hello everybody welcome to the trash mix podcast
where we talk about mexican genre films and crazy
mexican films in general but today me and joey
are leaving mexico and you're probably thinking
why the what the fuck is going on we turned into
passport bros yeah we went into yeah we got into
that trend of passport bros but we're not after
girls actually well maybe i am but we'll say
that for another day i'm just joking but now
but today we're going to talk about two films
from colombia and these are films i actually
never heard of before until recently when people
were hitting me up they were like sending me
this link to a a boutique label i never even
heard of either they're like hey have you seen
these before like they're asking me you know
they think you know people assume that i just
like a lot of latin horror in general which i
do but it's not like something i dig too deep
into and i was like actually no thank you for
putting me onto that so yeah i kept getting several
messages about it and i was like hey these are
actually kind of kind of cool looking you know
i kind of want to get into it and then joy was
one of the people too that hit me up about it
and then you were the first to buy it right i
think yeah you were the first to buy a joy uh
between us or between yeah between yeah between
us yeah between us yeah for sure yeah yeah and
then you were telling me yeah they were cool
and i was like oh shit fuck yeah so then yeah
i bought the blu -ray like maybe a week or two
after and i watched them both the same day and
i was just like oh these are fucking awesome
and then i just I don't know. I got more curious
about like the release, you know, the release,
the company and who's behind this. You know,
I wanted to know more. And then rather than just
hit up the person that's in charge of this, I
was like, you know what? I gave Joy the idea.
Let's let's just do it for the podcast. You know,
let's go somewhere a little different. And then
Joy was like, yeah. And then what was the mission,
Joy? The whole point of this episode, you said
you wanted to explore more different Latin genre
films. Yeah, I mean, like I was saying before
we went live on air with Anthony, it was that
I wanted to discuss because, you know, you and
I talk about this a lot and we talk about it
with other people as well, is, you know, the
lack of representation of Latin America in home
video, especially genre, you know, horror, fantasy,
B -cinema, whatever you want to call it. You
know, when someone finally releases a disc of,
you know, like you said, movies that I've never
heard of that are that piqued my interest. You
know what? We got to talk about this because
no one else really is. And it is important because,
like I said, it is underrepresented, represented.
And we just wanted to shine a little bit more
light on it. Yeah. So we're here with Anthony
Napolitano of Petroglyph Media. Say hello, Anthony.
Hello, everybody. Awesome. Can you tell me how
you started this label and why did you want to
start this label and why these two movies in
particular? So my interest in this is, you know,
I I'm 39 years old. I came up around the time
that the DVD industry was booming. I've been
collecting for years. And, you know. I think
as the years went by and I gathered more and
more films, you become kind of jaded and you're
kind of always like looking for that next like
hit of something that you've never seen before.
It becomes almost an addiction. Like you want
to, you're going into deeper and darker places,
you know, corners of cinema that are a bit underrepresented,
under seen. And so, you know, I would, in college.
My girlfriend at the time, she was Colombian.
I used to ask, I was like, hey, what cinema does
Colombia have? And, you know, she really couldn't
speak to that. And, you know, when I would Google
it, there were films that didn't really catch
my interest. And I would always like look up,
like, are there Colombian horror films? Nothing
would ever come up at the time. And this was
back in like 2008. And then eventually, you know,
my wife is Colombian. I would ask her if she
had ever heard of any genre films from Columbia.
She's like, no. I would always just Google it
and see if anything came up. And eventually,
Hydro Pinilla's name came up. And I was like,
wow, this is interesting. This guy has a nice
body of work. He's done horror. He's done action.
And prior to... He hadn't been really out there.
I hadn't heard much about him. And it was kind
of hard to see the films. So... I kind of just
sat on that knowing that he existed, knowing
he was out there, knowing that he had created
the first Colombian horror film, Funeral Sinestro.
And then it wasn't until I think it was the end
of 2020 that I just looked him up again. I saw
that a site in Colombia was actually streaming
his films and I tried to rent it to watch it
for myself. And for whatever reason, it didn't
work. And I kind of just put that. on the back
runner, like, Oh man, it would have been great
if I could have shown this, shown this to my
son. Because, you know, as somebody who's really
into genre films, I'm, I'm passing that on to
my kids. You know, I'm showing them all the stuff
that I loved as a kid, you know, cause I started
as somebody that was into dinosaurs, into monsters,
Godzilla. And then eventually that went into,
you know, horror movies. So right now, you know,
every Saturday we're watching Svengoolie. When
I get the chance, we have a, we have a, a drive
-in in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, the Mahonin
drive -in, which is only 35 millimeter. And they
do great shows throughout the summer. So they
have a schlock -o -rama. I took him to see Godzilla
1985 on the big screen, Earth versus the Flying
Saucers. Things like that, you know, I really
enjoy connecting with him on that level. And
because, you know, I'm half Italian and Puerto
Rican, his mother is Colombian. I never... learn
to speak Spanish. My mother spoke Spanish. It
was just never taught at home, but I wanted to
make sure that my sons learned to speak Spanish.
So part of that education is watching genre films,
usually Mexican genre films in Spanish so they
can watch. So we're watching El Santo movies.
At Christmas time, we're always breaking out
the Rene Cardona. Santa Claus film, you know,
just so that way they can experience something
other than the usual what's mainstream now. Instead
of just watching Marvel movies, I want them to
see stuff from Latin America and to know that
there was a Colombian filmmaker out there that
did genre films. That was something that I felt
was important to, you know, to be able to show
my boys. You know, they already have their Italian
heritage is very well represented, you know.
That that history has been rectified since the
90s. So it was time to show that other half.
So I think in 2021. I remember very clearly it
was New Year's Day. We went into the city. We
went to St. Patrick's Cathedral. My son asked
to light a candle for one of the saints. And
so we chose St. Anthony. And I was like telling
him he's the saint that will help you find things
that are lost. And so I just did a little prayer
asking for his intercession to, you know, at
the time I wasn't working because of because
of COVID. It was decided that I would stay home
and be with my son because his daycare closed.
And looking at the prospect of finding a new
job, I just said a prayer like, help me find
something that I really enjoy this year. Help
me find something that fulfills me. And then
that evening I went home and I was looking at
the Jairo Pineda movie streaming again. And I
was like, you know what? I could just probably
do this. Why don't I just reach out to these
people, see if his films are available to license
and maybe I can do it. And, you know, I have
no experience. in this industry at all, other
than the fact that I'm just a huge fan, that
I've been paying attention to the intricacies
of how these releases are done, what kind of
goes into them. And I just felt like, you know,
maybe I do know enough that I could just try
my hand at this. And that's kind of how it all
started. So that's interesting. What was the
reception when you started to reach out to people
about... you know, Jairo Pena's filmography?
Like were people like, oh yeah, for sure. Or
was that something where they were just kind
of like, well, why do you want to license that?
Or why do you care about that? So the vibe that
I get from him is that he's very like giving
to the younger generation. Like he, I think as
somebody who just, you know, taught himself filmmaking
and just was doing it all on his own, whenever
he gets approached by younger people who want
to do the same thing, he's very, charitable with
his time uh and i think that this site was also
run by you know a local group of film fans in
columbia that you know kind of idolize him so
when i mentioned when i spoke with the guy that
ran the website i was like do you do you have
contact with him do you think he'd be interested
and he's like i just called him up and he said
he would be very interested in licensing the
films so from there it was just like you know
kind of back and forth on WhatsApp, giving him
my ideas and him telling Mr. Peneja. And then
finally, you know, having a Zoom call with him
where I kind of like laid it out. And, you know,
my wife was there with me kind of doing the translation
and everything. And, you know, I had already
kind of done a little bit of research on what
companies I would use for doing restoration and
just kind of going over that process. And he
was very, very much all for it. At the time,
I thought that perhaps none of his films had
ever been released in the United States. But
actually somebody on Instagram had actually messaged
me that Triangulo de Oro actually had a VHS release
back in the 80s in the U .S. Very, very rare.
