“Sound Of Freedom” Director Alejandro Monteverde On QAnon, Critics And Going Global

Alejandro monteverdi has co-written and directed The Sleeper hit of the summer sound of Freedom eight years in the making this low-budget indie film has grossed more than 167 million in less than six weeks putting it on par with franchise offerings such as Indiana Jones and the dial of Destiny as well as the latest installment of Mission Impossible and yet much of the success of the film has been credited to the marketing tactics of distributor Angel Studios as well as conspiracy-minded supporters repeating discredited Q Anon theories there have been accusations of racism and misleading storylines in the script itself monteverdi until now has stayed relatively quiet but he feels that others have hijacked The Narrative of what he says is not a faith-based or an agenda-driven movie I sat down with the director to discuss both his intent and the Fallout from the movie here's the full conversation thank you hi everybody I'm Diane Brady I'm here with Alejandro Monte Verde who is the director of the sleeper hit of the summer sound of freedom for those of you who have not seen it it's based on the true story of Tim Ballard a former government agent who embarks on a mission to rescue children from I guess you'd say child sex traffickers that's the right way to do it Alejandro good to see you congratulations on doing so well at the box office thus far 166 million as of early August basically yeah I'm so excited is this Beyond any expectations um let me ask you I think the Genesis story of this movie is really interesting because it's at odds with what we're currently seeing in the press in terms of you know left-wing right wing Q Anon you know talk about how this got onto your radar screen in the first place the story yeah to me to me that is the most important part and it's a missing link that has been missing through them throughout the entire coverage on this film and that's why I decided to finally come out and and start giving interviews I had kept my distance because yeah I just anything that becomes political I I keep my distance because I'm not a politician so and my my my my opinion has no impact so why to even give any kinds of opinion so the missing link that that that's why I decided now to come out and start you know given my my side of of the of the of the of this of how this how we got here so in 2015 and I'm I'm not very good with years but eight years ago it was eight years ago let's just say eight years ago so eight years ago I was I'm I'm a writer director so I always write and then director obviously but I write more than direct obviously yeah and I was writing another project and I came to bed and at that time it was before of iPads and all of this uh nice toys that we have today so I used to it was when we had btr's and you recorded the shows that you liked on TV and that's how you were able to watch them right and I always recorded three shows Dateline NBC 60 minutes and 2020. so what I can tell you news junkies yeah news jockey it was one of those three because you know they do stories and news reports that I really like is this that's where I kind of gathered my movies right so there was a piece short piece I remember it was like 15 minutes on child sexual exploitation material and the distribution of it and as a result child trafficking now I have never heard of that I was not familiar with this subject so it took me off guard and it really shook my soul that I couldn't sleep that night I woke up the next day and I had a serious talk with my wife I said to her I need to make a movie about this I need to create Awareness on this because I didn't know I wonder how many people don't know and obviously I got a little resistant at that time I only had one child and she's like who wants to see a movie about that I'm like I know it's gonna be tough but I I feel called to do this and I always say there's two kinds of movies the ones I want to make and the ones that I'm called to make and this is the ones that I feel like they're calling me to dive in and explore this thing so can I interrupt one sec how many how many times do you get called to make a movie is there in other instances like this because this is an eight-year project yeah every film this is uh I this is this was my third film I just finished my fourth film yeah every film I've done has been away kind of like a calling I have my list of the movies I want to make that I haven't make yet but yes I'm all every movie I've done until now has been like a a very strong calling that I feel I have to shine a light on this or I have to make a movie about this so I go I call my co-writer rodbar and I tell them hey let's do a movie on child trafficking and obviously he's like ah a little resistant but long story short we started writing a fiction complete fiction it was called the Mongol and it was a a simple story about a guy that has a change of heart that was on the crime or organized crime that saw an opportunity to buy children and sell them to Freedom so if you were you were going to do a movie about the villains your central character was going to be the villain not the not The Rescuer well no no no he was he was he had a change so far oh a change of heart so a former so he was buying them to free them to give him the right like like the set like the secondary character right exactly which is crazy because I was like that was like I couldn't believe it because I was already fictionalizing that story and I was two months into it I already had all the story beats in the movie and full-on fiction everything you know I remember I wanted I was dreaming I was like oh George Clooney will be the perfect because it was the Mogul it was a very wealthy man that you know was doing this well long story short I get a phone call from the producer of the film Eduardo verastegi and he says hey do you know who Tim Ballard is I'm like no it's a Google cream and call me back so I Googled him and I saw wow he will be amazing for me to get more information right so I still wasn't thinking to make a movie about his life but when I meet Tim Balor in person which I think it was just a couple days later oh my I was completely taken aback by the power of her of his story and I realized that his story surpassed the fiction that I was writing and long story short we were able to uh get his life right and I started working really close with team to try to tell this story and it was very challenging because in order to