Pantalla De Cristal’ and the ‘Beverly Hills Film Festival’ here at home. ‘Road To Juarez’ was picked up by ‘Monte Cristo International’ who are putting together the distribution deal for this film as we speak.”
“Since the birth of this project, there has been no doubt in my mind that this was a blessed project. Maybe my grandma was watching over it after all? We were blessed with so many elements that films in our budget range never get, like an amazing cast which included names like, William Forsythe of 'The Rock', 'Boardwalk Empire' fame and Mexican star Adal Ramones of 'Otro Rollo' and 'Saving Private Perez'. Then to top all of that, we had legendary ASC cinematographer, Jonathan West of 'CSI', 'Charmed', 'Star Trek' fame come aboard.”
“As far as my next film goes, I’ve been approached by more than one offer to direct films in the same genre as ‘Road to Juarez’; but I really want to do something different now. We have optioned and we are now developing three original scripts. One of them is ‘Barcelona 43’ by acclaimed screenwriter Robert Cole. This script is beautiful and won best screenplay at several international film festivals.”
“We are also working on, an as yet 'untiled' project by Sam Shaver, which is based on a true story in the coal mines of West Virginia. Last but not least, we are in the process of securing the rights to an amazing screenplay by acclaimed writer Robert Boris of 'Electra Glide', 'Frank & Jesse' and 'Oxford Blues'. I’m so thrilled to be with these amazing artists and chomping at the bit to start making #2 of the 20 films I’ve got stuck in my noodle”