I couldn't be happier that the music video has regained its cultural capital in the age of YouTube. There's something about the form that is just magical. Or maybe it's just that it's been the most reliable fix for movie-musical lovers during the past 30 years. You can pretend these 3 to 5 minute show stoppers are but one scene in a larger movie musical, can't you? At least that's what I do with my favorite videos.

So herewith, several favorites in no particular order. If you're wondering what music videos have to do with The Film Experience remember that they're short films and that this year's most celebrated director David Fincher (The Social Network) started that mammoth career by making mammoth music videos for Madonna (among others).

Please to enjoy. And let me know your favorite(s) in the comments.

8 FAV MUSIC VIDEOS OF '10
Why only 8? I ran out of steam. You don't have time to watch 10 anyway.

Brandon Flowers "Crossfire"

In which Charlize Theron kicks much ninja ass. I love the self-effacing helplessness of your rock star hero who just can't stop getting into predicaments from which his hot girl (Charlize) must rescue him. Movie stars slumming in music videos is one of the best things in the world though this video does bring up my constant worry about Charlize: Why is she so awesome without making any movies worth caring about?

Janelle Monáe (feat. Big Boi) "Tightrope"

Those feet. The way they slide, spin, shuffle, dance. It's quite a feat.

Cosmo Jarvis "Gay Pirate".

I heart this so hard. That "Yo Ho" chorus is to die. Plus, it's lit and choreographed cleverly for one take (joy) and it's easily enjoyable both on the surface -- gay pirates!  -- and moreso if you want to dig deeper (think don't ask don't tell) which is the best kind of artistic trick.

But there's more: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gaga, and more one-take madness coming...

...

Lady Gaga (feat. Beyoncé) "Telephone"

I mostly love this one for the costumes, the Amazon aggression and the Kill Bill and Thelma & Louise shout outs. True story: I was playing charades the other night at a Christmas party and I had to act out this dance. HIGHLY EMBARRASSING.

Cazwell "Ice Cream Truck" [NSFW]

Because it's raunchy/hilarious (NSFW). Cazwell's songs sometimes have good laughs (I Saw Beyoncé at Burger King -lol) but this is the first video to match/surpass the fun embedded in the song.

Vampire Weekend "Giving Up the Gun"

Four things we love in different contexts entirely: tennis, Vampire Weekend, funny Jake Gyllenhaal, people battling with themselves through the magic of movie editing. These four things together = quadruple happiness.

Cee-Lo "F*** You"

A musical biopic (of sorts) that's actually entertaining. The only thing that would make this video better is if Cristal, Ronnette & Chiffon were playing the doo-wop chorus behind the counter.

Ok Go "This Too Shall Pass"
[Rube Goldberg Machine Version]

Ingenuity, humor, and one take which continually ups the ante. It's for anyone who has ever marvelled at How Things Work. The ending is so great. The one take thing is an addiction we too rarely get a fix of -- we love it within feature films even more; over there it's an endangered species known as "the long take."  I couldn't find much statistical data about ASL (average shot length) on the web -- most of it is really random studies of singular movies but everyone knows it's been decreasing steadily for years. It's definitely under 4 seconds now, maybe closer to 2 with action films, which are even more shard fragment-like coming in under that.

Now it's your turn. Which music videos did you love this year?

Exit Music: This last one isn't an all time great music video, but it's my absofavorite song this year so I have to end with it.

Beyoncé· Charlize Theron· GLBT· Gyllenhaalic· Lady Gaga· music videos· Robyn· year in review

Year in Review: Music Videos a.k.a. Short Movie Musicals

I couldn't be happier that the music video has regained its cultural capital in the age of YouTube. There's something about the form that is just magical. Or maybe it's just that it's been the most reliable fix for movie-musical lovers during the past 30 years. You can pretend these 3 to 5 minute show stoppers are but one scene in a larger movie musical, can't you? At least that's what I do with my favorite videos.

So herewith, several favorites in no particular order. If you're wondering what music videos have to do with The Film Experience remember that they're short films and that this year's most celebrated director David Fincher (The Social Network) started that mammoth career by making mammoth music videos for Madonna (among others).