tell a story about this subject matter that an audience can digest but also enjoy and go and create an a a a a an experience a cinematic experience that is immersive that the audience can go and really travel through this journey through Darkness on a vehicle of Hope and when the movie ends it's really leaves you in a state of reflection and aware about this subject matter that was the the purpose of all these jurors so we started and it was it was difficult because you know a lot of times when you make a biopic the character is no longer alive so you have a lot of freedom you're like oh well you know everything this is based on a true story right so so that's part of what's interesting here I mean the part that I actually found the least believable was that his wife would accept him quitting his job mere months before he'd have a vested pension with that many kids I was like hold on a second but but tell me about the parts that had to be Amplified for that reason you're taught like that that sort of Heart of Darkness like Journey where he's going into essentially Rebel territory to rescue no spoiler alerts we don't know but was that was that part of the true story because I I'm not quite sure what the real story is yeah so you know just like any biopic that we see everybody biopic I watch a lot of biopics I think I've watched every biopic that is out there I dare to say and you know everybody will pick the minute you have you know an actor playing Mozart that's already that's no Mozart obviously and no one was there when monster was alive that is today so you create you take you have to if you don't take creative licenses you will not have an entertaining movie you will have a documentary or you know what you recreate of events that was never my goal I was to tell a story that creates Awareness on child trafficking yeah that's fair the vehicle the vehicle was the story of Tim Ballard so what I did as a filmmaker with my co-writer who spent a lot of time with Team downloading information from him and always asking him permission hey can we do this and he said well a few times I will dare to say that 75 of the film is as accurate as he happened in real life there is a good 20 percent that I have to take creative license to just be able to take all these years of his life into an hour and a half or two hours at the moment that's fair you have to do that but the one thing that it is true by the way is yeah he did laugh his pension and left everything to do this it's a that was the most heroic for me thing that he did more than go and into the dark of heart of the the Heart of Darkness and in a lot of things the style of the film I actually wanted the audience to know that they were watching a movie I wanted I didn't want to be real too realistic in terms because otherwise you wouldn't be able to digest this it's already hard enough just to see an old man with a child in the same room so I wanted the audience to be like hey you watching you're on Broadway you're watching a show you're watching on a spectacle you're watching a movie that's what the lighting is so installized and you know the fact that there's a fight I didn't want it to be real like a real fight I wanted to be symbolical that we have we're in a fight between light and darkness and I wanted that fight to feel more symbolical than real so so Tim Tim Ballard never went head-to-head with uh that that part's the creative license I mean I don't want to unpack the movie because should see it we we could say that he he did go his win his life has been on uh many times even worse than that to the point that he thought he was gonna die uh yeah so that's why I would say well I would only take creative license if it happened so he had an incident that was very close to that where he didn't have a chance to die to fight where he was just gonna be you know killed and in the middle of nowhere so I was like well you went through that in another country can I take that and put it here and it took months for him for me to convince him because he wanted to stay really true but yes those are the little things I will put in the 20 that I took some creative licenses uh in order but the essence is that's what I decided to stay true the essence you know his desire to go and risk his life to rescue children that is he risks his life until still today he wouldn't have no problem even if they tell him you go there you die he still will go well you know you know what there's so much to unpack here including the thing but I want to stick with the plot for now because you're the reaction you know this this it has become a sleeper hit in part because it really has become a you know a call to action for a lot of groups and talk about the when you started to become aware well let me go back a bit the next stage you're working on this movie um the distribution challenge um Angel Studios which is a Utah based you know does a lot of faith-based content they were your distributor was that something that you think was a factor in how people have reacted to the movie or I'm I'm curious to get your take since you've been on the front lines of this whole thing yeah well you know that we we went through a very tough times finding a distributor uh first because of Kobe second it's a very difficult movie to Market so I want to say that I don't know which distributor saw the film but I don't blame him for not for not taking it it's not an easy movie to Market just as whether it's it it's just a hard film I mean Schindler's List isn't easy to Market either from uh exactly so why I would I would imagine why would it be hard to Market a movie like this we were coming out of Kobe and their their thinking was that people wanted to see happy films with like you know very kind of like naughty because we wanted to kind of find an out and it was because we were coming out of Kobe and it was two years of people you know it was like we need something hopeful and for me son of philom is hopeful but in a more profound way because the darkness and you know the the the atrocities are out there and they call me normal shapes of form and if we're aware of it a society that is aware and he's created a dialogue about any challenge guess what change is gonna happen so that was that was the goal but I understand why the challenging so when Angel Studios came I met for them for the first time and yes in the beginning I was like that was in March of this year right yes yes around there and when I met with them I was blown away I came in very