I don't even remember if that was brought up
in our conversation. But yeah, this was really
outside of that. None of his films have really
gotten much exposure. outside of their initial
releases in in latin america um so this was you
know a big deal for him and yeah i was just as
somebody who did not have any experience doing
this before i was very happy that he was he was
agreeable to it wow so one man basically this
is all you that's crazy yeah awesome like not
crazy crazy but that's like crazy cool Yeah,
especially because sometimes you hear stories
where, you know, filmmakers just don't even care
about their own work or their own filmography.
And it makes it a little bit more challenging.
You know, at least you can go directly to the
man himself and at least have access to finding
elements like, you know, because I think you
used a 35 millimeter theatrical print for Funeral
Siniestro, right? Yes. So like the the elements
for a lot of his films, unfortunately, it seems.
A lot of them have been lost. Some of the films
that he did later on, like I'm not sure exactly
what the story was with Funeral Sinestro, but
nothing else existed except for that 35 millimeter
print that the National Archives holds. But some
of his later films, I think, also got funding
from the government. And for whatever reason,
they kind of just like seized the negatives and
they were just kind of lost. Triangulo de Oro,
he has that one inch. video master that he made
back in the day and he holds on to that you know
that's that's that's with him wherever he goes
um and i'm not sure about the status of the other
films but from what our conversation was that
initial zoom conversation it does seem that a
lot of the elements for for most of his films
are not really uh they're kind of non -existent
at this point there might be video masters but
um funa nasi neser i think was the only one that
we had access to actual print material uh for
so yeah that's very common with a lot of like
latin countries they just are so careless with
negatives and film prints like that partly because
yeah they just didn't think about it you know
archiving in the moment yeah and also just like
yeah the government getting in the way they're
just like you know whatever this is garbage just
throw it away we don't need this yeah especially
if there wasn't if there wasn't a big you know
international release at the time they probably
can't foresee much of a secondary market you
know 40 50 years after after the fact um so yeah
he was very happy that you know the film was
going to get some exposure uh so that was like
early 2021 um we went back and forth a long time
kind of doing the contract just because like
i said i've never done any of this before i'm
like what does a contract even look like like
what should this be and i kind of just like downloaded
film contracts. I got a book with film contracts.
I went through it and been like, all right, what
are the things that I wanted to be in here? I
wanted to make sure that, you know, it was more
ideal for him than it was for me because he's
taking on the risk of me having the film in my
control for five years. Um, so I wanted it to
be like, you know, he's not losing access to
his film so I can just sit on it. So, you know,
everything was. was more in his favor than it
was in mine because I wanted him to feel comfortable
because I really appreciated that he was giving
me this opportunity. And then it was towards
the end of 2021, like in September or October,
that we finally got to signing the contracts.
My wife's aunt, she lives in Villa Vicencio.
She's a lawyer. We flew her out to Bogota. She
met with him and his lawyer. And, you know, I
was. I was in the middle of work getting the
phone calls and it was like a three -way phone
call with my wife translating for everyone in
Columbia and telling me what they were, new things
that they were coming up with on the contract.
Can we do this? Can we do that? And I'm like
out in the parking lot and my bosses are like
looking at me and I'm like, I'm on lunch. I'm
on lunch, I swear. You know, everything got finalized.
And, you know, as soon as I sent over the first,
wired them the first payment, they sent me the
file for Triangulo de Oro. And then we started
making the preparations for them to send the
35 millimeter print here to New York. I, for
a long time, tried to see if there was anywhere
in Colombia or somewhere in a neighboring country
that would do restoration. So that way I wouldn't
have to – I felt bad being responsible for the
last remaining copy of this film. I was like,
God forbid it gets lost on the plane or it gets
damaged and it's my fault. So I really didn't
want it to come to – to have to be shipped all
the way to the U .S. But there was – I couldn't
find anybody that did that kind of service. over
there in Columbia. So they were totally fine
with it. They said, you know, the, the national
archives is kind of used to that. They sending
their stuff out to other countries to be restored.
Um, and so we went with, uh, Metropolis post.
Um, so again, with, uh, trying to find who was
going to do the restoration, just kind of looked
in the liner notes of all the Blu -rays that
I had trying to see, okay, what are the companies
that do this? Um, First one I was thinking of
was I think it was called Cinerac. They did the
restoration for Basket Case and they're they're
located in New York. But the prices were just
like astronomical. And Metropolis Post, much
more reasonable. And then the fact that I could
go back to Hydroponica and be like, hey, I'm
having the guys that worked on Eraserhead and
Grey Gardens and Pink Flamingos. They're going
to be doing the restoration of your film. That
that felt good to say that. And he was like,
oh, you know, very impressed. that began a whole
nother process where, and like, I have no frame
of reference of how long it should take to restore
a film. Obviously I think they had other competing
business going on with a, a 24 at the time. But
it took almost a year to restore the film. And
I don't think that's necessarily because it was
the. the hardest film to to go through i think
it was just more a fact that i wasn't like the
number one priority uh they were kind of maybe
giving me a break on the price and whatnot um
but it was just awesome you know whenever they
would call me in and be like we need you to come
and look at this and just go to like their private
like theater and have them screen it for me and
see the progress you know the first time that
i saw it you know i literally like started not
crying like sobbing or anything but i was like
i had a tear in my eye because i was like wow
you know look at what You know, I've been able
to do look at look at how this film, you know,
you can see clips on YouTube of how it was beforehand,
because I don't think there's any other clips
out there of the restoration. But there's like
news programs about hydroponics and they have
clips from the movie and you can see it's got
like the pinkish tint to it. And it's very grainy,
a lot of dirt and everything. And to see it kind
of brought back to life and be so clear. I was
like, this is amazing. So, yeah, that was that
was a whole. a whole nother process that that
took some time so you know this has been like
a three -year uh kind of not ordeal but just
a long process uh long time coming yeah yeah
no but worth it though because this release is
really unique and then now that we know the history
behind it it's even more unique it's like down
this is like a total what i want to say do it
yourself but you know in other words you know
you did this all on your own you know you put
this all together for your you know for your
curiosity and then for other people to see it
that's really admiring like i actually really
admire you for that that's an awesome dude yeah
it can't be easy doing that especially having
no frame of reference of how you're even supposed
to begin let alone having to to negotiate like
you said and then getting a uh the elements from
the national archive How extensive was the restoration?
Was the print in decent shape or was it in bad
shape? It was in decent shape, I guess. Like
I had said, the color had kind of faded. It had
gotten that pinkish tint to it. It was a bit
dirty. But other than that, it wasn't too bad,
I would say. And they kind of went over like
the process of what they do. There's like certain
levels of how much of the dirt and specks they
can take off. And they're like, this is going
to cost you this much. And if you go to this
level, it'll cost you this much. And I kind of
figured, you know, it doesn't have to be like
super clean. I don't think that, you know, as
genre fans, when it comes to a film like this,
you're not expecting like the cleanest image
and you kind of want some of that dirt and grit
to it. So I didn't want them to do it like to
make it like really shiny or anything like that.
I just said, you know, there was a certain level
that I was comfortable with and also at the price
point that I was comfortable with that we just
went ahead with and the results. were very pleasing
and also i just want to say if anyone had told
me how much this thing would have cost overall
i don't think i ever would have done it i can't
even imagine how expensive it is to do to take
on a project like this yeah uh i'm glad that
i went into it kind of blind and not knowing
and kind of very naive because i so the reason
why i thought i could do it was i had some money
saved up and also around that time My mother
had told me she was going to be selling her house
later in the year and that me and my brother
and my sisters were all going to get a little
bit of money. So I was like, okay, if I get some
of that, then maybe I'll have enough to fund
this project. It ended up being much more than
that, which is also why it took some time because
I had to pay out of pocket for a lot of this
stuff. So I'd have to wait until I accumulated
enough money to pay for the next phase of the
project. So that's why things kind of move slowly.
But yeah, definitely, definitely worth it. I
wouldn't change a thing about it. Freaking awesome.
I'm like blown away by this story right now.
It's just like, damn, the little guy did it.
Not a big corporation, not people with big money.