Please to enjoy. And let me know your favorite(s) in the comments.

8 FAV MUSIC VIDEOS OF '10
Why only 8? I ran out of steam. You don't have time to watch 10 anyway.

Brandon Flowers "Crossfire"

In which Charlize Theron kicks much ninja ass. I love the self-effacing helplessness of your rock star hero who just can't stop getting into predicaments from which his hot girl (Charlize) must rescue him. Movie stars slumming in music videos is one of the best things in the world though this video does bring up my constant worry about Charlize: Why is she so awesome without making any movies worth caring about?

Janelle Monáe (feat. Big Boi) "Tightrope"

Those feet. The way they slide, spin, shuffle, dance. It's quite a feat.

Cosmo Jarvis "Gay Pirate".

I heart this so hard. That "Yo Ho" chorus is to die. Plus, it's lit and choreographed cleverly for one take (joy) and it's easily enjoyable both on the surface -- gay pirates!  -- and moreso if you want to dig deeper (think don't ask don't tell) which is the best kind of artistic trick.

But there's more: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gaga, and more one-take madness coming...

...

Lady Gaga (feat. Beyoncé) "Telephone"

I mostly love this one for the costumes, the Amazon aggression and the Kill Bill and Thelma & Louise shout outs. True story: I was playing charades the other night at a Christmas party and I had to act out this dance. HIGHLY EMBARRASSING.

Cazwell "Ice Cream Truck" [NSFW]

Because it's raunchy/hilarious (NSFW). Cazwell's songs sometimes have good laughs (I Saw Beyoncé at Burger King -lol) but this is the first video to match/surpass the fun embedded in the song.

Vampire Weekend "Giving Up the Gun"

Four things we love in different contexts entirely: tennis, Vampire Weekend, funny Jake Gyllenhaal, people battling with themselves through the magic of movie editing. These four things together = quadruple happiness.

Cee-Lo "F*** You"

A musical biopic (of sorts) that's actually entertaining. The only thing that would make this video better is if Cristal, Ronnette & Chiffon were playing the doo-wop chorus behind the counter.

Ok Go "This Too Shall Pass"
[Rube Goldberg Machine Version]

Ingenuity, humor, and one take which continually ups the ante. It's for anyone who has ever marvelled at How Things Work. The ending is so great. The one take thing is an addiction we too rarely get a fix of -- we love it within feature films even more; over there it's an endangered species known as "the long take."  I couldn't find much statistical data about ASL (average shot length) on the web -- most of it is really random studies of singular movies but everyone knows it's been decreasing steadily for years. It's definitely under 4 seconds now, maybe closer to 2 with action films, which are even more shard fragment-like coming in under that.

Now it's your turn. Which music videos did you love this year?

Exit Music: This last one isn't an all time great music video, but it's my absofavorite song this year so I have to end with it.

Movie|Line celebrates a year of "The Verge," their great up-and-coming actor series.
Cinema Blend goosing the sales of True Grit (the novel)
Today One of the Fantastic Four will die in the comic's #587th issue. Does anyone still believe in these marketing ploys? I'm sure they'll come back to life within 3 years. That's how comics do.
MUBI The great Michel Piccoli is 85 today. Has anyone seen La Belle Noiseuse (1991)? That's such a good one.
CineEuropa international actor Armin Mueller-Stahl will receive a lifetime achievement award at Berlinale this year.
The Guardian talks to Andrew Garfield about Spider-Man (with audio)
Blog Stage an informative and weird animated bit describing what's going on with Spider Man's Broadway disaster.
Towleroad Mickey Rourke to pay gay rugby legend Gareth Thomas in a sports bio. We've had a lot of sports bios at the movies but you can't say we've had a lot of rugby films, gay or otherwise.
Scott Feinberg, fine Oscar pundit, delivers his top ten.