ecsteptic I was like oh my movie's gonna get labeled and this and that for whatever what were you worried about Alejandra what I have been a victim of everything I do that people tend to label because I'm attracted to themes that are controversial I just like those things they call me and I I every movie I've done they label me they label the film and it's I always give this example the hamburger example imagine you have a a hamburger the best hamburger in the world the bread was done by a Muslim the meat was done by a Buddhist and the the the the the waiter is a Catholic and you have the burger and then you say oh this is a religious burger no it's not it's a burger and we should just call it a burger don't label it a religious Burger but that's what's happened with my art everything they they labeled it like oh this is this oh this is this it's all labeled so I automatically thought I was like well they're gonna label this film you know but but then I was like no why would they label it as a faith label it as a faith-based is that is that what you were worried about that yes yes yes and I was like but then I was thinking no they're not going to label it as a face-based because it's not faith-based you know Silence by Martin Scorsese they didn't label it off of Facebook and you have priest all around and it's really a dilemma whether a priest is gonna die for his fate or not and they didn't label them like no they're not going to label it but then I met the three Harmon Brothers and I have to say I met three marketing Geniuses and three very Incredible Minds and I was blown away by them I was like I want to work with them and that's where this journey began there there are three young brothers that think outside the box that we lived in the film and they were very excited about it and they had big expectations and they put this whole marketing plan and they allow me to at least you know right the way for them uh obviously I I became a little pain for them because you know we we have to agree to disagree in many things which is that's the best what did you disagree on I mean it's interesting because when I've seen the trailer for the movie I'd say that I'd say that they did take a faith-based marketing approach which is yeah fair enough right that's the nature of what they do so so your fears were realized in some ways but yet at the end you know this is this is one thing that I when they speak your language is the most beautiful language I when I direct a movie I let tell people let me do my work I'll hear your opinions but if we have too many ideas and too many captains we're going to create a Frankenstein so what I have back all my investors and the people that work with me is please trust me because when I make a movie nobody understands what I'm doing they get scared I'm like trust me so here at one point they came to me and they say Alejandro trust us we know what we're doing trust us and yes I started seeing and then I started you know this is a funny story throughout my years you know you make a lot of friends and sometimes you don't tell them what you do right because that's why yeah you know you go you I haven't even taken treats or we don't even they don't even know I'm a filmmaker different friends to recommend me sound of Freedom by text they didn't know I made it oh I know of them their background they are not the audience that the media has said they are oh this is a conservative they are do not fit in that category and then I started seeing a lot of my friends because I am friends with everybody I'm not friends with one group or another group yeah I'm an immigrant I'm from Mexico I came here I'm an immigrant from Canada all hail immigrants and I I have a lot of Canadian friends so for me it's I I I I don't ever participate on any kind of the vision I'm friends literally I always dare to say to anybody I bet you you don't have a friends that believe this is this and that I say yes I do and or the address is like this you said you had fears that this would be labeled faith-based why would that be something that would bother you prior to even encountering them yeah the word fear is a big big word so it definitely was not fear concern was a concern because they've done it to all my other movies and on this one because of the the past films that angel Studio had distributed had to do with with with with you know faith-based uh uh uh narratives I automatically say well the way unfortunately we live in today we live with this tendency that we must label everything everybody it's like we must it's almost like an urge which I'm like why it's like it's better if you don't label anything but we live in that Society so we're like okay they we may be able to to fall in that category but then again I'm thinking no they can't label it because the movie is not you cannot level you can it's like if you have make you know a beautiful bottle of Mezcal and your your concern is that they're gonna label it as vodka you're like it's impossible it's a completely different alcohol it's gonna it's gonna be Mezcal well in here I was like it's impossible and to my surprise they label it but something beautiful happened and you there's no price to this the audience started watching the movie and they are the ones that started defending it and saying it's not faith-based it's a movie for everybody then we start seeing the polls and we start seeing that this ah the audience was complete bipartisan you cannot get to 200 million dollars with one only one side of the spectrum there's no movie that has arrived to that with only one side of you if you're Crossing those numbers guess what your move is bipartisan and it has crossover it's it's um it's in so in a way is this how important was the marketing strategy to getting people initially in the seats of the theater do you think because this was just released in July I think the opening weekend if I'm not mistaken um triumphed you know over Indiana Jones so it seems like that that's the time when people haven't yet seen the movie so marketing was very important do you think the faith-based marketing was a critical driver at the beginning well marketing is important to every single film I mean if if I don't know if you know budgets but if I'm not going to say numbers no definitely nobody should put me on budgets for movies yeah but if you if you you will be if you will not believe it if you were to find out the budgets on the big Studio movies how much to spend on marketing you will not believe it it's sometimes