El Segundo, at its heart, is a movie about ritual. From the ritual of having a beer after work and going to a strip club, to ritual of having to wait around when your car breaks down, everything in life has a process. And when these actions are repeated over time, they attain the status of ritual. When you put these activities in the context of a dramatic story, they acquire a significance they would not otherwise have.
The movie’s centerpiece is a collage of three rituals, occurring simultaneously around the ranch: El Mayor performing the bloodletting possession ritual to achieve eternal life, Sam and Delicia performing the rituals of new love, and Armando and the others performing the rituals of the cockfight. What these things have in common is a sense of trying to reach beyond the ordinary, to touch the extraordinary.
El Segundo was the first feature for every member of the crew, and most of the cast as well, Pedro Armendariz, Jr. a notable and experienced exception. As a result, every day that we embarked on the film making ritual was a journey into the unknown, and at the end of the 18 day period of principal photography, we were exhausted, tattered and torn. But we were amazed that we had finished, and happy with how beautiful the digital imagery had come out.
Animation, digital effects, color work, and sound design play a vital part in the telling of the story. To that effect, it is important to point out the contributions of two men, animator Jack Myers and color/sound editor Jeremiah Black. Their contributions, created almost entirely by themselves in their apartments, give El Segundo its polish.
Originally inspired by the Bob Dylan song “Isis,” the script was written over a period of a year by myself and Roy Misael Trejo. We had been doing theater together in New York City for a number of years, and were looking to branch out into an arena where it would be possible for our work to be seen by a much larger audience. We began to take trips down to Southeast Texas, specifically Corpus Christi, Alice, and Loredo. Many nights were spent in a small, freezing trailer on a bay in Rockport, taking turns writing and crawling on top of the trailer to try and build a barrier around the chimney to keep the strong winds from blowing out the pilot light in the insufficient furnace. Many days and nights were spent on the Trejo family ranches (where we eventually shot much of the movie), hunting, drinking in stories and beer, exploring, and feeling the spirit of the place.
The shooting script contained a great deal of dialogue that was not included in the final product. In fact, the movie was originally meant to focus on the love story between Sam and Delicia, and the original title was to be “Delicia.” But after putting together the footage, we realized that the true story was in the tale of the jewel El Segundo and the path it takes through the lives of these people.
The movie was more or less finished in 2004; however, due to various clearance issues, new music had to be written and installed in the movie, and a lot of house cleaning had to be done, which is why the official copyright date is 2006.
El Segundo may put off some viewers at first, due to the rawness of the rituals it portrays; however, it holds great rewards for those who take the ride to the end. I look forward to the day when it is in the world, to be discovered for the odd gem that it is.
Hank Jacobs
Director/producer/co-writer
1/17/07
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