Finally, the New York Times has a totally bizarre article called "Hollywood Moves Away from Middlebrow Movies" which is about the new quality edict in Hollywood. I never understand these articles which seem to find all sorts of bizarre trends that the box office data doesn't actually support like "originality sells!" Er, no... I wish! I knew the article was in trouble when it says that Hollywood is going for quality and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is referred to as "arty" example of directorial artistry. Let me get this straight, in an article praising studio interest in Quality Original Films one of the prime examples is a messily 3D converted 2D film of a story that's been adapted literally dozens of times for the movies back to the days of silent film?

sigh

I swear to the cinematic gods that that one 2010 junkpile is going to be the death of me. It will not go away. I'll even have to be dealing with it in 2011 for the Oscars. Nooooooooooooooooo
*

box office· Fantastic Four· GLBT· Mickey Rourke· Spider-Man· sports· superheroes· Towleroad· True Grit

Links: True Grit, Spidey, Gay Rugby, and "Original" Films

Movie|Line celebrates a year of "The Verge," their great up-and-coming actor series.
Cinema Blend goosing the sales of True Grit (the novel)
Today One of the Fantastic Four will die in the comic's #587th issue. Does anyone still believe in these marketing ploys? I'm sure they'll come back to life within 3 years. That's how comics do.
MUBI The great Michel Piccoli is 85 today. Has anyone seen La Belle Noiseuse (1991)? That's such a good one.
CineEuropa international actor Armin Mueller-Stahl will receive a lifetime achievement award at Berlinale this year.
The Guardian talks to Andrew Garfield about Spider-Man (with audio)
Blog Stage an informative and weird animated bit describing what's going on with Spider Man's Broadway disaster.
Towleroad Mickey Rourke to pay gay rugby legend Gareth Thomas in a sports bio. We've had a lot of sports bios at the movies but you can't say we've had a lot of rugby films, gay or otherwise.
Scott Feinberg, fine Oscar pundit, delivers his top ten.

Finally, the New York Times has a totally bizarre article called "Hollywood Moves Away from Middlebrow Movies" which is about the new quality edict in Hollywood. I never understand these articles which seem to find all sorts of bizarre trends that the box office data doesn't actually support like "originality sells!" Er, no... I wish! I knew the article was in trouble when it says that Hollywood is going for quality and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is referred to as "arty" example of directorial artistry. Let me get this straight, in an article praising studio interest in Quality Original Films one of the prime examples is a messily 3D converted 2D film of a story that's been adapted literally dozens of times for the movies back to the days of silent film?

sigh

I swear to the cinematic gods that that one 2010 junkpile is going to be the death of me. It will not go away. I'll even have to be dealing with it in 2011 for the Oscars. Nooooooooooooooooo
*

year in review part 3 of several

With 2010 about to wrap, let's do a top ten list albeit a very specific one. Let's make like Barbara Walters and choose The Most Fascinating (Fictional, LGBT) People. Barbara obviously uses a different criteria than "fascinating" in her annual roundup. Hers seems closer to "constantly in the news /has overworked publicist"  and our choices are also debatable. The ranking is somewhat arbitrary. It's a glorified excuse to talk about people, in this case the LGBT characters who were on movie screens in 2010. So let's get to it.

The Invisible Man
This following list is dedicated to the openly gay "Chris Hughes" in THE SOCIAL NETWORK, portrayed by Patrick Mapel (pictured left with Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg in the movie). Because this excellent movie chooses to focus so tightly on its intellectual property lawsuits, fraternity "punch" lust, and that central squabbling sextet of Ivy League straight boys (Zuckerberg, Saverin, Narendra, Parker, and "the Winklevii"), it apparently didn't have much room for diversity; the women and the gays involved in the Facebook story don't get much attention.

Read the list of the year's best gay characters at my weekly column @ Towleroad featuring The Kids Are All Right, I Love You Phillip Morris, La Mission and more.

