A Conversation with "The Long Game" director Julio Quintana.

Elements of Madness

EoM contributor Lindsey Dunn speaks with Julio Quintana, the director of "The Long Game," debuting in its world premiere at SXSW 2023. "The Long Game" was written by Quintana, Jennifer C. Stetson, and Paco Farias, based on the novel "Mustang Miracle" by Humberto G. Garcia.  Quintana started his career working under the direction of Terrence Malick. In this interview, they talk about lessons he gleaned from working with Malick and how he then went on to create his own unique style of filmmaking. They also discuss how his own background informed the way he framed the movie, as well as how he approached filming the sport of golf in a way that viewers would find engaging.  Official Synopsis: JB Peña arrives in Del Rio, TX, eager to start his new job as school superintendent at San Felipe High School and thrilled at the prospect of playing golf at the prestigious Del Rio Country Club. But when the club management rejects his application due to his skin color, JB takes comfort in training a group of Latino caddies how to excel at perhaps the most exclusive game of all. Based on a true story, The Long Game is a feel-good, triumphant story about an underdog team who became state champions. The movie stars Jay Hernandez, Dennis Quaid, Cheech Marin, Julian Works, Jaina Lee Ortiz, Brett Cullen, Oscar Nuñez, Richard Robichaux, and Paulina Chavez.  Screening during SXSW 2023. For more information, head to the official SXSW "The Long Game" webpage: schedule.sxsw.com/2023/films/20823…88268.1673444130

Transcript

00:00Hello everyone, I'm here for Elements of Madness. This is Lindsay Dunn and today I am talking to

00:06Julio Quintana, the director of The Long Game, which is screening at South by Southwest in the

00:13world premiere section. Julio, welcome to Elements of Madness. Thanks so much, Lindsay. I'm happy to

00:22be here. I've been getting to know your work and your resume over the last couple of days

00:29one of the things that really impressed me right away is knowing that you worked under the direction

00:35of Terrence Malick and worked on Tree of Life and To the Wonder. What role did you play in making

00:42those movies and what are some of the important values you gleaned from working under this legendary

00:49director? So on Tree of Life my role was I was just a kid basically so I was an intern at first. I

00:58started as an intern in the editorial department and then I as I was moving into cinematography I

01:04started shooting little experiments for Terry and for like the natural history portion of VFX

01:10things working with Doug Trumbull the VFX supervisor and most of Tree of Life was me just

01:16doing what I'm told pointing the camera at weird smoke and things and and they turned it into something

01:22amazing. On To the Wonder I was I was in the second unit I was assisting the uh the second unit director

01:30uh who shot a bunch of kind of documentary style footage with Javier Bardem and we were just a small

01:36kind of documentary crew following him around and in character and uh and I was assisting him in that

01:42in that stuff and uh the whole time I was doing that Terry I developed a relationship with Terry and I

01:48I was sharing uh a project I was developing with him which eventually became The Vessel and um he

01:54executive produced that movie and what I really learned over the course of that film of the course

01:58of just being around Terry was this sort of like just kind of an openness to the whatever magical

02:04things uh is thrown at you on set and not being trying not to be too rigid and not overly planned and

02:13so uh I feel like his his uh approach has kind of worked its way into different parts of my my films

02:20uh my first movie was a lot more uh art house um and so over the course of the last couple films I've

02:26gotten a little bit more mainstream and realized I need a script and I need I don't have a hundred days

02:31to shoot these things and improvise and edit for two years so uh ultimately my my work ends up being

02:37something totally different from what Terry does but I think the spirit of trying to find like a depth

02:42beneath the you know the the surface of beneath the plot trying to infuse some meaning into what I do

02:47is something that uh he's he's the master at that and that was a big influence on me in your bio you

02:54also mentioned that after working under Terrence Malick I don't think I dare call him Terry but I love that

03:00you do um you went on it says you went on to develop your unique style how would you characterize your style

03:08filmmaking well I think that I feel pretty determined to try to uh try to tell stories that are meaningful

03:19and have um sometimes spiritual undertones but certainly any kind of meaningful uh um kind of