It's like just this one guy with the dream and
a passion. Yeah. Cause you know, I figured his
films have been around. I know that it's not,
they're not the most widely known, but I figured
why, why wait? to to see if like a vinegar syndrome
or i don't even know who else would possibly
they're like the only company i could possibly
foresee or mondo macabro uh why wait around to
see if one of them you know catches wind of it
let me just let me just go for it and and then
try to do the best job that i can and try to
be respectful of of this man's art um you know
my biggest regret only is that i didn't get to
put any real special features on it uh that was
really came down to cost Jairo Pineda did share
with me a bunch of news segments that came out
around the time, mainly from Triangulo de Oro,
but also some interviews that he had. And it
was just a matter of not having the money to
do the subtitling for those. There is like a
special Easter egg. I don't know if anybody has
has caught this on the main. I caught it. I caught
it. Yeah. Yeah. I had to tell Joey about it.
I was like, Joey. Yeah, I didn't I didn't catch
it. Armando told me about it. I watched it. It
was like two or three nights ago. I was like,
this is actually really fucking cool, man. You
can actually see that, you know, this wasn't
as well because that was for Triangulo de Oro
for the little Easter egg. But you can actually
see a line. And not even being hyperbolic, but
the line literally wrapping around the fucking
block. Which goes to show that Jairo Pena was
a respected filmmaker and people actually did
enjoy going to see his movies. Yeah, absolutely.
And you know, it's important to keep the films,
these films have to be kept in circulation. If
they're not in circulation, people forget. My
wife's family, I ask around, anybody ever heard
of this guy? No. People will eventually forget
it. Outside of that first generation that would
have seen it in a theater, if it's not constantly
being reissued on video or playing on TV, then
it fades into obscurity. And unfortunately, Jairo
Pineda was kind of in danger of fading into obscurity.
He talks about how I guess there was kind of
a... An elitist kind of film group in Colombia
that kind of only championed the more artsy films
that were made. And he was kind of like pushed
aside. That's familiar. That's Mexico right there
as well. They didn't see his type of cinema as
being respectable or something that they wanted
to share with the world as Colombian product.
This is not the national image that we want to
project. And it wasn't until I think probably
like the early 2000s when he started to, you
know, there was film students in Colombia that
started to re -approach his work and kind of
champion him. One of the main guys is Ciro Guerra,
who became like the first Oscar nominated Colombian
filmmaker for Embrace of the Serpent. His like
college thesis was a short film on Jairo Pinilla.
Um, so he's a huge fan and he, he was inspired
by just the fact that, you know, Hyderabinija
taught himself and just basically became like
kind of a one man industry. Uh, that was super
inspiring to him. Um, so yeah, it's, I, I feel
like, um, it was kind of almost like a part of
my, my duty to my sons kind of to like preserve
this legacy for, for them. They, they couldn't
care less at this point in their lives, but.
um you know i want to be able to say hey you
know i i kind of saved i saved this for you because
this is kind of your birthright this is something
on your on the colombian side of your your heritage
that i want you to be proud of um so that was
kind of a big factor going into it nah man i
love it man i i the the the background is amazing
i love that you're you know not only preserving
it for you know film historians and film fans
but also have that personal touch to it. Cause
a lot of people, you know, a lot of, well, I
don't want to accuse any companies. I'm not even
going to finish that sentence, but you know,
a lot of the times I feel like people don't necessarily
care enough about their own culture. So to have
something like this, something tangible, something
that not only they can watch, but that their,
their father did. I mean, that's, you know, it's,
it's amazing, man. I love it. I love to hear
it. Thank you. Well, I mean, let's kind of segue
into it then. I mean, we spoke a little bit about
Jairo Pinilla, but let's kind of go a little
bit more into him as a person. I mean, there's
not really a lot of information out there that
I could find. I did read one interview of his
in Spanish where he didn't really talk about
himself, talking more about his own movies. But
he did. He did have something to say about. being
against art house cinema and preferring uh superman
movies over buñuel movies which i thought was
fucking hilarious yeah that's something not a
lot of people would say especially filmmakers
it's like if you talk about buñuel you're gonna
get looked down upon but it's like you know what
sometimes you just don't have to like that artsy
shit so yeah that's no that's good he's honest
it's funny that he mentioned superman because
one of the issues when we were when he was sending
over triangulo de oro is the fact that he had
used soundtrack cues from Superman. Oh, shit.
And he's like, I'm afraid that this is, you know,
that they're going to find out and I'm going
to get sued. I'm like, I don't think they're
going to care at this point. But he actually
like the soundtrack is is something like he had
an alternate version with music that he composed.
At least that's what he told me. And that's the
version that's on on the Blu -ray. So anybody
don't nobody should think that they're missing
out on anything. It's not like it was just. you
know music from superman apparently was what
it originally played out there was something
that sounded like superman now that you mentioned
yeah it might have been it might have still been
something it might have been yeah because it
was like a little yeah something in there i'm
like why does this sound familiar but now that
you bring that up but i figured at this point
because i feel like there's like thinking specifically
more about like indonesian films i noticed like
some of them will use music that i'm like there's
no way they got the copyright for that oh no
and I don't think anybody is pursuing that legally
at this point. So I felt comfortable that it
wasn't going to be a problem. Well, let's talk
about the movies themselves, I guess, a little
bit. Funeral Siniestro was, I guess, his first
feature film. Is that correct? Yeah, so he had
done some shorts in the past. I'm not sure how
many, but the people that funded his shorts are
the ones that eventually they saw promise in
his work and they funded this one. I think he
said it was like a trucking company were the
ones that gave him the money for it. And yeah,
it's like inspired by a memory that he had from
childhood where one of his classmates' father
had died and the whole school went to go to the
wake and the body was just like out there for
everyone to see and it really affected him. And
that was like kind of the impetus for this story.
Oh, well, that definitely ties into the funeral
scene later on in the movie, because they're
actually there's the scene where what's her name
is Isabelita Isabel, where she runs into the
well, I don't know. Well, you know what? Look,
I'm just going to say right now, let's do you
want to spoil the movie or do you not want to
spoil the movie? Do we care or not? No, we can
spoil the movie. All right. Yeah. Let's, let's
spoil it then. So, I mean, we're getting way
ahead of ourselves, but you know, later on in
the movie at around like the hour mark, there's
a, you know, there's a funeral scene where just
the young, you know, the young girl who's like
the main, you know, character of this movie,
she sees, I won't say who until a little bit
later, but she sees a dead body. It starts to
come to life or at least she thinks it comes
to life. So hearing that story of him, you know,
kind of being traumatized by seeing a dead person.
I mean, is a direct correlation to that scene
for sure. I mean, it has to be right. Yeah. Yeah,
absolutely. And yeah, it's just interesting to
think of like, I, you know, I'm here in the States
growing up. I've never, you know, apparently
this was a thing back in the day. My mother tells
me like in Brooklyn, the Italian families, they
would, when somebody would die, they would do
the wake in the house and stuff, which is not
something that. happened in my lifetime but i
don't know what preparation there was done but
like if somebody died invite the family over
we're gonna lay out the body on the bed and that's
kind of like how it was done um i've never really
heard that outside of uh i think in one of the
there's a documentary uh for ruggero diodato
where he kind of talks about something very similar
where he have to you know somebody dies the the
body is left in the house everyone has to come
and see it i mean we do the same thing with the
weight but there's more a little bit more preparation
at a funeral home um so i just kind of found
that aspect of it culturally interesting that
the body is just kind of there in the house she's
got to stay with it overnight um definitely would
uh would freak me out yeah hell yeah they do
that in mexico actually like little and then
they'll plan the funeral like for the day after
two days after so it's very yeah mexico is real
quick i remember when my when my grandma passed
i mean when we got the news that she passed we
were on a flight that night because they were
like we're not waiting for you guys you're here
in the morning or you're not and we're like fuck
all right let's go hopped on a flight immediately
so yeah they don't you know and then the wakes
will be at the house usually it'll be like right
in the living room or their bedroom and then
that's when they go to the funeral It's like
a cultural type of thing. Ethnic culture type
of thing. Have the deceased person at their home
before they go. Who were the actors? Do you have
any type of history of the actors? Obviously,
none of us are really going to know who they
are. I don't know too much about the actors.