it's twice what the movie cost like or more well your movie only costs 14 and a half million dollars like that's incredible you made a movie for so little yeah so there are students marketing budgets that are in the hundreds of millions so here on this particular film we couldn't we didn't have hundreds of millions so we on well I don't want to take credit Angel Studios understood that the best billboard for this film was going to be Word of Mouth how do you create a word of mouth is you have to have Star by people watching the film and they went out and they started this campaign that he was about to create word of mouth and create Awareness on the film and I do think of course it will be the faith-based audience where definitely wanted to go see it but it's not like the faith-based audience is weird it's like we think this they're isolated no I could have one person you could have could have person that is you know practice his fate but his mother his father his brother his uncle his neighbor the practice where they go see the film and they go it's like you have to see this movie it's not a fake based film I know you're not a Christian I know you might be other religion but go see the film it has nothing to do this movie was not for one person it was for the human beings if you're a human being you're gonna like this movie that the world of marketing it's interesting and I want to get into so much you know obviously you've you've had so many different Innovative strategies here but the term faith-based I just want to pause a second because I don't think of Faith as as a a dirty word I'm from a multi-faith family is it become tainted in some way like we're talking about faith-based as if that's a bad thing why is it a bad thing is it because it's disconnected to the actual plot or because it evokes something that is what you don't want to associate with well unfortunately unfortunately unfortunately is you know if you go back into the 40s and 50s that that level of faith-based was actually a good label I mean oscar-winning movies yeah Charles this has done I mean you were it was different because it was associated with good art Unfortunately today some films you cannot generalize some face face film the quality of the filmmaking it's you know so it's almost one of those propaganda era or the quality you know it's not like it doesn't have in in and the hope is to change that it's a hey let's this maybe let's give a good name if if we're if we're already gonna get like it seems like it's very hard to fight the the level well let's make it an upgrade label you know not a label where it looks like you're making a not an intertexat yet I do feel people go to the movies to watch good cinema to be entertained they don't care if even if it has a label but the move is good it's okay the problem is well look a bit about the the start so Jim Caviezel I remember seeing it was a Passion of the Christ you know great actor when you were um recruiting him for the role um he's a strong personality who's been out there was that something that uh you thought well does that increase the odds of people having certain perceptions of the films I know he's been actively promoting it in a different way and for me this is going to sound a little pretentious but I say with humbleness I am very loyal and a very uh committed to my work to my art and I as a director I really don't care I that's why I work with everybody I really don't care what they they live in their private lives I really don't I just want to work with the best character and the best actor for my film I've become very selfish in that department as you should be when I when I met Jim I saw his conviction for he understood this subject matter more than me because he he this is very close to his heart very close he's he is father of three and I cannot talk more about it but it is public he adopted three kids from China so he understands this like nobody else and I knew right there when I met him that he was actually willing to die for this film so when we went to shoot it was not an Institute we were shooting six days a week and the most difficult situations that we could have because of our budget and I saw an actor that was so committed that Wheels coming in and giving his all literally his all that for me that's what I take I'm like that's that is one of the most professionals actors that I've ever worked he gave his all and how he connected with the character because I needed to do it all through the eyes and really convey this pain that it's a it's a it's it's a it's a worldwide pain I always say children should not have a nationality we don't whales don't have nationality when we say let's sell the whales we don't say let's sell the Mexican whales we should say we have to protect the children of the world and that in itself it's where it's gonna become a world problem it's not it's not an American problem it's a world problem when when I work with no I think that's fair well you know you've had a number of people come out publicly and very um vociferously for the movie like like Donald Trump when you got an endorsement from him was that uh how did you feel about that he loved the movie well for yeah for me I have to say one thing and that's why I I this is I think one of my few first interviews well thank you for that I I I I I thank you I ran away from anything that is political because I am not in politics yeah so or many things it doesn't matter what side or anything if it has to do with politics I distant myself because politics divide and I like to make movies that unite and create social dialogue I like to make movies that proposes a question never to impose I'm looking for answers so never to impose a a a a theme so when you start having screenings with political figures I myself decided to not be part of them because I don't want to you know unfortunately we are in a world that automatically is going to create a Division I am a Storyteller I'm an author I like to make movies not for one group or another group I like to make movies for everybody everybody is my audience I like to make movies for human beings so when when when their screenings like this I'm aware of them I know that they also did a screening which is this uh for all of the Congress by partisan uh I'm aware also that the current president you know got the film I'm aware I don't know if he saw it I'm aware that the former president saw the film I'm aware of that but I I'm just I just create a work that's fair I'm aware but