03:27broader significance but at the same time I want to I want the average person to enjoy the films I want

03:34to connect with the average person I'm now a father of three children I know what it's like

03:39on a Thursday evening you're tired you would like to just watch something that then it's engaging and

03:45um and so I think that I've I've sort of uh Terry has an enormous influence on me but I also you know

03:52just as big an influence filmmakers like Scorsese Spielberg those kinds of guys that really know how to

03:59uh put you know put you know put pitches right down the middle for for the average audience as well

04:04even even if they have meaningful subtext that that's sort of become something that I find interesting

04:09um I think also I I you know I didn't do it as much in Blue Miracle in my last film but I guess in this

04:14movie I think I I tried harder to blend uh kind of the free-flowing um cinematography and editing style

04:22with a more traditional genre um sports piece and so um so I think I'm still trying to figure it out

04:29I'm trying to figure out how to fuse kind of pop sensibilities with more serious uh undertones and

04:36and it's a tricky thing to do but I I think I'm starting to figure it out I think yeah I noticed a

04:42big tonal difference in you know looking at the vessel and then Blue Miracle and then this movie

04:50there's definitely tonal differences across those so you're obviously able to play in a sandbox

04:59but one thing that is a through line through all of your work is the focus on telling Latinx stories

05:07and um helping to bring that culture and people of that culture to the front and that continues with

05:16the long game which is in many ways a classic underdog sports story only this time it's a group

05:23of Mexican American boys and their coach who were being sidelined and not allowed to play golf at the

05:30country club by white society so how did you first hear about this story and what drew you to the narrative

05:37and wanting to tell it well I first heard about it it was actually the same producer who brought me

05:44Blue Miracle which is another true story sports film he brought me this one as well and um I honestly

05:50I resisted at first because I felt like you know I had just done a movie in this genre I was kind of

05:55not interested in doing it again and um but what I found compelling about this story was uh you know my

06:03family they came from Cuba both of my parents are from Cuba and I grew up on stories of uh you know

06:10them having to piece together cars one working car from multiple non-working cars and making their own

06:15baseballs out of tape and all that stuff and um and so this the central the heart of this story was

06:21these young kids who because they weren't allowed on the course they found they made their own course out

06:26in the middle of nowhere and they just sort of made an opportunity for themselves and I think

06:30um that was a particular angle that I hadn't seen you know that combination of that um that sort of

06:39them picking themselves up by their bootstraps combined with the sports movie combined with the

06:43movies that explore race it was it was it was a particular combination that I personally found

06:48very compelling and meaningful and I thought it was uh I thought it was it could be a good vehicle to

06:53sort of explore what it means you know what identity in America is now and we're having a lot of

06:58conversations about race and um I took it as an opportunity to explore how I feel about these

07:04issues and how how did my upbringing uh influence this sort of this this story and what who I how I

07:11think I belong in this in this place and um and so for me it was I I like to approach a movie with a

07:17question that I personally don't know the answer to and then try to explore as honestly as I can and

07:23hopefully I grow from that and if if that's helpful to the audience and that's that's great

07:28so you might have already said this and I missed it but you mentioned a question that you don't know

07:34the answer to so what was the question for for the long game well you know I think I guess there is a

07:43you know everybody knows there's a big debate right now basically it's like there people are taking very

07:47extreme positions on everything and and one debate about sort of the identity of this this the United

07:55States with regards to race is like is it is it is racism just a myth and way it's completely over or

08:01is it is racism kind of our our founding principle that we're you know our original sin that we're

08:07never going to be able to overcome there's sort of these two polar extremes and I think the truth is

08:11that it's both in a lot of ways it's but in a lot of ways like we uh we have a lot to account for

08:16and we have a lot of work that's left to do and in other ways we have a lot of ideals that I think

08:21are worth striving to to maintain as a you know as an immigrant from Cuba my family just just felt

08:28lucky to be here you know when you when you leave a place a pretty oppressive regime something like

08:32this feels very uh liberating um and so I think for me I wanted to explore like well you know what

08:38what does it mean what what how do I feel about these particular issues and again like this is a really

