It is a film that touches on the importance of roots in our lives. Here, the director reveals some autobiographical elements as both his parents are from Sonora in Mexico and music forms a strong part of the family history: -
Young Javier (Anthony González) is a very talented trombone player, aiming for an exclusively classical career. He is intent on winning a key scholarship to pursue his studies and rehearses daily with his pianist colleague Emily (Cecila Fang) whom he secretly loves. His father Eladio (a superb Martín González) is the janitor at the college and Javier, aware of class struggles, is embarrassed by this, and avoids people knowing that Eladio is his father. For the same reason, he tries to avoid playing his trombone with his father’s ‘Banda’, as it entails wearing a bright blue sequin jacket that makes his feel like a smurf, is definitely uncool and, he fears, would make him a target to mock. Being finally persuaded to have a go, he has the misfortune that a video of the event is then circulated around the college, resulting in his being bullied and teased, creating a painful rift with his father. Can he overcome he own fears and embrace his heritage?
Celina Fang as Emily and Anthony González as Javier
Most people are aware of the Mariachi groups that traditionally play ranchera music (literally music from the ranch) which relies heavily on string instruments and it is thought to have originated in Jalisco. They probably developed from the Orquestas Típicas with a folk element and lyrics often being improvised for the occasion. The sub-genre of ‘Banda’ is less well-known. It tends to be an ensemble heavy on brass and percussion, featuring large groups with up to 20 members, playing clarinet, saxophones, trombones, trumpets supported by timbales, bass drums and the tambora replacing the sound of a tuba. They are, essentially, more of a gigging dance band and today’s repertoires would include cumbias, pasodobles, boleros and baladas.
The director Jorge Parra felt that the film’s main song ‘Te Presumo’ was especially vital so they aimed to obtain permission for it right from the start: -
“It is a cover of a very famous Banda EL Recodo De Cruz Lizárraga that came out around 2008, it was actually around the time that I started playing ‘Banda’. The number was one of their biggest hits and they still play it to this day. It was one of the biggest challenges to get something that people could connect with right away, so we had to lock down that song early on in the process, before we even finished writing the story we knew we wanted to get that song.
Jorge Parra Jr
Though Parra’s earliest dream was to become a firefighter, he was very young when he started playing around with films: -
“I started pretty early because my parents had an old VHS camcorder that I always wanted to play with, and back when I was in 3rd grade, I started making my own little films at home with my sister, my cousins and friends. That kind of started it and I continued that every chance I got making something. [Despite that] I actually studied Geography for my undergrad at UCLA, then I took some time off from school and it wasn’t until 2019 when I thought, you know what? I would like to try something different. I always wanted to go to film school, I just didn’t get to do if for my undergrad so then I finally put in for a UCLA master’s programme and I got in. My first year was during COVID so it was all online. We made it work and then we all came back to class and the good thing about UCLA is that they give you a lot of opportunities to make films and your second- year film is almost like a thesis film in itself. And then my thesis film was ‘¡Que suene la Banda!” all in all, I had a great time.”
Martín Morales as Eladiko (centre)
The autobiographical factor looms large as Parra reveals that he is also a musician:
“I am a musician, I played trumpet growing up, in the school band, and in High school I did Marching Bands and at UCLA undergrad. I grew up in El Monte in California which is just east of LA, predominantly Hispanic, Mexican Americans. Back in High School, the students in my class room wanted to start a Banda and they got me to join in on trumpet and eventually I started to play the trombone. I will never forget because it was not my type of music. It was my parent’s music and not the sort of music I listened to when I was growing up but we went to our first party, our first gig, we started playing, and immediately people got up and started dancing! A fabulous experience and that was something that never happened with the marching band. So that was pretty cool and I got hooked. I started doing and that and I wanted to bring that kind of music into my thesis film as you don’t really hear it a lot, usually they listen to Mariachi music, which is great and I love it [too] but Banda is different, it has cumbias and that.”
When it came to the cast, Parra admits he had help from his casting director Jamie Gallagher who turned out to have a good eye suggesting Anthony González for the role of Javier.
“We ended up actually contacting him (Anthony González) through Instagram! He showed interest and I showed him the script and he loved it. Anthony also played the voice of Miguel on 'Coco' (2017), so we knew we wanted him. We knew it would be hard to find someone who played trombone so the number one rule for Javier was that this actor was already a musician and knew how to read music. Of course, we got that in Anthony so what we did was … the trombone music... we actually labelled all the positions on the side of the sheet music which he was naturally reading along in the scene – so we had all the positions he could very easily follow, so if he could read music, he could do it. Celina [Fang] auditioned [for the part of Emily] through the normal process and we watched her tape and she was immediately one of our top choices. She actually has a huge following on Tic Toc which we didn’t find out till after the fact! We wanted the character of Emily to come with some piano experience and she does.”