I don't have an opinion on it that's fair I I don't see there's probably not an upside in taking sides you know but um the crowdfunding I have to of course mention you know you'd what six thousand plus crowdfunders one of whom I have to be was it Fabian Mart it was in the news recently as an accessory to a child kidnapping I think the headlines were somewhat wrong it's not quite as but that you know that must be one of the fears of anybody who has a crowd-funded uh movie these days because it's such a large Coho court you don't know who's in there it makes news because you know the headline sells what did what did you think when that came out well that that's the same as anything you know it's like you know I it's like when you buy a pair of shoes or or you invest on the stock market you can control what the people are gonna do you know so you that's you know when I I you know when I'm in a movie normally around 2 000 people work in a movie I don't know if one of those people are gonna do something crazy I can't control that it's it's what that's what it's called crowdfounding and that was part of this that was part of the distribution Department uh it had nothing to do with the funding of a film uh you know if you have money on the stock market and one the the one of the guys maybe the guy that from the head of the board of directors goes and those the most atrocious thing that a human being can think of it cannot be responsible for that so in this case you know I was aware of the situation but I also at the same time was for me was so obvious it's like yeah you can't control seven thousand people I didn't realize it was forgive my ignorance I actually thought it was it the way it was I thought it was part of the funding for production so this was only crowdfunding for the distribution so it was really 100 it was Angel Studios that was going out part of their strategy okay Angel Studios bought the film we did we we made the movie in 2018 yeah yeah finished we were on the we were on another distributor I think we were Fox International yeah we did it with Fox and then Disney bought Fox and then we kind of became orphaned so that and then the movie was fully funded and if you see the film at the end there's all the all the people that funded this film they're very powerful uh public figures so I kind of say them names myself but they're public you can go see the movie there you can just sit if you sit through to the end go ahead Alejandro sorry I don't mean to drop interrupt you go ahead I don't know what I'm saying is those those those guys you know they're very public also about where they stand on all the political Spectrum so you will realize that this was a very bipartisan joint venture to China light on on human trafficking tell talk about the Pay It Forward because that's something that I know is getting a lot of attention in Hollywood which is basically people who love the movie especially those who have maybe more of an perhaps an active activists you know mentality around this like people have to see us are buying tickets for other moviegoers to see the film yeah um is that talk a bit about that how important is that exactly success yeah the way I see that is when I met with the harman Brothers they explained to me very simple they say Alejandro the way this movie can actually make 100 million dollars is if we create a very strong word of mouth how do you create what a strong word of mouth is if people see the movie people need to see the movie so they can recommend that you cannot recommend something you haven't seen how do we get people to see the movie well there's has to be like a push and this is the pay forward a lot of people in America today because of money uh but you know you can see not a lot of people going to the movies not because they don't like the movies because the movies have become a little too expensive and more if you have a family of four or five five people sixty seventy dollars so they created this whole idea of paying forward to create awareness so but there's that's just a small amount of the tickets and they will do it and then it's like the best way to recommend the movie like uh walking billboard is if somebody calls me and says hey instead of buying the movie I got you you got free tickets so then you go see the film then you recommend the movie more and what happens when more movies see the film they are aware there's been so many cases that this this makes me emotional where people now that they're aware of our human traffic and they're at a coffee shop and they're looking and they see something strange because they're aware now about these they make a phone call there were two or three cases that are ready and they was they were right they were trafficking and selling that that minor for sex and it was this person that saw the movie Son of freedom because now they're aware so that awareness has no price social awareness that we have that we're creating is very important I was not aware about child trafficking eight years ago I knew about human trafficking but no child track is fitting for sexual exploitation because in my head it's like why why would you want like it's it's just it's a very small it's interesting because one of the I'm thinking of a case actually on Southwest recently where it was a white mother with her black child and and basically the flight attendant called in 9-1-1 because she believed that that person the mother was trafficking a young girl which is interesting because it speaks to a certain paranoia your movie's about hope do you worry at all that too much awareness can also create demons where there are none like child sex trafficking in the way you portray it as a very small proportion of the kids in sex work in this country at least well yes but the biggest one is in the family families are the uncle is is molesting their their and a lot of the times the children goes to their parents and the parents don't believe them don't believe because they're like how why would you my own your uncle want to touch you in your private parts is why that makes no sense well now guess what if a child comes and tells the mom this is what happened to me in school the mom is going to be like oh this is happening there is okay yesterday NBC yesterday NBC yesterday I have the news right here a hundred pedophiles have rested it's like wow a hundred no one not two uh and out of those 178 were in the United States 78 and they were and 12 children were rescued 12 and they were all creating child