*

GLBT· SatC· Towleroad· year in review

Year in Review: Best LGBT Characters

year in review part 3 of several

With 2010 about to wrap, let's do a top ten list albeit a very specific one. Let's make like Barbara Walters and choose The Most Fascinating (Fictional, LGBT) People. Barbara obviously uses a different criteria than "fascinating" in her annual roundup. Hers seems closer to "constantly in the news /has overworked publicist"  and our choices are also debatable. The ranking is somewhat arbitrary. It's a glorified excuse to talk about people, in this case the LGBT characters who were on movie screens in 2010. So let's get to it.

The Invisible Man
This following list is dedicated to the openly gay "Chris Hughes" in THE SOCIAL NETWORK, portrayed by Patrick Mapel (pictured left with Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg in the movie). Because this excellent movie chooses to focus so tightly on its intellectual property lawsuits, fraternity "punch" lust, and that central squabbling sextet of Ivy League straight boys (Zuckerberg, Saverin, Narendra, Parker, and "the Winklevii"), it apparently didn't have much room for diversity; the women and the gays involved in the Facebook story don't get much attention.

Read the list of the year's best gay characters at my weekly column @ Towleroad featuring The Kids Are All Right, I Love You Phillip Morris, La Mission and more.

*

Glenn Close got back in front of movie cameras two days ago. Albert Nobbs has just started filming. She plays a cross dressing woman in 1890's Ireland.

[photo src]

Barring the movie going to cable (these things happen) of failing to get distribution (these things happen, too) will Glenn Close finally be back in the Oscar race next year at this time? She was last nominated for 1988's Dangerous Liaisons over twenty years ago. Since that Oscar regular heyday (5 nominations all within the 1980s) she's gone on to win 3 Emmys, 1 SAG and 2 Golden Globes for television roles.

The film is directed by Rodrigo García (pictured left with Close) who specializes in the actresses, most famously in television or in films like Mother & Child, Nine Lives and Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her. We hope he finds new inner fire as a writer/director this time. The talent with actors is obviously there but the energy of the filmmaking, some sort of electric spark is missing. So far. Will this project be the game changer?

The movie is based on the short story turned play The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs which the diva actress previously played on stage... before she was ever in a movie! I couldn't find a photo from the play but here's a review from 1982 (!) of Ms. Close's performance, the same year she first hit the big screen in The World According to Garp. Michael Gambon and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers co-star.

Albert Nobbs· broadway and stage· GLBT· Glenn Close· Oscars (11)· Oscars (80s)

Glenn Close as Albert Nobbs

Glenn Close got back in front of movie cameras two days ago. Albert Nobbs has just started filming. She plays a cross dressing woman in 1890's Ireland.

[photo src]

Barring the movie going to cable (these things happen) of failing to get distribution (these things happen, too) will Glenn Close finally be back in the Oscar race next year at this time? She was last nominated for 1988's Dangerous Liaisons over twenty years ago. Since that Oscar regular heyday (5 nominations all within the 1980s) she's gone on to win 3 Emmys, 1 SAG and 2 Golden Globes for television roles.

The film is directed by Rodrigo García (pictured left with Close) who specializes in the actresses, most famously in television or in films like Mother & Child, Nine Lives and Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her. We hope he finds new inner fire as a writer/director this time. The talent with actors is obviously there but the energy of the filmmaking, some sort of electric spark is missing. So far. Will this project be the game changer?

The movie is based on the short story turned play The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs which the diva actress previously played on stage... before she was ever in a movie! I couldn't find a photo from the play but here's a review from 1982 (!) of Ms. Close's performance, the same year she first hit the big screen in The World According to Garp. Michael Gambon and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers co-star.

I meet first-time feature director, US based Javier Fuentes-León in a tasty Puerto Rican restaurant called Sazon. We're there to chat up his Peruvian/Colombian movie "Undertow" (also known as Contracorriente), a romantic gay drama which is also a portrait of a rural community and also a ghost story. But the 'where from?',  'what kind?' and 'why this?' of it are surface details. Javier Fuentes-León is not into all these labels, anyway.

Javier Fuentes-León (photo src)

"For me when I moved here people were immediately like 'So what are you? Are you Spanish Peruvian? Are you Indian Peruvian?" The filmmaker says, recalling his first days in Los Angeles for film school.