As often happens at film school, people end up networking with each other, forming crewing teams that often move on together into the professional realm. So, it has been with Jorge Parra. His cinematographer, Marcus Patterson, also shot his earlier shorts and Ling-Li, his co-writer, also went to UCLA with them. Parra wrote the story, but felt the need to bring in other views so even though Ling -Li now works in Finance, as she has always wanted to be a screenwriter, he brought her on board: -
“We wanted a different perspective as well when writing the story. For me, having her contribute was … we pretty much wrote the screenplay together. It was wonderful, my first time actually doing that. The producer Megan Truax also had a lot of input.”
Jorge Parra is very clear as to what influential filmmakers he owes a thanks, main one among them is Gregory Nava, who has a number of significant films under his belt: -
“A big one is Gregory Nava, he did ‘El Norte’ (1983), ‘Mi Familia’(1995) and ‘Selena’(1997)... ‘Mi Familia’ in particular is one of those films that I grew up watching as a kid s in LA, you know, with a Mexican- American family. We actually had him come to one of our classes and speak to us. I asked a question about how to show people falling in love in film and his main thing, that I will never forget, is – instead of showing a montage, or something like that., show them dancing. There is a really great scene in ‘Mi Familia’ with the couple basically falling in love in one scene and it’s all through dancing and it’s all through music and I thought that was really cool.
Now, Parra has new dreams of filming his first feature but what? He likes Sci-Fi and crime as well as romance: -
“I have one idea that I have been working on for years, at least in my mind, and I want to set it in my home town of El Monte but sometime back in the 1940s or 1950s – an historical period, drama/ romance but again a lot of crime dramas are usually set in LA or the south western US and I would love to do something in Arizona or Texas one day. I also love Sci-Fi as well and want to try different things and different genres, instead of being locked into one.”
Parra emphasizes that he comes from a very supportive family who always encouraged him to do whatever he wanted, be it music or film. Just as well, as the pressures to complete this short must have been substantial.
“...Very supportive family, even from a young age, they’ve always wanted me to pursue whatever I wanted to do, go for it. They loved the film. They love music as well so it really means a lot for my parents and my Dad to really connect with the film and really enjoy it. So, we watched it again just a few weeks ago and he gets all teary eyed!”
Marabina Jaimes as Josefina (mother) and Anthony González as Javier
The course at UCLA is particularly well-structured and trains students to a professional level. One example is that it was largely thanks to the months of detailed pre- production that the actual shoot was almost seamless especially given that they to film it in 6 days: -
“All the planning we did (pre-production) really hit off. Months and months of just making sure everything was going right, the plans, the shot list and the storyboards! It was very warm, about 90°F in the middle of the summer. Luckily, we had AC in the buildings for the party, but outside it was pretty warm. We actually had one of the soda bottles explode during one of the takes, so we had to go about unscrewing all the tops!”
This short really illustrates a talent with huge potential, and I am sure we will hear more of Jorge Parra. It has already won the Jury Award for 'Best Life Action Short' at the New York International Children’s Film Festival which qualifies it for the Oscars next March.
“We were pretty excited. We were in shock when we got that email! So even getting that far for us has been amazing. Then we won the Imágen Award for 'Best Student Film', and we also won the 'Excellence in Performance' Award at SAG-AFTRA Foundation Short Showcase. We are now wrapping up our festival run at this point, and our focus now is finding some kind of distribution or putting it online, so we are working on that basis and we want people to see it, that is, trying to find a home for it.”
QUE SUENE LA BANDA (2025) DIRECTED BY JORGE PARRA JR.
Writers: Jorge Parra Jr and Ling Li/ ProducerL Meghan Truax / Director of Photography: Marcus Patterson / Original Score: Michael Brian Stein / Production Design: Prairie T. Trivuth /Music supervisor: Jieun Hwang / Sound designer: Jeffery Alan Jones / Band: Bandeño Mexcaltitan / Casting Director: Jaime Gallagher.
Cast:
Javier: Anthony Gonzalez/ Emily:Celina Fang/ Eladiko: Martin Morales/ Josefina: Marabina Jaimes/ Alejandra: Brenta Ortiz/ Freddy: Ivan Bernal/ Alfonso: Gabriel Romero.
Jaime Gallager has been nominated for an Artios Award by the Casting Society for her work on !Que Suene la Banda!