uh explosions was that because of the move was it linked to the movie do they link it back to the movie but it could be um in general maybe it could be but but one thing is this now is news this is not new before it was not news because for whatever reason when I was writing the movie in 2016 I was researching and something will pop it would only last in the news very little it's because there was not awareness now it's lasting longer people are talking about it people are a lot of victims are coming forward that they were quiet that's another thing a lot of people now are coming forward and say I was a victim I was a victim I was a victim and yes it opens up now that the majority of sexual exploitation with children are in the family mothers allowing it sometime or looking the other way and now those kids are going to have a voice and that's where I wanted to do in this film I wanted to make a movie about child exploitation on the on section and that and and unfortunately things got a little South but at the end the audience are continuing to see the film and what I'm more excited is about this these labels will be broken if I don't know we don't know what's going to happen we're coming out internationally I leave tomorrow for Colombia but we're coming out on all around the world over there there is not these conspiracy theories over there they're completely disconnected from what from from what's Happening what I call the biggest island in the world right the United States would think we're the only ones but outside because I do tend to travel a lot there's a completely different way of life and they're not trapped in all of these divisions into all you belong there you belong there no no they have their own divisions but they're not they're not part of the American divisions if we come back with also strong voice and a strong box office internationally then all the labels that we have been putting in here we're gonna break them because over there yet there's no the labels that we have here they don't have we don't have those labels there's no two parties when you talk about the labels you're talking about coming out and I appreciate the time you're giving me I know a lot of people are asking for your time but is it let's talk about Q Anon since that's one of the labels do you disability what is that mean that label I I because I don't know anything about them I didn't even took the time because I didn't care to I guess there's racist you know white supremacy well I didn't see any of that by the way yeah exactly so those labels I really because exactly they're so ridiculous that I didn't give attention to him I'm gonna tell you the one I did give attention so all those names which I don't even know and I didn't even know anything about it so I literally genuinely don't know what those conspiracy theories are because I don't my time is precious I have three kids if I'm going to spend time which has to be on something that is substantial I don't have Instagram Facebook I don't have social media so but one of them that I saw is which is not true it's this is what I was like this is not true we have the numbers is this is a film only for the conservative audience that is not true we have the numbers we have the polls and what do the numbers say what do the numbers say there was an article I think they were putting us around 40 percent of the audience the movie goers were Democrats it's not mine there was an article out there and well very big with Hispanic audiences too right it's been very Hispanic very yeah and very weak I'm a Hispanic I'm a Mexican and it's also very big that they also want to label the Hispanic market to say that they are all belong to one party they're like oh all Hispanics are Democrats that's not true that's racist in itself so exactly those labels to me every label Falls in that dangerous category I I'm against labeling at all times because you have to get to know somebody a human being for at least more than five years to be able to dare to say that you know them it takes my mother one day said it takes a lifetime to get to know one person lifetime so how can you say and reduce a person or a uh or the product of their work into one word if you don't know like in this case they don't know that I I uh this story the way I came up with the calling to do this was eight years ago watching in the media itself so that that Missing Link was not there so it's just to me it's part of of of the miscommunication that we we tend to kind of end up on these situations I I want to just ask a few other quick questions one in retrospect when you look at the plot do you think there are any elements of this plot that might have signaled the you know that let's say triggered and and one being of course we've got this you know with Jim Caviezel and the character of Tim Ballard a white good-looking relatively Young American guy going to rescue these kids in another country where there's a infrastructure of people that could rescue them theirselves is that one of the things that you think um perhaps creates the wrong impression you know when people make this accusation of like almost White Noise the the people that will take the time to dig in because you know a lot of times I mean there is in like everything there's good doctors and bad doctors there is great journalists like yourself that do the homework and then there are some journalists that quoted that I directed movies that I've never seen he said what it's like oh yeah they say you directed this I was like well that's pretty sloppy they should really one minute to find my phenomenal filmography so in this case anybody that takes their time and say well who's the author at the end the author is the one if oh he's Mexican born in Mexico yeah uh U.S not not to realize uh Citizen and he's the one that wrote directed and produced the film okay well I don't think he's into any of the white supremacy or these things I think he just casted somebody body that looked like team Ballard okay yeah that's fair so that is that is really the the threat now to me that's a conspiracy we blame conspiracy but the other side it's also a conspiracy because it's not true so it's like well maybe it's the white savior ideology well it's not it's not true it's like the same thing with the vodka and the tequila it's not Vodka it's Mezcal it's tequila yeah same thing in here it's like they can cons they can create a theory around it but it's not true because when you point to a real issue which is interesting