More Than a Movie

“These boys were mine and now I give them to you.” For the season finale of More Than a Movie , we sat down with friend of the pod Aitch Alberto to dive deep on her feature filmmaking debut. We discussed everything from adapting a beloved YA novel and convincing the author to give her the rights, to taking over directing duties from Miguel Arteta, and what it’s like to have financiers derail the p...

“We won Sundance! What the fuck?” If you’re an outsider, the film industry can be seemingly impossible to penetrate. It’s even more difficult to tell your story - and have it seen - when it’s a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale about a queer Latina and her alcoholic father set in a small town in New Mexico.  That story became the indie filmmaking miracle In the Summers , a deeply personal t...

“He did it for $7,000.” Before Machete , before Spy Kids , before From Dusk till Dawn , there was El Mariachi . Eager to make a name for himself in the world of film, but with no industry connections whatsoever, Robert Rodriguez went and directed a movie on his own - guerilla style - in Mexico, with a production budget of only $7,000. Producer Elizabeth Avellan is back to tell us how Robert came u...

“Let’s just shoot the play.” If you’ve listened to the first season of More Than a Movie , you may remember the one property that kept getting mentioned over and over - Zoot Suit - the play, and later film, that linked a generation of Latino actors and became a foundational text for the Chicano arts movement. Even many of our guests this season - from Andy Garcia to Lou Diamond Phillips and Enriqu...

“I was filming Plan B in the fall and editing Language Lessons on the weekend.” Everybody in Hollywood will tell you, it’s incredibly difficult to get a film made. Making a movie during a global pandemic? Even more difficult. Directing two movies during lockdown, in your first-ever attempt at feature filmmaking? Seemingly impossible. But not for Natalie Morales. We talked to the multi-hyphenate ab...

“What if it’s Miles Morales?” We’ve seen Spider-Man on screen before. In fact, we’ve seen him in three different live-action iterations over the last 22 years. And yet somehow, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse feels startlingly fresh, a major shock to the system.  We had never experienced anything like it in the world of superhero films, live-action or otherwise. Not only is the animation innovat...

“The idea of Spy Kids , just like boom, hit him.” Coming off a string of successful Hard-R genre movies, Robert Rodriguez decided to make a surprising pivot into the world of family films. Enter the Spy Kids : a wildly popular franchise that now spans five films and has grossed over $550 million at the box office.  We sat down with Robert’s wife and producing partner, Elizabeth Avellan, to discuss...

“You need to help me cast the Vatos Locos. ” Season one of More Than a Movie offered a deep dive on American Me - Edward James Olmos’ notorious directorial debut about the formation of a real-life Mexican prison gang. In this episode, we take a look at the film that came just one year later - allegedly delayed in part because of the release of and reception to American Me - that has a startlingly...

“I walked out of the play.” Fresh off winning a Student Academy Award, Colombian filmmaker Patricia Cardoso was looking for her next film project. After some initial hesitation, she decided to adapt the much-beloved (but somewhat problematic) stage play Real Women Have Curves into what would become a major Sundance sensation.  We sat down with Patricia to talk about the changes from stage to scree...

"There’s a whole audience you’re missing.” On this episode of More Than a Movie , we met with the producer of La Bamba , Academy Award winning filmmaker Taylor Hackford, and explored how a white kid from Santa Barbara ended up becoming the driving force behind a film about a Mexican-American rock star. We talked everything from obtaining life rights to casting Lou Diamond Phillips, and what it tru...

“I didn’t think I had a shot at Richie.” Nearly 40 years after its release, La Bamba remains a cinematic landmark for representation and one of the highest-grossing Latino films of all time. We interviewed the star of the movie, Lou Diamond Phillips, about  landing his big break, inhabiting the role of Chicano music icon Richie Valens, and bonding with the late singer’s family on set. See omnystud...

“I remember saying to myself, ‘that’s my part.’” For the season two premiere of More Than a Movie , we sat down with Andy Garcia to discuss the path to his legendary acting career, navigating Hollywood as a Latino, and manifesting his role as the successor to the most notorious crime boss in film history. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this season of More Than a Movie, host Alex Fumero takes us through some of our favorite films that have impacted Latino Cinema. From Andy Garcia’s 1990 breakout role in Godfather III to Natalie Morales’s 2021 double directorial debut with Plan B and Language Lessons, this podcast looks at the story behind the story of Latino movies over the last several decades. Every episode will reveal somet...

