Above Ground

Working on Above Ground from conception to completed film has been nothing but heart and soul, as it's a project that I feel reflects a struggle so many face including in my own family. Thus I wanted to handle it with the real issues, but also with love, care and respect. Since it is based on a true story, crafting from that story to a version of under ten minutes was not the easiest, but was made a bit more effortless working with my co-producer and co-writer Vincent Vargas who stars on the hit FX show Mayans MC, in addition to co-producer Mike Isom and my artistic director Gianfranco Bianchi. Vince brought the original story to the team based off of an experience that happened with one of the team members family. We wanted to make sure we had enough room to breathe in fleshing out the story not only in the writing, but in the production and he made sure we had the time and resources necessary to reflect the original grain of thought.

I chose a coloring book as a palette to represent a moment of innocence, that anyone can be taken off guard and fall into despair. That coloring outside of the lines can happen to the best of us, to any of us really. It's not always black and white (of which we used a lot in the film) and it doesn't always take a lot to get off track. The music of life can be joyous at one moment and deep and dark at others, while it seems everyone else is hearing a tune of love and happiness. The music is the backbone of the film, we started with that, built around it just as we build around our inner dialogue and around our outer dialogue in life. The film happens to be based on a true story, but it can be anyone's story given circumstance. It's the book of a certain life, lives and I'm pleased that it ended up colored to a positive place.

It's my hope that the film connects and touches people the way we feel it has connected with the people we've screened it to so far. And to relay the message of redemption. We all fall at some point, I most certainly have and may again as many have again and again, but we can always come back if we just climb up, get up and keep going.

Here are some reviews we've received.

José Ignacio Valenzuela-Creator, Writer, Showrunner-Who Killed Sarah (Netflix)
I was able to see your movie “Above Ground” and I thought it was a beautiful piece of art. The story, the aesthetics, the colors, the music, everything comes together in a masterful way. It’s amazing how in just 8 minutes you were able to tell a life, a crisis, and a resurrection. The metaphor of “above the ground” and “below the ground” works very well to tell the story you had in mind. The music even makes us hear the dialogues that the movie doesn’t have.

Women’s International Film Festival
“Such a touching film, seriously.”