And to be honest, I don't have too much background
information about the films themselves. I didn't
really get to talk with Jairo at length about
it during that initial call that we had. And
truth be told, I had not seen the films until
after I had licensed them. So I had no idea what
I kind of only had a gist of what they were about.
And I had seen enough clips to know that I wanted
to. to release them but i hadn't actually watched
them fully through um so it was kind of just
going on faith alone that that it was going to
be something that i would enjoy from what i'm
seeing it looks like a lot of the actors were
just like once that's it that was the only yeah
i don't think i don't think it was anybody you
know and there's To begin with, there's not a
big – there's really no film industry to speak
of. It definitely wasn't at the time. There only
would have been actors from like local telenovelas
or something like that. But I don't think anybody
was at that level that were in these films. I
think they were maybe local theater actors or
people that he knew that were in the movie. But
I'm hoping to have a more lengthy discussion
with him because me and my family, we're going
to go to Columbia in the summer. We just booked
our flights. So I'm going to be reaching out
to him and his people and seeing if we can set
up a day that, you know, we'll be able to meet
and I'll be able to have that more in -depth
conversation with him about about the films and
his career. Oh, yeah, man, that'd be that'd be
great. Yeah. Make a documentary out of it. Well,
how about this? Let me let me let you, Anthony,
set up the the synopsis, if you will, of. Funeral
Siniestro for the people that haven't seen it.
Why don't you just give them like a little two
to three sentence breakdown of what the movie
is about? So Funeral Siniestro, it's about this
young girl. Her father has just passed away.
Now her uncle is going to make the arrangements
for everything that has to be done now that he's
passed. In the meantime, she has to stay at their
hacienda out in the country with her stepmother.
uh who we're getting the vibes may have been
the one that kind of that offed her father um
and you can tell right off the bat that she this
woman does not appreciate uh this girl she wants
her out of the picture uh and things kind of
just escalate from there uh without giving away
too much um yeah i think that i think that kind
of sets it up pretty much this girl is basically
stuck in the house with her wicked stepmother
and uh who basically wants her out of the picture
and things kind of go from there yeah and her
stepmom was like fucking like super brutal super
mean and aggressive towards her i mean i don't
know where that disdain for for the stepdaughter
came from but um Yeah, she fucking hated her
guts, man. I don't know if it was that or she
just wanted more control of the property and
the inheritance itself. I feel like there's a
line in there where she says that she was the
result of her husband's philandering or something
like that. So I'm not sure. But yeah, there's
definitely money that she's after. As always.
It always comes down to money, doesn't it? Yeah,
the thing that I liked about this movie a lot
was that it's definitely a slow burn. listeners
and eventual viewers beware that if you're not
into slow burn movies you might you might have
an issue with it but to me it only made everything
a little bit more effective because this kind
of has like that 70s moody very brooding um crude
but not in a derogatory sense, vibe to it that
to me plays better late at night, maybe even
midnight movie to watch. Yeah, that's what I
was going to say. This is like the perfect movie
to watch in the dark. You can't watch this in
the daytime. It has to be lights out, dark outside,
because that's pretty much how the movie feels.
It's just like a dark movie. Gives it that vibe
for sure. I love the score on it. Like it's just,
it's so... it's got a very lo -fi retro feel
to it uh only could have come out of the 70s
it's just that really sets the tone for me that
that score at the very beginning yeah that too
yeah that opening funeral scene was just like
man you know it's like depressing but then you're
also getting creeped out too like you know something's
gonna go down later you know but even like it's
like you know like you said the the soundtrack
it's very like and again this is not derogatory
but it's like elementary electronic soundtrack
um but it fits the vibe of this movie so well
because a lot of the times like the camera moves
there's no it's not like an italian movie we're
eating all these crashes and stuff like that
the camera moves very slow throughout this entire
um the entire movie and the soundtrack plays
along with that as well as like kind of like
the the background elements of what's going on
um at the property when she's outside and she's
talking to everybody like everything moves so
like i don't know what the word it is that i'm
looking for but everything moves so slow but
in unison if that makes sense you know and there's
definitely like some some gorgeous shots like
just like these slow pans um like when she's
burying the body lucrezia's burying the body
outside uh we get this like really slow like
uh vista of kind of her like moving the body
or the scene um When Isabelle is with with some
of the other family members and it kind of just
like hovers over their their reactions, their
faces. Yeah, there's just some quality stuff
stuff in there for like a first time filmmaker.
That's like very impressive. Yeah, exactly. Like
being being your first feature length film. I
mean, he knocked it out of the park. You know,
it's it. It's only, what, an hour, 45 minutes,
something like that. And not a lot happens because
it all takes place in one central location. But
what does happen is very impactful to how it
sets up the ending of the movie. um like the
stepmother has like these weird i don't know
if she's a witch or she's just like a black magic
practitioner or what but she there's like that
scene where she's like lighting candles and smoking
a cigar with like a skull in in this dark you
know dank room little center yeah that was crazy
i was like oh what's this lady up to now she's
already mean it's like now she's a witch too
or what she's so bad And that's kind of like
where the craziness starts, right? Because that's
when the first death takes place at that scene,
if I'm not mistaken. She finds out that the,
what was his name, Jaime? He's like the house,
not the housekeeper, but like the house help
is like spying on her. So she's like, man, fuck
this fool and decides she wants to kill him.
Ya me voy. Ah, si. Vas a contar lo que sabes.
Pues te equivocas. Tú no sales de aquí. just
like nothing to this lady's mean she just does
not give a fuck and you just like hate her you're
just like fuck hopefully something bad happens
to her she's like every every evil stepmom in
every movie that's ever been portrayed right
um and then there's also like um uh man i lost
my train of thought What was I going to say?
Oh, no, like the setup between character. Like,
you know, we learned that the stepmom was in
cahoots with the neighbor who obviously had a
beef with Humberto, who, you know, ironically
is played by Jairo Pinilla, right? He's like
the uncle, the now stepfather. Yeah. Yeah, he
actually stars in quite a... I think he's got
like a small role in pretty much all of his films.
so yeah it's it's uh it's just interesting to
see him you know in that time um yeah i don't
know where i'm going with that no but it is cool
though like he's in the movie he's not just making
a cameo like he's actually in the movie yeah
this ain't no hitchcock cameo it's like no this
is him acting too well it's funny because like
throughout this entire movie while you know isabel
is being tortured and traumatized by her stepmom
this was out you know in bogota on business and
you know there's a scene where he's just in the
club like dancing it up and like chilling with
a bunch of a couple girls in the in a club where
the band is playing and he has no idea that any
of this is happening which i find kind of funny
i don't know if that's intentional humor but
not until like the ending and that's when he
finally goes back and then all this stuff has
happened it's like damn bro where were you I
guess he was meeting one of his lawyers at that
club or something to tie up loose ends. Yeah,
he was trying to finalize the inheritance of
the property and stuff, right? That's what he
was going to do. Ain't no better place to deal
business than inside a club while a band is playing.
Thank you. But there is like a cool, like there's
like a, I don't know what relevance it has to
the movie at all, because it didn't really feel
like it contributed to much. But there's a scene
where there's like a solar eclipse. That's like
the halfway point of the movie. Yes. I was reading
that that was like a real event that happened.