"No, I'm Javier." I offer, following his train of thought. "No, I'm Javier." he confirms.

His amiable but definite resistance to labels is, as it so happens, a huge strength for the film about a married fisherman Miguel (Cristian Mercado) who struggles to come to terms with his ongoing love affair with a gay painter Santiago (Manolo Cardona). Tragedy will strike and Miguel's pregnant wife Mariela (Tatiana Astengo) will soon know the truth. The fisherman has tough choices ahead.

The subject of labels emerges when I bring up the Kinsey scale. I'm curious about how much stock the director puts in the fluidity of sexuality. "One of the things that impressed me most about the film," I tell him "is that you really feel the fisherman's love for his wife. Usually in "coming out" dramas you don't feel that. Do you view the character as bisexual?"

"I love that you ask about this" Javier begins. "I didn't want the wife to be just an obstacle. 'Let's get rid of her as soon as we can.' I wanted to make her a real character that he really loves in many ways. It's a different kind of love since he loves two people. It's not something that can be dismissed."

Undertow's setting, a small seaside town with deeply held religious beliefs and a wariness about outsiders like the painter -- it's not just that he's openly gay-- is crucial to the success of the film and the actual depth of Miguel's character arc.

the fisherman and his (expectant) wife)

"The reason why I set [Undertow] in a rural town and not in an urban city is because I think we are obsessed with labels where's there's a strong gay community. The US is particularly obsessed with labels, not only in the gay community. Here you are Republican or Democrat, you are a liberal, vegetarian, you are African-American, you are gay, top, bottom. There are so many labels that people use to define themselves."

"Gay. Straight. Bisexual. In rural areas those labels are not as important," he explains.  "They have sex with whoever they have sex with. They might end up getting married and be faithful. They might have sex with men when they're young and nevermore. Or they might continue. Miguel is not having a personal crisis like 'am I gay? am I bisexual?' His crisis is 'How do I dignify this love without losing my marriage and the love of my people? And how do I reconcile this with my religion?' He's not thinking 'Am I bisexual now? Am I gay?'

the fisherman's lover

I wanted to liberate the film from those issues. That's why in the sex scenes in one, one is on top of the other and the other is the other way around and they roll."

"I noticed the rolling!" I say, laughing.

"That was my way of saying I'm not going to be answering to people saying 'Of course the painter is a bottom!'" Despite the heavy topic of sexuality and labels, the director is always smiling and maintains a healthy sense of self and humor and about his film. He admits, not without some self-deprecation, that it was originally conceived in 1996 as a straight supernatural revenge thriller.

"Originally, it was a married fisherman who was having an affair with a prostitute, a woman. It was later in 2001 when I myself came out I thought 'well, fuck it. Let's make it real here.' You know?" he admits, not without some self-ribbing. "In a small fishing village for a fisherman to have an affair with a prostitute the friends are going to be like 'Hey dude!'"

"It's really a love story... about letting go, finding out who you really are, the pain of growing." Undertow's sexual metamorphosis, the filmmaker reasons, was only for the better "Not only did it become more personal, at the same time it made a better drama."

Casting was complicated in terms of timing and funding from various countries but here Javier cedes much credit to Rodrigo Bellot, a fellow filmmaker, who I had asked him about due to the Oscar foreign film race (Bellot went through a similar debut journey some years ago when his first feature Sexual Dependency became an Oscar submission for his home country.)

"I met him at Outfest in L.A. a long time ago. He came with a short and I was a volunteer. We became friends and kept in contact," Fuentes-León recalls. "When he read my script he said 'are you planning on directing because if you're not, I'd love to.' In his own life, in a funny way he became a casting director. He was the casting director for Steven Soderbergh's Che. It takes place in Bolivia -- he was only assigned to cast the Bolivian actors but because Soderbergh loved what he did he ended up casting a lot of the Latin-American roles."

Mercado in Che

Cristian Mercado, who had had an important role in Che, was Rodrigo's suggestion for Miguel fisherman. The director was won over by the photographs and a scene that Bellot shot with him "He can be rough and masculine but also vulnerable and I liked that dichotomy."

