Asian American Film: Features

"The Flip Side" - An Interview with Director Rod Pulido

12.18 - Posted by Editor

Filipino American filmmaker hits Sundance An interview with Rod Pulido, director of "Flip Side"

12.18.00 -- Rod Pulido's new film "The Flip Side" is the first Filipino American feature to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. It tells the story of a Filipino American family -- characters include the siblings Darius, who walks around in a tribal loincloth, trying to get his family to embrace their Filipino heritage; Davis, a diminutive basketball player obsessed with trying to slam dunk; and Marivic, the vain sister who saves up for a "certain surgical procedure that will shock the whole family." Interview by Greg Pak.

AAF Congrats on the Sundance acceptance! Can you tell us a little about how you heard you'd been accepted and what your reactions were?

RP I knew that if "The Flip Side" got in, then I would find out by December 1. Well, by 10 p.m. on December 1, I hadn't gotten a call. So I went to bed, depressed, ready to sleep through the whole weekend. The call that "The Flip Side" was in came around 10:30, and I experienced the quickest emotional turnaround of my life! I went from thinking, "I'm going to be substitute teaching 'til I'm in my grave," to yelling at the top of my lungs, "I'm going to Sundance!"

Links

Flip Side page at ReelPlay.com

Screenings

World Premiere at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Screening times are as followed:

Thursday Jan. 25, 3 pm @ the Yarrow

Saturday Jan. 27, 3 pm @ the Yarrow

Tickets available starting January 9, at 7 a.m. online at www.sundance.org or by calling the main box office at: (801) 521-2525

AAF   What are your expectations of the festival and what are you doing to prepare?

RP  I expect that this year Filipinos are going to take over Park City, Utah. Right now we are waging a mass grass roots campaign to get as many people up to Sundance as possible. People are coming from as far as Toronto and New York to support "The Flip Side." It's definitely going to be exciting and a whole lot of fun.

AAF   I noticed they've included "Flip Side" in the Native Forum section of the festival, which is typically reserved for Native American films. What the heck is up with that?

RP   I met Heather Rae, the head programmer for the Native Forum, in New York during the Independent Feature Film Market. She felt so strongly about the film that she fought for its acceptance into Sundance. Ms. Rae thought that "The Flip Side" addressed issues about identity that all people could relate to, so she decided to expand the Native Forum to include a section dealing with Asians and Pacific Islanders. Also being shown in the Native Forum is "Moko," a Maori short film that deals with the first modern Maori tribesmen to return to the tradition of face tattooing.

AAF   With so many people shooting low-budget films on digital video these days, could you tell us a little about your reasons for shooting on black and white 16mm film?

RP   It's true that many independents are shooting on digital video, but I wanted to have the experience of a true guerrilla film shoot. I've always admired filmmakers like Spike Lee and Kevin Smith who struggled and scraped to shoot their first features on 16mm. I wanted to go through that same "indie initiation" that I feel every filmmaker needs to experience in order to grow as an artist and to fully appreciate the film medium.

AAF   How did you fund the film?

RP   For the past three and a half years I've worked in the Bellflower Unified School District as a substitute teacher in order to fund "The Flip Side". Substitute teaching was great in that I had a flexible enough schedule to also work on the film, plus being around teenagers helped with writing realistic dialogue. My script for "The Flip Side" won the Panavision New Filmmaker Award, and we were awarded a free Aaton camera for the entire shoot. During post production, I was awarded a grant from the cool folks at the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA). Without their help, I would probably be substituting until I was 50 in order to finish the film!

AAF   Any gripping production anecdotes?

RP   We shot "The Flip Side" in the house that I grew up in, for four straight weeks in 100 degree July weather. Our crew was so small that some days the actors had to clap their own slate! The craziest part was that it was so hard to find the right actor to play the Lolo (grandfather), that we started production without him. Every Monday for three weeks I drove around LA auditioning elderly Filipino men at senior citizens homes. We had four days before we had to return the camera back to Panavision, when my brother brings home Peping Baclig, a Filipino World War II veteran. Imagine our luck! The character of Lolo is a World War II veteran who survived the Bataan Death March and so is Peping Baclig! I auditioned Manong Peping on the spot and we were shooting his scenes the very next day. I always knew that putting Filipino stories on the big screen would be difficult, but the hard work has been worth the opportunity to contribute my vision to cinema and help Filipinos get the recognition we deserve.

AAF   Filipino American filmmakers seem to be busting out all over these days -- Gene Cajayon, Q. Allan Brocka, the members of Cinegang, and yourself, just to name a few. Any thoughts on the reasons for and impact of this renaissance?

RP   I'm extremely excited about the growing number of Filipino American filmmakers! Filipinos have been absent from the American media for so long that we will no longer be denied the chance to tell our stories. I think that the next step is for the Filipino and Asian communities to come out and support films like "The Flip Side" so that Hollywood can see that there is a demand for them.

AAF   For those of us not lucky enough to be joining you at Sundance this year, when are we most likely to be able to see "Flip Side"?

RP   Hopefully we can get "The Flip Side" out in theatres soon, but first I want to experience the film festival circuit. After all the hard work, I want to enjoy traveling and meeting other filmmakers. After Sundance, "The Flip Side" will be shown at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival in March. So if you can't make it up to Park City, check it out then!

AAF   Anything else you'd like to add?

RP   I'd just like to say to all the aspiring filmmakers out there that if you have the burning desire to put your stories up on the big screen, then don't let anything stop you. If I can finance a feature film through substitute teaching, then you can find a way, too. Hard work will be rewarded, so go out and do it!

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