That's like a known thing that happened in Colombia
where it was visible from Bogota. And I'm not
I mean, I forgot that there was a couple other
cities that I guess were were affected by that,
that were able to see it, which I thought was
kind of cool, because at first I thought it was
just an effect. But to find out that it was a
real event, they were just like, fuck it, put
the camera up and let's record this. Yeah, I
don't know if it has any bearing on the story
itself, but it definitely was probably something
that was going on at the time of shooting. And
they said this will just be something cool to
add into the film. And I think it does kind of,
it adds to the mood. It kind of adds to the otherworldliness
of what's happening right now. So yeah, a good
stroke of brilliance to insert that into the
film. Adds to the atmosphere. Yeah, well, it
plays like the halfway point because once that
happens, then you have the funeral, obviously,
that takes place, which is like the last, what,
like 40 minutes, 45 minutes of the movie. Because
before that, it's all just like the, you know,
the scenes of the stepmom, you know, for lack
of a better word, being a witch with a capital
B. And then finally it happens, you know, she,
she, she ends up killing herself by tripping
on like a, on some branches and, you know, impales
herself on, on a tree that was cut by the, what
was the name? Jaime, which I thought was like
good. And I, you know, the funny thing is when
that, when that's the first scene of the movie,
when he's chopping down trees with the machete
and they zoom into that, you know, just like
a left branch. I was like, Oh, something, something
crazy is going to happen with this. And sure
enough, you know, she ends up killing herself
on it. Yeah. everything is aligned um you know
it's funny uh one thing that i read online which
i think uh makes this kind of a cool you know
for for the haters that are going to say that
this isn't this isn't a mexican episode there's
there is a mexican tie in here and i don't know
if you're aware of this anthony or not but i
read that this movie was released at on the same
day as El Patrullero 777, which is a Cantinflas
movie, who obviously Mexican fans will know is
a Mexican comedian. So there's the tie -in, folks,
for all the listeners that want to be haters.
This does have to do with Mexico in some way,
even if it's a small way. Also, Jairo Pineda,
when he was, I think, like in his early 20s.
He was working for a company in Mexico and on
his off time, he would go to Chorobusco Studios
and like hang out with the actors there and kind
of like see them, you know, putting together
the sets and taking them apart and whatnot. I
think there's interviews of him speaking about
like watching those classic films from the golden
age of Mexican cinema that were like very inspiring
to him. And that's why he wanted to visit those
places when he was there. yeah the golden age
of Mexican cinema that like inspired all of Latin
cinema later on so that's how it all started
for like Latin cinema in general Mexico started
it and then these other countries saw it and
were like well you know we need to make movies
like this too you know we got stories to tell
these are awesome so yeah so yeah it's awesome
that he was inspired by Mexican cinema and then
he went on to his own and basically started Columbia
cinema Yes. So I guess so before him, there wasn't
really anything of horror, was there? I've read
that there's there were some films, but I haven't
you know, I just see titles. I don't really find
much information on what the films were about
or or more than that. But I think for him, for
Funera Sinestro, it's pretty much considered
the very first Colombian horror film. I think
there might have been one other film that came
out. It's kind of like debatable which came out
first. But yeah, really, there there wasn't much
before that. And there hasn't been like a succession
of horror films out of Colombia, unfortunately.
The only other one that I know of from like 82,
there's a film called Pura Sangre, which is by
another pretty well -known Colombian director,
Luis Ospina. And he was kind of there was a group
of filmmakers out of Cali that. you know, originally
Hydroponica is from Cali, but he moved to Bogota.
There was like a group, like a cinema club there
that kind of gave birth to some of these more
artistic filmmakers, Luis Ospina being one of
them. And I think he kind of dabbled in horror,
but it wasn't nothing full blown. I think that
that particular film, it's about like a sugared.
plantation owner who's like dying and his uh
he needs blood transfusions to survive and his
kids they go out and they basically kill people
from like their upper class and they kill people
from like the lower classes and drain them of
their blood so that way their their aging father
can stay alive um great film yeah that one's
crazy i've seen it before i actually have it
on vhs under i recall which is blood traffickers
but yeah that always fucking crazy yeah I got
to add that to the watch list. Yeah, that's probably
like another one to watch after. Like if you're
really into Funeral Sinestro, you got to watch
this one as well. This is like another must -see
Colombian horror film as well. Yeah, but outside
of that, I'm not too familiar with it. There
being much outside of what Jairo Pineda had done.
Well, we do know that he ended up making, I guess,
for lack of a better genre, an action -adventure
film. which would be Triangulo de Oro, aka the
Triangle of Gold. What can you say about this
movie? Set this up for the listeners. I think
this is one of his favorite films just because
it had the widest release. He got to go film
in Panama for this one. It's very much like it's
following the same trend as a lot of those. that
came out of Italy in the wake of Indiana Jones,
only with Colombian flavor to it. It's, you know,
there's an island that has a treasure. There
are, you know, pirates or not pirates per se,
but there's like a nefarious group that's after
this treasure map and this family that kind of
gets caught up in it. And, you know, you've got
everything from like man eating vines, these
rocks that glow and, you know, make blood come
out of your face. There's a amazing like battle
barroom brawl in the in the towards the beginning
of the film. Yeah, it's just it's not very common
to see that type of a film done, you know, on
that in that kind of low budget sense that. DIY
sense to try to tackle something so grand. Definitely
a very fun film. So my question is, was he trying
to make a family movie with this movie? Or was
he just making an adventure film in general?
Because I don't know. It came off as a family
-friendly film at first, but then it gets a little
crazy after. So I was always wondering, who was
he trying to market this movie to? It does feel
like he's going for a more general audience.
I don't know if it was intentionally meant to
just be a family film, but yeah, he's definitely
trying to broaden the appeal of it by having
the, the child be like such a main focus. Yeah.
That sounds like, is this a movie for kids? But
then there's blood and then there's these like
ugly little monsters coming in. I was like, I
don't think this is for kids, but maybe it was
at first. I don't know. I was a little confused,
but it was cool. But I was just like, what the
heck is going on? Yeah, this is, this definitely
has the feel of like, like a, an al adamson like
kitchen sink type movie where you know you got
you know uh action adventure but then it kind
of pivots into like this like supernatural movie
you got a a kung fu guy or not even a kung fu
guy he's a karate guy like a chinese karate guy
with the worst uh dubbed uh Asian accent of all
time. Funny enough, felt like it had a little
bit of like a Spanish accent as well. But then,
like you said, you have like just tons of gore.
You know, you have like these trees that are
killing people that, you know, kind of akin to
Evil Dead style where, you know. So this this
movie just kind of goes all over the place. But
I think that's what makes it so enjoyable is
that you will find something about this movie
that you like guaranteed. And I definitely when
I was trying to figure out which movies to license
from him, you know, I went with Funeral Sinestro
because obviously it's. its status as being the
first Colombian horror film but then I also thought
gotta go for Triangulo de Oro just because it
has that appeal like it looks exciting and I
felt like that would be you know a good counterpoint
to kind of like this to have this slow paced
brooding horror film next to this more fast paced
adventure film did he have any input as to what
or any suggestions of what you should have released
or was he just like whatever you want i'm all
game yeah he he he had no he had no suggestions
um i kind of told him you know what films i would
i i wanted and he was he was fine with that i
asked him if he wanted to have any input like
i was i was down to if he wanted to if he was
willing to record a commentary i would have done
that at that you know during that initial conversation
but he was not interested um yeah and then you
know And speaking about the special features,
to go back to that, I also had asked, because
there was a documentary film made about him in
2019 by a Colombian filmmaker. And I had asked,
you know, are you in contact with that guy? Are
the rights available to that? Because I would
love to get my hands on that. And him and the
other guy that worked for that website, they
gave off the vibe that the person who made that
film would not be willing to license it to me
for whatever reason. I never really got... any
understanding on why that would be but it was
kind of like the vibe was just like don't pursue
that um so i never did and i probably wouldn't
have had the money to get that as well in addition
to the other two films to the two films um so
yeah yeah well maybe that'll be a something down
the line that you can add or something but it
does seem strange that the you know you know
unofficial fan club i guess you could say would
be like nah you don't want to you don't want
to mess with that guy or that that project yeah
i think it's time for you to make your own english
friendly that would be sick though yeah i could
see it what um what do you know as far as like
was this shot on 35 millimeter was it 16 millimeter
um do you know that and do you know any of that
information i don't know that information i i
think it was shot on 16 millimeter it does look
like 16 yeah well let's let's get into it a little
bit i mean as you said it was shot in uh in panama
in panama at the panama canal i i read on that
same interview that i was reading i guess he
that was like a deliberate thing i guess colombian
moviegoers didn't want to watch a movie that
was made in colombia or that was spoken in spanish
so he went to panama to film it so it had like
you know a foreign film you know i guess uh vibe
to it but then i read that it was released dubbed
in english with spanish subtitles which seems
i mean that i mean i don't know if that's a a
thing or you know how true that is i don't know
if you know if that exists or and i think i saw
the same article and he had spoken briefly about
that when we talked over zoom uh and i i don't
know if it was for triángulo de oro for it was
for another film that he did later on because
there's one other film uh, that he did after
that, that I could have sworn was the one that
he, he had it dubbed in English. So that way
it could appear, um, as an American film. And
then it would be, it would have a more of an
appeal, kind of like how the Italians would always
anglicize the names on, on the cast credit. So
they could sell the movie as being in America.