The leads are all well known in Latin America but signed on despite or maybe even because of the challenges the material presented. The movie is both physically and emotionally intimate, and since Javier hadn't made a feature before it, they had to trust in his vision and screenplay. "I brought [Cristian and Manolo] to Lima and I guess it was the material, a good challenge for both of them and they liked the story. We connected."

As you may have already ascertained from the dates mentioned, Undertow did not materialize over night. The first scene was written in 1996 and the story took on several shapes before becoming the film that's now Peru's Oscar submission. The director is beautifully candid about complications of funding, and what that can mean for casting and scheduling; Colombian and Peruvian financing meant that at least one of the three leads had to represent each country and the final Peruvian go ahead meant that the film had to be shot a lot sooner than anticipated.

With so many hats to wear -- Javier functioned as writer, director, producer, and editor -- was he ever at war with himself?

"Oh, I was freaking out. I had the worst anxiety depression that I've ever had in my life," he recalls, noting that he isn't usually the depressive type. "Two or three months before shooting I was so anxious. I didn't have the actors yet, I didn't have the crew. The film already has an issue that is delicate in terms of shooting in Peru with a Peruvian crew. It was my first time directing though I'd worked in TV. I was very nervous. Am I going to know what to say when people to ask me 'Is this Okay?'

What took me out of the depression was starting to see that the team was forming and I did know what I wanted when people came with questions, I did know what I wanted. By the time the actual shooting came, I was completely enjoying it. It was like being on vacation. It did not seem like a job to me."

We couldn't leave the interview without discussing the Oscar race and the film's reception in Peru. Fuentes-León knows it's a great honor to be representing his country.

"The press has been amazing. The people who are in the film world, which is very small, have been very supportive. Still it's a film that some people didn't go to see it just because it has two men kissing," he adds, explaining that it hasn't been a box office smash at home. "But on the other hand a lot of people have congratulated us for not only talking about [concepts of masculinity] but criticizing the rigidity."

winning the audience
award at Sundance

Given the long trek to his first feature -- he has two more in development now -- I wondered if he had any advice for young filmmakers.

"Make sure that you develop some kind of skill that will support you while you work on your projects," he says stressing the important of staying in the film world. "Whether that's learning how to edit or  sound mixes or translating or designing websites or subtitling... or buy a camera and become a DP for industrial videos. It's going to take awhile. There are overnight success stories but most people have to work six or seven years to make their films."

Javier Fuentes-León then relates an important story about an unhappy experience writing for telemundo, which serves as a fine point, but a welcome one, in terms of this "stay in the film world!" advice.

"I wrote for a show that i didn't like and that burnt me out. I was like 'I cannot do this.' It's good to be in the world of film but not in the thing you really want to do. Find a skill that will keep you in the world but will not deplete your creative juices."

On the evidence of the unusual and ghostly love story he's created, he's successfully rediscovered his own creativity.

Undertow is in theaters now. The Academy will announce finalists for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominations within a month's time. Five official nominees will be announced on Tuesday January 25th, 2011.

foreign films· GLBT· interviews· Latin America· Oscars (10)· Undertow

Interview: Javier Fuentes-León and the Oscar Submission "Undertow"

I meet first-time feature director, US based Javier Fuentes-León in a tasty Puerto Rican restaurant called Sazon. We're there to chat up his Peruvian/Colombian movie "Undertow" (also known as Contracorriente), a romantic gay drama which is also a portrait of a rural community and also a ghost story. But the 'where from?',  'what kind?' and 'why this?' of it are surface details. Javier Fuentes-León is not into all these labels, anyway.

Javier Fuentes-León (photo src)

"For me when I moved here people were immediately like 'So what are you? Are you Spanish Peruvian? Are you Indian Peruvian?" The filmmaker says, recalling his first days in Los Angeles for film school.

"No, I'm Javier." I offer, following his train of thought. "No, I'm Javier." he confirms.