around the media because even this often happens but on Rotten Tomatoes I last I checked it was 99 approval ratings from audiences um still positive but less so from mainstream critics and you know there's this perception among some that mainstream critics tend to skew left is that do you feel like there's a disconnect between what the general public how they're reacting to this move movie and the coverage that you're getting because that's partly why you're doing this oh my gosh I I was waiting for this question my whole life thank you very much that's good hours off you go especially with my movies there's a massive disconnect I did one movie that I broke the record on the disconnect I don't know if it's really long but I made I made a movie called little boy and I had at one point I had like 90 something percent and I had eight percent from the critics so that disconnect I was like so I I am I am a living witness of what that disconnect is on this one you know we for money money weeks we had 100 from over 10 000 audiences and they're all verified because they're verified Romano meter a hundred for weeks we just came down to 99. so yes there's a massive massive disconnect I stopped reading Rotten Tomatoes because of that so yeah I I do think there is a a a a disconnect with with with that at least with my films it may not be I can only speak for me this is not a I always say there is two things facts and opinions this is not a fact opinion uh so for my movies I feel that there's a disconnect so I will not generalize for other movies it's because there may be close why why is that what does that tell you about whether it's mainstream media of which I'm of course apart I don't know I don't know I I'm attracted to to movies that propose questions that are difficult questions so I always like to make films that are in regards with that and I feel like many times they fall victim on a label and by the time the critics come to see the film it already has a label so they they they have a little bit of uh of of prejudice of how they're going to um you know judge the film now not everybody you know little boy had a percent so there was a few critics that loved the film uh you know and you know in in Santa Freedom you know we got like 60 say 67 or 69 and yeah so that means there's a few critics that do like what I'm doing and but yes I I don't have um but it it that disconnect because part of what you've tapped into whether it's you or or Angel Studios there's a certain level of anger a lack of trust in institutions um you know this is you have your main character as a Department of Homeland Security official who quits his job before is getting his pension and goes Rogue basically um that that sort of speaks to a certain um you know a certain group of Americans that really don't trust the media don't trust Washington etc etc which frankly is one of the reasons you're here today talking to me yeah I mean it's very interesting because you know I moved to this country when I was around 18 years old and you know I I this country has been to me so giving you know my dream here I met my wife here I went to college here I made my first movie here you know I I do you know the the whole support of Freedom you know we you do have freedom of speech you know I come from a country you speak a little too much you may disappear so it's uh it's it's it's I I the opportunities that I have had in this country I I I I am completely grateful but I also started noticing that as as the longer I'm here the longer I start seeing this division you know I I came here yeah I'm around 20 or something years so more than 20 years ago and I just feel like the countries continuing to kind of politically divide even further and further and even though I always say the power of one I said my job is I love to bring him together in what they agree I don't want them to agree on what they disagree they can continue to disagree on that but to open up to the things that they do agree it's just like we can start with wine I bet you if like if you hey what kind of wine you like if you bought like well let's drink would you like and or if you're both parents okay well then you know or even more if you both know and have experience a level of suffering so imagine you take one character that represents the far ideology of one particular party and then another character that represents the opposite but they both lost their child well yeah that's finding common ground well I bet you that connect they can be more connected than people that agree with them because they have not experienced that level of which is the human pain and that suffering can bring societies together if we focus on what we agree and we will find out that we bring more things that we disagree but if we if we are always continuous to be pushed and what we disagree we're never gonna get to enjoy the things that we do agree so that's me as a Storyteller I like to make films that bring people together and I always that's my big my big uh calling for me I love you to just bring to bring audiences together so so you're going International um who's Distributing when is that happening and uh any news on on how that's happening how many countries and yeah I live tomorrow to Colombia and I'm doing a tour all the way Colombia Argentina Brazil all the way down to Mexico then I go to London and then I know uh Australia and then many places in in in uh in in Europe so I think what they're doing is they're doing a rollout but really quick I mean these are premieres so once the premiere is a movie comes out the next day so it's coming out within a week and a half in the next 10 days in at least 25 countries or more and will it be a very different marketing strategy do you anticipate to your point yes I think every marketing every country is gonna have the the Distributors way of marketing but I I this is me talking this I don't know if this is I'm just logic common sense if I'm a distributor in France and I was like wow this movie made close to 200 million dollars in the U.S I will for sure recall in the students okay how is that yeah the techniques it will be some influences but it's different cultures there's different you know that the whole thing of faith base doesn't exist there so that you can that level at least we won't have how is uh how is Tim Ballard reacting I know that one of the challenges with the movie is um you get more scrutiny you'd mention that he's not dead he's very much alive and there's been more scrutiny of you