That would be, that would sell better. Um, so
I know that he did that. I don't know if that
was done for a triangle or the auto, but I know
in his filmography, there is a film that he did
have dubbed into English. because he thought
that it would sell better if it was passed off
as an American product. I guess that's kind of
the vibe. If the country is not mass -producing
cinema and the kind of general vibe is the imports
that we're getting are much more entertaining
and we don't want to go see it, then of course
you're going to try any way that you can. to
get your film in front of your domestic audience.
So I think that's where that kind of came from.
Yeah, yeah. And this movie was pretty successful,
right? Because, you know, again, this is all
referencing one interview that I read, because
like I said, there wasn't a lot to go on to find
more information. But he said that he had a deal
in place with United Artists to distribute this
movie. um to foreign markets that's i mean that's
kind of crazy but i guess that deal fell through
um yeah i think i i think um i feel like i've
seen like a newspaper ad for the film that did
have the united artists logo underneath it so
i'm not i'm not sure where it played maybe if
it was it possibly was other countries in south
america that it that they distributed it um obviously
i don't think you know like i said it had gotten
a vhs release in the u .s but i don't think that
was part of the united artists deal i don't think
that they were the ones that licensed it out
to the u .s but i could be wrong about that yeah
yeah all right well let's let's kind of talk
about the movie a little bit um i mean this one
like we said you know it's it's like an action
movie so um but it also has supernatural i guess
uh tendencies if you will um It's kind of like
the main character. What was his name? God damn
it. William, right? No, William was the. Yeah,
the main dude is Jack. There you go, Jack. And
he's like a big burly dude. You know, he's got
a bald head. He's got earrings on. I mean, he
looks like he's straight out of an Indiana Jones
movie. But I don't know. there was like a part
of this where it almost felt like they were like,
they played as flashbacks. And I don't know if
I just picked up something wrong or am I right
to say that there were some of these scenes were,
were flashbacks to things that had already happened.
Not that I recall. And I could be wrong too,
because I haven't watched it myself in quite
some time. It's funny. So during more so for
Funeral Sinestro, whenever I hear like I would
hear directors talk about like how they hadn't
seen their own film in like 20 years, I'd be
like, I love this film. How could you not have
watched it like every day? But when you have
to like sit through the restoration of the film
and you've seen it like. Like I had to sit through
Funeral Sinestro so many times that I finally
I was like, I can't watch it again. I told my
wife because I had to sit through it to see like
how every how the progress was going. So I watched
it numerous, numerous times. And not that I did
the same thing for Triangulo de Oro, but I have
watched it quite a bit. But it's been it's been
a while for me. So I don't recall if there are
any scenes that were specifically flashbacks.
There might have been. if i recall yeah they
were kind of like little flashbacks i guess to
kind of understand what exactly is going on and
why are they going over there so it does play
off like that yeah there was it was like it was
like somewhere in the middle of the movie where
jack it almost felt like he was remembering things
that had already happened but then they played
out later in the movie so i was i was i was a
little bit confused like is this entire thing
a flashback or what the fuck is going on here
¿Siempre vas a viajar? Ah, sí. Cuando salga ese
barco. No creo necesario que arriesgues tu vida
en esa forma. Tú mismo has comprobado la cantidad
de embarcaciones que después de pasar por este
canal han desaparecido misteriosamente. Y tu
hija también desapareció. ¿O ya te olvidaste
de eso? Ahora debes enfrentarte a tu nuevo hogar.
You're going to sacrifice your life for a treasure
that maybe doesn't exist. I know. But I need
you to take care of my son. Yes, and not only
Henry, but also my sister, who may be a widow.
i guess this was his uh his brother -in -law
um i could have sworn there's a scene like that
where he's telling him not to go to the island
um i could be wrong either way the movie just
yeah it's kind of all over the place that's the
vibe too it's like it goes all over the place
there's this flashback going on then they're
at the island and then you think just they're
after the treasure but then there's these monsters
yeah the movie's just everywhere it's it's a
pretty crazy watch for sure so you're gonna be
like your head's gonna be spinning when you watch
this movie for sure especially when you hear
the screech from the actual gold triangle at
first i thought it was my tv see that was the
funny part i'm like you know i just moved into
this new house and i'm like oh hopefully nothing's
broken and i hear the screeching sound from the
movie and i'm like oh fuck is this tv broken
and it's like oh no it's the movie That screeching
sound, oh my fucking God. That was traumatizing.
I can't even imagine watching it in the theater.
Imagine in the theater, it's fucking loud. Well,
you wouldn't be able to escape it in the theater.
When I was watching it, I had to turn the volume
down because I was like, oh, I... Because that
screech plays for like, it feels like 10, 15
minutes. Okay, we got to play that at the theater.
I need to see an audience reaction to that screech.
Because that was just crazy. Anthony, do you
have rights to screen this theatrically? No,
but I'm sure that if I asked him, he would give
me permission. I think he would be down for that,
especially if I said it was, you know, as part
of the promotion. But no, my rights are basically
just for this release. Like, I don't even have
streaming. And I remember when I was getting
the restoration, they were like, you don't have
streaming rights? That's where everything's going.
That's crazy. You need the streaming rights.
And I was just like, nobody. I'm thinking the
audience for this film are people like me, where
it's like, I want to own this. I don't want to
stream it. I want to own this physically, and
I want to hold it in my hand. I don't want it
to be... It's just going to get lost. If it's
on streaming, it's just going to get lost in
all the other thumbnails of all the other...
Exactly. That's what I was going to say. You'll
know it's there, but then it's like, are you
ever going to click it, though? But it's like,
if you have the disc in your hand, you're like,
hey, I'm going to probably put this on. and that's
literally what i did when i first got it i got
it in the mail i'm like oh let's put it on i
want to watch it streaming it's like oh add it
to the queue and then never fucking watch it
yeah movies like this that don't already have
like a built -in audience they streaming is where
they go to die yeah exactly you know without
without the you know the physical copy people
aren't aren't going to be as willing to watch
this if they didn't already pay uh you know the
price of of getting this blu -ray in you know
because if it's on streaming like you said thumbnail
and pass it pass it pass it and then eventually
the streaming rights uh die and then you have
no access to it you know so this is a cool release
too it's like it's quality the slip case is really
nice And how much was it in total? Like twenty
some dollars. It's like, come on, when can you
buy a Blu -ray for like less than thirty dollars
nowadays? Well, originally it went for sale for
thirty and for like a month and nobody touched
it. It also might have been not getting the best
promotion at the time. But I kind of figured,
you know, maybe thirty dollars is a lot to ask
of people at this point in with the economy the
way it is. And it's a film that nobody has heard
of. Maybe I got to bring it down to make people
more willing. to to take the chance on it that's
kind of what what led to that i mean either way
though i mean there's people that are paying
like 60 for a hollywood movie that's on blu -ray
or 14 it's like nah man there's there's people
paying 60 for a movie they've never seen yeah
so yeah take a chance with this one this is less
than 30 and it's really nice like i said the
slip cover art is really nice for both movies
yes every collector's dream is right here it's
like you got your slip case that's quality and
your two crazy ass movies in there that you're
gonna for sure watch you know yeah so when i
when i got to the point where i was doing the
slip cover i reached out to uh jesse nelson the
guy that runs diabolic dvd and cultural films
and i was like hey do you where do you go to
get your stuff done can you give me any leads
and he was very gracious enough to kind of tell
me uh you know, some, some people, some vendors
to use at that point where I was in the process,
you know, in terms of like, uh, the mastering
and, and the, the authoring of the disc and whatnot.