His amiable but definite resistance to labels is, as it so happens, a huge strength for the film about a married fisherman Miguel (Cristian Mercado) who struggles to come to terms with his ongoing love affair with a gay painter Santiago (Manolo Cardona). Tragedy will strike and Miguel's pregnant wife Mariela (Tatiana Astengo) will soon know the truth. The fisherman has tough choices ahead.

The subject of labels emerges when I bring up the Kinsey scale. I'm curious about how much stock the director puts in the fluidity of sexuality. "One of the things that impressed me most about the film," I tell him "is that you really feel the fisherman's love for his wife. Usually in "coming out" dramas you don't feel that. Do you view the character as bisexual?"

"I love that you ask about this" Javier begins. "I didn't want the wife to be just an obstacle. 'Let's get rid of her as soon as we can.' I wanted to make her a real character that he really loves in many ways. It's a different kind of love since he loves two people. It's not something that can be dismissed."

Undertow's setting, a small seaside town with deeply held religious beliefs and a wariness about outsiders like the painter -- it's not just that he's openly gay-- is crucial to the success of the film and the actual depth of Miguel's character arc.

the fisherman and his (expectant) wife)

"The reason why I set [Undertow] in a rural town and not in an urban city is because I think we are obsessed with labels where's there's a strong gay community. The US is particularly obsessed with labels, not only in the gay community. Here you are Republican or Democrat, you are a liberal, vegetarian, you are African-American, you are gay, top, bottom. There are so many labels that people use to define themselves."

"Gay. Straight. Bisexual. In rural areas those labels are not as important," he explains.  "They have sex with whoever they have sex with. They might end up getting married and be faithful. They might have sex with men when they're young and nevermore. Or they might continue. Miguel is not having a personal crisis like 'am I gay? am I bisexual?' His crisis is 'How do I dignify this love without losing my marriage and the love of my people? And how do I reconcile this with my religion?' He's not thinking 'Am I bisexual now? Am I gay?'

the fisherman's lover

I wanted to liberate the film from those issues. That's why in the sex scenes in one, one is on top of the other and the other is the other way around and they roll."

"I noticed the rolling!" I say, laughing.

"That was my way of saying I'm not going to be answering to people saying 'Of course the painter is a bottom!'" Despite the heavy topic of sexuality and labels, the director is always smiling and maintains a healthy sense of self and humor and about his film. He admits, not without some self-deprecation, that it was originally conceived in 1996 as a straight supernatural revenge thriller.

"Originally, it was a married fisherman who was having an affair with a prostitute, a woman. It was later in 2001 when I myself came out I thought 'well, fuck it. Let's make it real here.' You know?" he admits, not without some self-ribbing. "In a small fishing village for a fisherman to have an affair with a prostitute the friends are going to be like 'Hey dude!'"

"It's really a love story... about letting go, finding out who you really are, the pain of growing." Undertow's sexual metamorphosis, the filmmaker reasons, was only for the better "Not only did it become more personal, at the same time it made a better drama."

Casting was complicated in terms of timing and funding from various countries but here Javier cedes much credit to Rodrigo Bellot, a fellow filmmaker, who I had asked him about due to the Oscar foreign film race (Bellot went through a similar debut journey some years ago when his first feature Sexual Dependency became an Oscar submission for his home country.)

"I met him at Outfest in L.A. a long time ago. He came with a short and I was a volunteer. We became friends and kept in contact," Fuentes-León recalls. "When he read my script he said 'are you planning on directing because if you're not, I'd love to.' In his own life, in a funny way he became a casting director. He was the casting director for Steven Soderbergh's Che. It takes place in Bolivia -- he was only assigned to cast the Bolivian actors but because Soderbergh loved what he did he ended up casting a lot of the Latin-American roles."

Mercado in Che

Cristian Mercado, who had had an important role in Che, was Rodrigo's suggestion for Miguel fisherman. The director was won over by the photographs and a scene that Bellot shot with him "He can be rough and masculine but also vulnerable and I liked that dichotomy."