know did he really do this did he really do that in the movies and that's one of the unpleasant consequences I think of having a movie based on a true story about you um how have you found the coverage of him well in the beginning I do I was just doing research and then I spent two years just downloading as much information post movie do you think the coverage because he's come under scrutiny for what did he do or not do and part of what of course is you know um your movies based on a true story for he might be harder because he's you know he's an agent and he's still doing that work for me it's a lot easier because I embrace it I say yes it's a movie and you know my favorite films of all time is Amadeus and I doubt that salieri say I kill Mozart and I found another movie that I love is Hot Shot rich and you know he's like how do you know how he hiding on like all these elements that no one was there how do you know how those things happen if you were not there and the guy is no longer here you're an Entertainer it's normal for a for an artist and a filmmaker to take creative licenses you have to so for me it's I embrace it I'm like yeah yeah for me it's normal it's like hey are you wearing black girl yeah you you your your element was fictionalized his maybe he's got to go back and explain what was or wasn't anything you've learned actually tell Tim Ballard I say hey when they tell you that tell him it was me because he was me he was not him telling me I was the one trying to push the story farther I'm like hey can I do this hey can I so in a way he's more if if I I had to kind of stretch a little bit things to to make things more exciting yeah um so you know say Hey you know filmmaker wanted to touch it blame the filmmaker exactly well he spawned there were some many things that he did not let me do I was like hey can I do that he says no that's too far no he can't do that I I love to sit in a room and hear some of those pitches but the ones that he did aloud is because he was like that Essence that has happened I have willingly about to die and I I did it for the children so those are the things that he kind of allow me but also I don't want to discredit that there is a big I will say 70 to 75 percent of the film it's as close as accurate as it can be so how Alejandro let's go back full circle to end on on the Genesis of what got you here what what have you learned from the past several weeks you've had as I said this has become a cause celeb certainly among a certain group of people Q Anon supporters of whom you know Jim Caviezel I would put in that camp I think he would put himself in the camp of being at the very least sympathetic um what dude what I get your message but what have you learned and what would you say to that group of people who who have been very important in driving the success of this film I wish I was more familiar or maybe you can educate me I don't I'm not familiar with any groups outside of the regular overall audience I know that when they say faith-based audience I always get confused it's it's like what it's like you pick up the mic and they all listen and say how do you type because you know faith-based audience do you put Muslims Jewish Catholics Christians and what faith are we talking about when you see yeah it's a stereotype and then they may say well because you know I'm Catholic so I don't know what you know I've it's sad but because you know I I do try to go every Sunday and I've never heard somebody talking about my movie in the castle I'm like well I don't know if the Catholics are why they're not pushing this movie but I don't know or at least not in church so when they say the faith-based marketing I have no idea how that works so I don't know how that moves all I know is this I was asking friends of mine that are not in the faith base actually if we if we wanted to put it in in that category they're not only not on the face but they're actually in the opposite world you know they're more of like as full on mainstream as you can be and they're like hey man I'm getting bombarded with sound of Freedom stuff I was like how it's I don't know in my YouTube in my Instagram and my and this this this is this is France that I can tell you they're in the other part of the spectrum of anything that has been brought up that's why I'm like that's not true when they say oh they have the conservative audience I'm like that's not true because my little group of friends they're getting bombarded with the movie on Facebook so the angel Studios the harman Brothers they were able to do a very strong social media outrage I have no idea how they were able to kind of tap into everybody my wife also was getting they don't know you know she's my wife but they were like I was like so at one point it started to become everywhere and so it's fine yeah it went viral and I do think now it had to do I think because one of the things that I did see because I don't have me social media but people share with me and unfortunately when they send me Instagram or Facebook they don't let you see it if you don't have so I cannot see anything they send me from Instagram they send me hey look at this Instagram and I click and it's like you don't have an account you can't you have to join yeah Tick Tock when they send them to me I do and I did see a good over a dozing videos on ticked out that people were just texting me of just regular kids coming out and sitting in their car and saying you have to go see this film and then I was like okay so then I will call a friend of mine say you have Tick Tock yeah can you tell me how many followers oh man 700 000 followers are wow can you tell me what's the background from very very liberal like would not know they're actually boom boom and I'm like oh wow so so you feel your it's yeah being painted again fairly in one side you painted one-sided they didn't cover the other side like hey this movie is transcended to label because it was never meant to be for one people it what it did you cannot reach these numbers if you didn't transcend a label and I'm so grateful that it did transcended the label that's that's the the massive uh 166 million yeah 166 million thus far I'm sure you'll hit that 200 million box office Point as you're about to go uh International as well Alejandro thank you so much for your time enjoying us and good luck

Channel: Forbes

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Id: a4vfnmEp6Lw

Length: 58min 12sec (3492 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023