So he was very helpful. And actually when, uh,
when Diabolic, you know, that was like, it was
maybe two years ago that I had actually emailed
him about it. So when the movie came out, he
emailed me, obviously not remembering that we
had communicated before asking for, for some
of some copies of the movie. Uh, and he's in
like, uh, he's in New Jersey, close to Philadelphia.
So I was like, I'll just, you know, drive the
two hours over there and bring you all these
movies. Cause I also didn't know how to ship
the amount of movies that he had asked for. Cause
I only have like the boxes to ship just like,
cause I said on the website, you know, limit
of two. per order and i can only ship two because
i have no idea how to accommodate any larger
orders than that so i was like i'll just put
them in a bunch of crates and come down and i
you know i got to meet him got to take a little
tour of the diabolic warehouse uh which was really
awesome and uh yeah hopefully you know sometime
in the future me and him will talk shop more
and i can kind of like compare notes like did
i do this right or how you know how do you as
somebody who's a bit more experienced in this
game, I kind of want to pick his, his brain on
like, how, how do you do this? Did I do things
the right way? Did I get, should I have done
it this way? You know, things like that. But
he was very helpful. For a first release. This
is awesome. Like I said, I'm holding it in my
hands and I'm like, this is fucking awesome.
You would think like another label put this out,
but no, this is like I said, one man, one man's
dream. And this is like a fan release basically,
but a legit one, you know, this is awesome. Yeah.
um how how has the the the title's been selling
like are people finally catching wind of it yeah
no it um it's it's definitely been been selling
consistently i'll say that uh things have kind
of slowed down again i got to do a little bit
more promotion on it i think um one of the uh
people on instagram like the disconnected uh
posted about it and that was just like a huge
boost like whenever somebody posts about it there's
always like a flurry of sales so those always
help whenever somebody orders and then you know
puts a picture up about it then i reach like
you know a bunch of other people um but no the
response has been really good it's really great
um you know one one person on instagram reached
out to me and told me how happy they were about
the release they actually posted something really
really nice about it um and it was like the kind
of feedback that I got was like, was what I was
looking for. Because like I said, I'm always
on the hunt for something that I haven't seen
before that kind of scratches that itch. You
know, I, film is like, is a passport to another,
to other countries, to other times. And to hear
that that's what this was for, for somebody else,
you know, is, is very pleasing. And also I've
gotten messages from people that are Colombian
and, you know, were really thankful that that
i released this that they said that you know
that they themselves did not know about hiro
pinilla they're horror fans they're colombian
they didn't know that this these films existed
so you know to hear that is is amazing that is
awesome yeah you love it especially with me with
the whole trash mic thing the podcast the blog
people be like yeah you know i live in mexico
and i never even heard of those movies so you
know it's awesome i want to know more it's like
how do you not know it's like what and then of
course i i understand later why you know it's
always because of culture differences and then
just the lack of access to some of these movies
i could imagine it's the same for obviously columbia
as well it's like they only had access to so
much and not really know much about this stuff
until much later on yeah absolutely well hopefully
it reaches people in columbia um so they can
you know take part of their own history in cinema.
Because as you said, Armando, watching movies
that are made from and made for your own culture,
there's nothing better than that, really. I mean,
that's kind of like how you said earlier, Anthony,
is like you kind of learn the language that way
as well. So, I mean, there's a lot of people
that don't speak Spanish or that aren't as connected
to their own culture. Maybe it's like the smallest
way to introduce yourself to your own culture,
but watching movies is definitely a good gateway
into learning about yourself and learning your
own history. And like I said, hopefully, you
know, people in Colombia can get their hands
on this. I don't know if you're able to sell
internationally or not, but hopefully they find
a way to get these restored and see them in full
glory, you know. Absolutely. And, you know, that
is, again, going back to that cultural aspect,
you know, cinema is my language. That is how
I connect with my culture. And, you know, that's
not, you know, as you're creating your identities,
like, so for myself, you know, finding out about
Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, that
was like a huge part of, you know, my... my teenage
years, my identity, because being Italian, what
did that, I didn't know what that meant. I, who
are supposed to be my, my idols, who was supposed
to be the people I look up to, like Frank Sinatra,
John Gotti. I like, I don't know who was the
person that, you know, am I supposed to identify
with in my culture? And then finding these Italian
film directors was like opening up this, this
whole new world for me. And I was like, okay,
these are my, these are my people. And I think
that. It certainly helps to see people in your
own culture doing the things that you love, especially
if it's not something that's widely accepted.
I always wish that there was more on the Puerto
Rican side in terms of genre filmmaking. I struggle
to see if there's any... you know, Puerto Rican
horror or science fiction. I do know that there
was one like a superhero movie that was made
in the nineties that I I'm kind of interested
in seeing if I could get that released, but you
know, there's not a lot of domestic cinema that
was made in Puerto Rico, but you know, at least
I had the Italian stuff that kind of hold me
over. Um, but yeah, no, just, just, it's inspiring.
It's inspiring to, to have that connection. So
do you plan on releasing any more of Jairus'
work? Because, I mean, there's a short that I
really like. I mean, I haven't seen it, but I've
seen the trailer. It's the La Silla Satanica.
That trailer was pretty fucking crazy. I'm intrigued.
It's a short film? Yeah, La Silla Satanica by
Jairus Pena. It looks like it's only 47 minutes
long. I could be wrong, but yeah, it looks pretty
fucking sick, though. It looks like it was shot
on tape as well. It's like a possessed wheelchair
and the little girl's like falling off it or
something. I think, I think you need to hit up
Hiro about it again. Yeah. Well, I would definitely
be interested in, in releasing more of his films.
I think whatever my next release is, it's probably
not going to be another Hiro Kanija just because
I don't want to, I would be, because this was
such an endeavor, especially financially. I don't,
I wouldn't want to just become the Hiro Kanija
guy and just only focus on his films. So definitely
the next release would probably be something
different. You know, I, I named the company Petroglyphs
just because I wanted it to be kind of undefinable.
I really didn't know. My focus was just getting
these two films out. And I do want to continue.
But what direction I go in, I'm really open to
anything. A lot of people have just kind of gotten
the sense that it would be just Latin American
films. And I'm totally fine with that if I can
continue in that. But there was never like a
set plan of like... I'm just going to focus on
these specific region and genre or anything.
I was kind of just leaving it kind of wide open
to see what I could accomplish, what I could
get my hands on. Yeah. That's kind of understanding.
Yeah, for sure. But like I said, I think you're
the man to continue Hyros' work. At least not
again soon, but later on down the line, I think.
Yeah. No, I would like to. To take another stab
at something. I just can't imagine anybody else
doing it and then giving it the love and admiration.
It's like, yeah, you got to do it again. Next
release, whatever you have planned, I look forward
to it. Whatever it is, I don't care what it is,
but whatever you got planned, I'm on for it.
I can't wait. Anthony, is there anything that
we didn't talk about today that you would like
to talk about or that we missed or skipped over
or anything? Nothing. I mean, we were going to
talk about the underrepresentation of Latin American
cinema, I guess, on DVD or Blu -ray as a whole.
Kind of to go into that, I think we're in a better
place than we were back in the DVD era. Certainly,
I feel like as there's more boutique labels popping
up, And as like the major studios are kind of
like divesting from doing their own releases,
I think we're going to get to a point where certain
labels are going to have to start digging deeper
and deeper to find, you know, more more films.
And I think we're going to see I would hope that
we're going to see a lot more stuff in the future
from from Latin America. Just on the fact that
like how many times can we release? What was
it? you know vinegar syndrome today had uh the
golden child like i was kind of just yeah yeah
i know i another reaction you don't have to say
it i will say though that the golden child is
definitely one of eddie murphy's best movies
but i but at the same time yeah i mean how many
different times do we need to and i guess for
people that don't own that movie already this
will probably be the definitive one to get But
it would be nice to see a catalog expand into
different territories instead of rehashing the
same movies that are constantly being put out.