The leads are all well known in Latin America but signed on despite or maybe even because of the challenges the material presented. The movie is both physically and emotionally intimate, and since Javier hadn't made a feature before it, they had to trust in his vision and screenplay. "I brought [Cristian and Manolo] to Lima and I guess it was the material, a good challenge for both of them and they liked the story. We connected."

As you may have already ascertained from the dates mentioned, Undertow did not materialize over night. The first scene was written in 1996 and the story took on several shapes before becoming the film that's now Peru's Oscar submission. The director is beautifully candid about complications of funding, and what that can mean for casting and scheduling; Colombian and Peruvian financing meant that at least one of the three leads had to represent each country and the final Peruvian go ahead meant that the film had to be shot a lot sooner than anticipated.

With so many hats to wear -- Javier functioned as writer, director, producer, and editor -- was he ever at war with himself?

"Oh, I was freaking out. I had the worst anxiety depression that I've ever had in my life," he recalls, noting that he isn't usually the depressive type. "Two or three months before shooting I was so anxious. I didn't have the actors yet, I didn't have the crew. The film already has an issue that is delicate in terms of shooting in Peru with a Peruvian crew. It was my first time directing though I'd worked in TV. I was very nervous. Am I going to know what to say when people to ask me 'Is this Okay?'

What took me out of the depression was starting to see that the team was forming and I did know what I wanted when people came with questions, I did know what I wanted. By the time the actual shooting came, I was completely enjoying it. It was like being on vacation. It did not seem like a job to me."

We couldn't leave the interview without discussing the Oscar race and the film's reception in Peru. Fuentes-León knows it's a great honor to be representing his country.

"The press has been amazing. The people who are in the film world, which is very small, have been very supportive. Still it's a film that some people didn't go to see it just because it has two men kissing," he adds, explaining that it hasn't been a box office smash at home. "But on the other hand a lot of people have congratulated us for not only talking about [concepts of masculinity] but criticizing the rigidity."

winning the audience
award at Sundance

Given the long trek to his first feature -- he has two more in development now -- I wondered if he had any advice for young filmmakers.

"Make sure that you develop some kind of skill that will support you while you work on your projects," he says stressing the important of staying in the film world. "Whether that's learning how to edit or  sound mixes or translating or designing websites or subtitling... or buy a camera and become a DP for industrial videos. It's going to take awhile. There are overnight success stories but most people have to work six or seven years to make their films."

Javier Fuentes-León then relates an important story about an unhappy experience writing for telemundo, which serves as a fine point, but a welcome one, in terms of this "stay in the film world!" advice.

"I wrote for a show that i didn't like and that burnt me out. I was like 'I cannot do this.' It's good to be in the world of film but not in the thing you really want to do. Find a skill that will keep you in the world but will not deplete your creative juices."

On the evidence of the unusual and ghostly love story he's created, he's successfully rediscovered his own creativity.

Undertow is in theaters now. The Academy will announce finalists for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominations within a month's time. Five official nominees will be announced on Tuesday January 25th, 2011.

This is a gay rag here in NYC. Anne was on the holiday weekend cover promoting Love and Other Drugs, and though the inside article is dependably slim, she once again proves herself not just a wonderful celeb but a cool person and major friend of the gays.

"I was at the Empire State Pride Agenda dinner a few years ago," she recalls. "And Margaret Cho put it perfectly. She said, 'I can't believe we're still dealing with this shit!'" If a class act like Hathaway is cursing, you know she means business.

Love her. How beautiful are these photos by twin photographers The Riker Brothers?

Anne Hathaway· GLBT· NYC· politics

Anne Hathaway, 'Next' Cover Girl

This is a gay rag here in NYC. Anne was on the holiday weekend cover promoting Love and Other Drugs, and though the inside article is dependably slim, she once again proves herself not just a wonderful celeb but a cool person and major friend of the gays.

"I was at the Empire State Pride Agenda dinner a few years ago," she recalls. "And Margaret Cho put it perfectly. She said, 'I can't believe we're still dealing with this shit!'" If a class act like Hathaway is cursing, you know she means business.

Love her. How beautiful are these photos by twin photographers The Riker Brothers?