In More Than A Movie, host Alex Fumero dissects a cultural phenomenon and looks at its impact on different communities. EXILE Content Studio’s latest podcast Shoot the Messenger: Espionage, Murder, & Pegasus Software (subscribe here ) is a deep dive into one of the hottest phenomenons today - cybersecurity and spyware. We all use our phones daily, as almost an extension of ourselves - but what...

We recap what we've learned, especially the whirlwind final months when we got to the bottom of what happened here. We set out to find out what happened during and after the production of the movie American Me. It took six months, but we think we've determined who did what, and why they did it. Instead of fuzzy memories and street rumors, we finally talked to some of the people closest to the even...

A former member of the Mexican Mafia who was in the criminal syndicate at the time of the movie, explains how it all went down. A former member of the Mexican Mafia explains the process of extorting Edward James Olmos and the fallout on the street after the release of the movie, including the reasons for the killings of people who participated. He explains how the gang works, to what they took off...

Danny Haro was Edward James Olmos' right-hand man during his extortion and the production of the movie Danny Haro worked with Edward James Olmos throughout his career and was instrumental as the link between the filmmaker and the Mexican Mafia. He coordinated the delivery of the script to the prison and served as the go-between for Olmos and the Mexican Mafia.    More Than a Movie: American Me is...

Antoinette Levine was one of the best-known location managers in Hollywood when Edward James Olmos asked her to get him into a prison.  Antoinette Levine was one of the premier Hollywood location managers in the early 1990s, with a talent for finding gritty Los Angeles backdrops for directors like Tony Scott. When she pitched Edward James Olmos on her vision, he went for it — then asked her to get...

While American Me was being filmed, a documentary was being shot behind the scenes following the real-life gangsters who were working on the movie. Filmmakers Susan Todd and Andy Young join the podcast to talk about "Lives In Hazard" the documentary they made behind the scenes about the neighborhood gang members and the inmates at Folsom who were integrated into the cast and crew. We'll hear about...

Writer Erick Galindo grew up with American Me and remembers vividly the impact it had on the streets of L.A. Podcaster and writer Erick Galindo doesn't hold back in the recounting of his childhood in East and Southeast LA in the 1990s. And in those days, the movie that every kid in the barrio knew backwards and forwards was American Me. Erick says he saw firsthand how the film impacted recruitment...

Milton Grimes represented a Mexican Mafia leader who sued the production of American Me for stealing his life story. Milton Grimes represented Rodney King after his beating by the LAPD. He has served as a defense attorney in nine death penalty cases in 56 jury trials, and once got the call to represent notorious gang leader Joe “Peg Leg“ Morgan in his lawsuit against the movie. See omnystudio.com/...

Actor Sal Lopez spent months close to Edward James Olmos on the set of American Me and remembers the day he was told that people from the movie were dying.  Sal Lopez trained as a dancer, but his real breakout was when he went to his first casting call. Sal was part of the first wave of Mexican American actors to break into the mainstream, and American Me would be his magnum opus. But Sal was also...

The actors who played Puppet and Little Puppet, Danny de la Paz and Daniel Villarreal, share their experiences on-set and in the aftermath.   Danny de la Paz (Puppet) and Daniel Villarreal (Little Puppet) weren't just actors cast in American Me — they were part of a family of actors and filmmakers assembled by Edward James Olmos over the years that culminated with two powerful performances in Amer...

Actor Jacob Vargas shares his experience on and off screen with gangs, movies and American Me.   Jacob Vargas caught a big break when at the age of 20 he was tapped to play Paulito in American Me. Since then he's had a career most actors would envy and continues starring in TV and film even today. How has he thrived as a Latino in Hollywood? What was it like being a kid in LA growing up around rea...

Edward James Olmos is one of the most decorated and respected actors alive, especially in the Latino community. Who is the man responsible for American Me, and why did he make it? Most of us know Edward James Olmos as a legendary actor, but he's also an activist who for decades has worked on behalf of Latino causes from Hollywood to Washington D.C. But when both of those sides of him collided to m...