Interview: ‘The Girls on Liberty Street’ at 2013 Chicago International Film Festival

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CHICAGO – In a situation that has happened in many U.S. households over the last ten years, the new film “The Girls on Liberty Street” explores the days leading up to a family shipping on of their own to the Army. The twist is that the potential soldier is female, and the reaction to this in the story is rich and nuanced. The film was produced, written and directed by John A. Rangel, and produced by David Rokos.

Brianna Zepeda is Leaving Home in ‘The Girls on Liberty Street’ Photo credit: Chicago International Film Festival

The film was entered in the new directors competition, remarkable for a local (Aurora, Illinois) filmmaker and a micro budget film. There are so many personal commonalities in the film as to the reaction to the girl, portrayed by Brianna Zepeda, and the story offers a unique insight into the variety of human souls who fight in America’s many wars. HollywoodChicago.com spoke with the director Rangel and the producer Rokos on “City & State” short films night at the Chicago International Film Festival

HollywoodChicago.com: John, what was the inspiration for this story. Was it something you observed, an experience in your own family or just something that occurred to you?

John A. Rangel: I wish it were that simple. [laughs] It was more that I had an urge to tell a story about how I feel regarding my hometown. I vomited whole much of ideas and feelings to my wife, and she said ‘why don’t you make a movie about a girl going into the army.’ So she summarized all I had to say into that idea. And it felt perfect.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is the most personal element we find of you in this script and film?

Rangel: That element for me was about someone leaving their hometown, afraid of what it’s going to look like when she comes back. For me personally, it was easier, because I just went to college, the stakes were higher for Brianna. But going away from home – and having the anxiety of is this world going to miss her? Is it going to change or is it going to be the same when she comes back – that’s what the character of Brianna is going through.

HollywoodChicago.com: David, I must say you look like the world’s youngest producer…[laughs]…how did you get involved in this film?

David Rokos: John was my teacher at the College of DuPage, in the suburbs. I did location audio on his first feature film, ‘South Loop,’ and did the post production on the sound as well. We stayed in touch over the years, as I worked as a production coordinator at a media company. I got into logistics, but wanted to apply it to narrative. He came up with this idea, and together we went for it.

HollywoodChicago.com: John, how do you like to do your planning in pre-production – storyboarding, shot listing, seat-of-the-pants or other methods?

Rangel: Storyboarding and shot listing has rarely worked for me. My cinematographer on my last three projects is Kirk Johnson, he and I have developed this technique in which we walk into the location, I block the actors and then we would place the camera based on that. It really worked for us, and we ended up loving what we would discover. We prepare in other ways, but in getting the images we want let’s get to the place, put the actors in a natural environment and that’s when we find it.

HollywoodChicago.com: For both of you, what do you talk about first when you talk about your love for film and filmmaking?

David Rokos, John Rangel in Chicago, October 15th, 2013 Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Rangel: It’s simple for me. When I was a kid, we went to the Drive-In every Friday night, and matinees all the time. My Dad would start asking me after we’d watch the film, what did I think it was really about? So from a young age, I always thought about why I was connecting to movies, making me what to see them over and over. So when I talk about what I love about filmmaking, doing that type of storytelling for someone else to make that connection. If I can do that, then I did my job, which is what fulfills me as a filmmaker.

Rokos: We love telling stories, and filmmaking is a fun way to tell a story. Beyond that, the specifics really help. In an art form like music, it can really abstract, but with filmmaking specifically you can tell a story from start to finish. It’s also a communal art, most of my best friends are people I’ve met on set. So really the whole experience, from the start to the finish, your whole life revolves around it, but in a really good way.

HollywoodChicago.com: John, what is the best piece of filmmaking advice you’d ever received, and how do you apply it in actual production?

Rangel: I’ve gotten a lot of it, but the best advice is something I found, by the director Paul Thomas Anderson, which was ‘don’t give a f**k.’ How I translated that is just trust your gut, trust what you have to say and the kinds of stories you want to tell, in the way you want tell them. The success that Anderson found was to trust what he was doing, and the audience found it, dying for those types of movies. If we do that, the same thing will happen.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, for both of you. What screenplay in cinema history would you have liked to have taken a shot at, if it landed on your desk un-filmed?

Rangel: I can think about 40 films, probably. But right now it’s a Chinese film, ‘In the Mood for Love.’ I simply relate to all the emotions the characters go through – everything in their situation is emotional and true. It’s about yearning and not quite being satisfied, and I can directly relate to that.

Rokos: For me, it’s ‘Lost in Translation.’ First, I love how it portrays Toyko, from a different point of view, it’s a great character in the film. I can’t relate age-wise to Bill Murray or gender-wise to Scarlett Johanssen, but I can totally relate to what they’re going through. It’s timeless, relatable and just well done, and I like something different about the story each time I see it.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com