I'm going to take that back. I don't want to
sound overly negative because I know I was excited
about Congo. Congo was unusual, but it made sense.
At the same time. Yeah, I get it. You know, I
don't I don't stand for revisionist history,
man. Congo was a fucking banger when it came
out, man. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.
Oh, yeah. That movie was the shit. I even had
to watch from Taco Bell and everything. So I
remember that. But I mean, we've come a long
way to just thinking specifically kind of about
Mexican genre films. We've from like the DVD
era when we had the Casanegra releases to know
what we have from Indicator. Or the BCI releases
of the Galindo movies now. Those have all been
upgraded in amazing, you know, amazing additions.
Yeah, we could only hope for more. Because I
always say there's so much more than just what
we're already seeing. It's like there's just
so much more. And hopefully, you know, yeah,
we do get more. And then people start to appreciate,
you know, Latin America as a whole and films,
you know. Because I feel like Latin films, like
especially genre stuff, is still so underlooked,
you know, so underappreciated. No, sorry. Go
ahead. No, I mean, I don't mean to cut you off,
but I was just going to say, I mean, and I know
this isn't like the greatest thing to, you know,
to be like the standard go -to, but you look
at like Sight and Sound's top 100, there was,
I think there was only like six Latin American
movies that were listed on that, which is crazy.
Because, I mean, we're all fans of European horror,
Euro sleaze. We're all fans of the classics.
Asian cinema is going through like a crazy revival
right now. And that's not to say that these movies
aren't great and don't deserve restoration and
releases and stuff. But, I mean, the globe is
huge, man. There's so many different nooks and
crannies of the world that has cinema that's...
begging to be released and you know audiences
that want them you know and that's all we're
asking for man we're just asking for people to
expand and and you know maybe it's it's the fact
that you know the audience isn't there uh financially
you know people aren't paying to buy it i don't
know but um these movies are worthy of it you
know absolutely like i said you guys gotta watch
more mexican movies you guys gotta watch more
stuff from spain i mean spain's european but
you know what i mean there's still so much spain
genre cinema that needs to be seen and then of
course we got you know colombia here it's like
man you know who would have thought there was
some colombian horror films out there you know
that needed to be seen and here we are with one
of them you know and then a crazy indiana jones
knockoff that i would have never known existed
until right now you know if it wasn't for petroglyph
media you know yeah that's that's kind of the
point right you know we need someone like anthony
and petroglyph to be releasing these movies uh
so that people are aware of them you know you
know it's hard to say that there's no audience
for it when um no one is is caring enough to
to put it out there you know yeah people don't
know it exists then you know they're not gonna
we're never like i'm not wouldn't find out if
there's an audience if they don't know it exists.
So it has to be put out there. I obviously going
into the release, I was like worried. Oh my God,
am I, is this a huge miscalculation? Am I maybe
the only person that really wanted to see these
films? Like why hasn't anybody else touched them?
Did I make a mistake? And certainly in that first
month when nobody was biting, I was kind of worried.
Cause then I say to myself, you know, just how
many people are there that are. just like me
who want to take the chance who want to you know
kind of expand their horizons um but no i'm feeling
very hopeful that that more and more people are
going to get to see this film and and that that
will provide me with the means to to continue
on and to do more The reason why we wanted to
have you on as well is to give you some exposure
so that people are starting to learn about this
and give you an audience because, like we said,
these movies are fucking fantastic. Horror fans,
you're going to love Funeral Siniestro. Action
fans, Hong Kong fans, you guys are going to love
Triangulo de Oro. There's something for everybody
on this release. if you haven't bought it yet
fucking buy it man yeah i don't know how many
times already since like you know this release
was like hey have you got this already and then
i'm like what is it and it's a link to the petroglyph
media site i'm like uh yeah not yet it looks
cool and then when i bought it people were still
asking like yeah it's cool by like what are you
doing like no don't buy that buy this When I
posted it on my Letterboxd account, I immediately
saw five people that follow me added it to their
watch list. That's all it takes is word of mouth.
Exactly. So again, if you're listening and if
you still haven't bought it, buy it. Go to petroglyphmedia
.com, click add to cart, and Anthony will ship
it out to you right away. And that's the thing.
Anthony, you shipped this out really quick too.
The thing about that is... I was unemployed at
the time. So far, the losers. You guys are going
to have to wait a while. No, but you got your
like your big companies and so forth, you know,
and then they have delays, you know, whatever
reason. And it's like, hey, this one guy, he
shipped it right away. It's already on my doorstep.
I'm trying to always think from the collector's
standpoint as myself. What do I enjoy? So that's
why you might have noticed that movie is like
wrapped beyond belief in bubble wrap. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. in a box bubble wrapped
and it came quick like the first time i when
i shipped out the first package i i handed it
over to the uh to the postman at the post office
and just like chucked it behind his back oh my
god i was like oh my god because he probably
felt like how light it was and thought it was
nothing i was like oh my god i gotta make sure
that you know this can withstand anything yeah
you're gonna get that first email motherfucker
my case was broken i want to i want a refund
and the slip case is quality you're not gonna
see no dings either i don't want people being
like oh you came with the ding it's like nah
mine came out pretty pristine so it's well taken
care of like i said this is this is a disc for
the fans made by a fan so yeah a lot of love
right there I try to get the family involved.
So my son makes it, he'll, he'll make the boxes,
but I'm like, you can't touch the silk covers.
He's like, all right. Awesome. Damn. Even the
family's involved. There we go. Yeah. That's
how you do it, man. That's how you do it. Awesome.
Awesome. Well, we're winding down here. So Anthony,
where can the listeners find you? Shout yourself
out, you know, link yourself, all your, your
social media and all that stuff. Yeah. I'm so
new to social media because I only made an Instagram
for this account specifically. I think it's at
petroglyphmedia. I think that's what my handle
is or whatnot. uh literally i've been trying
to stay away from social media but this uh this
is definitely a business that requires uh interaction
no yeah i hate so you can ask armando before
we started this podcast i had been off of social
media for what like three years or something
yeah and i was like all right i gotta get back
on it if we're yeah i think around the time i
started talking to joey he didn't even have instagram
like you know he disabled it or whatever he just
didn't have it it's it's so crucial nowadays
like and as silly as social media can be and
is it's just it's so crucial and necessary um
to promote yourself you know so follow guys petroglyphmedia
.com um i don't know what else what's left to
say do you have any plans for the second release
or you're still like bringing it out or there
are some films i just don't want to i don't want
to mention them on the simple fact that god forbid
somebody else from another label is listening
and says oh we have let's night but you have
an idea yeah we'll keep that up there's definitely
a few films in play that i just gotta do a little
more digging and find out who owns the rights
to them and see if i can find elements to them
but there are definitely i do have plans to continue
on uh might not you know don't nobody should
expect you know monthly release announcements
anytime soon i'm not at that level yet but this
will not be the last you hear from me i will
i will not quit like i said whatever it is if
it's a netty murphy movie i'll buy it if it's
beverly hills cup i'll buy it all right well
you guys have heard it here um petroglyph media
petroglyphmedia .com Funeral Siniestro, Triangulo
de Oro, two Colombian classics that are waiting
to be rediscovered by you. So show some support
and follow by the movies. And yeah, man, hopefully
people enjoy the episode. Thank you guys for
having me on. Yeah, thank you, Anthony. For now,
no. I wanted to, I lived happily ever after to
see the queues, which I still have filmed, queues
in the theaters for people to see my movies.
That was my satisfaction, and it will be my satisfaction.
Maestro, thank you very much for joining us here
at Cinema 20 .1. What a pity, what a pity that
I went on. No. Gentlemen of the program, please
believe in the beyond, believe in the miracles,
because I saw... in this funeral film, a miracle.
And whoever says no, I'm sorry, but I'm not going
back.