08:44specific thing this is 1950s uh South Texas it's Latinos you know a lot of the conversation tends

08:50to be around Black America and this is not about Black America this is about uh Latinos in Texas so

08:54there's a in in some ways it's really more like how do I feel about being in this country how do I

08:58do I belong here uh I I you know I purposely added scenes of like when they go to Mexico and you get

09:04the sense right away that they don't belong there they don't belong here those are very specific to

09:08Latin uh the Latino community uh as opposed to the you know racism in general um and so these are

09:14issues that I found personally very I wanted to explore and it was really more me trying to figure

09:19out uh what again am I am I Cuban am I Cuban American am I American what what is what am I exactly

09:26be um because when you are the children of immigrants you sort of just uh you feel you don't

09:34really have a firm footing in any particular community sometimes and you're so you're just

09:39trying to figure it out so uh so that was really what I was trying to explore and um and like I said

09:44whatever anything that I maybe portrayed that is or is not helpful or applicable to other people I

09:50can't say you know it's just this is really just my sort of exploration of how I feel about being here

09:54yeah I I love how you I feel like the story did definitely address racism but it did it in such

10:03a natural way throughout the story and each different people get challenged you know the coach

10:09challenges the boys about how they are going to act but at the same time the coach gets challenged

10:16by the gardener and at the country club or the groundskeeper is what he's a special title you know

10:23so everybody's getting challenged on their beliefs and in addition the white coaches who's played by

10:31I guess it's Dennis Quaid um yeah he gets confronted right away um where he's like I don't want to be

10:39hanging out with a bunch of juvenile delinquents and he has to be confronted with his prejudice like

10:45right there or his bias um because of the the course they created so um yeah I thought it I thought

10:52that was well done so I'm curious if you already knew a lot about golf or what you had to do to kind

11:00of do you'll be able to shoot this sport effectively yeah no no I I so I did play I have played golf many

11:10times and and um when I was younger I've never been good at it I've never had the patience for it I

11:15always played baseball and I I just for whatever reason that just does not translate so most of the

11:19time I couldn't afford the balls that I would lose in the in the lakes and things so um so I don't I

11:26did not play a lot of golf I don't I but I don't like fishing either so I just I make movies about

11:30things that I don't know a lot about and then uh you know I feel like ultimately with that the

11:37advantage I kind of have in those situations is that you know if if I can figure out how to make

11:42this interesting then I know that that I know that non-golfers will also find it interesting and

11:45I think that proved to be the case on uh Blue Miracle as well I so I didn't uh I yeah full disclosure

11:54when I first was brought this movie I thought how do you make a movie about golf that sounds kind of

11:57boring um and then but then what I tend to do is I don't know I'm not really making a golf movie I

12:02make a character movie and the golf is just sort of a vehicle you know um and so what my challenge

12:10was basically finding out like what is okay given given the way golf is structured what is what are

12:18the themes that are that you extract from golf itself so like for example with um you know Blue

12:23Miracle is about fishing and so you can't with fishing you can't do the big training montages

12:27they can't get good at it you know there's a lot of luck and chance involved so then that movie just

12:31sort of inevitably becomes a bit about faith and and will things work out for us in the end or whatever

12:36um golf is totally different golf is exclusive but just that's just built into it in a lot of ways

12:42uh and golf is a lot about etiquette and it's a lot about uh propriety and all those things and

12:49and so what so I had so that inevitably it becomes a great vehicle for making a movie about exclusion

12:55and inclusion and things like that and and also how to be how these young guys could become better

13:00men and better people you know over the course of they they really what's amazing about golf that I

13:05didn't really know before was that it takes there's a real honor system to playing golf I mean

13:11there's no reps there's no empire the umpires when you're out there with other people you're off in

13:15the woods nobody knows how many times you've hit it against a tree or how many times you had

13:19you hit it out of the sand trap and so you know everybody's just trusting each other you you nobody

13:25will ever know if you don't fix your divots on the greens or if you don't rake your sand trap and

13:29things like that so there's a certain element of golf that really does um does require you know some

13:35integrity and and and uh honesty and and so that beyond that also becomes integrated into the

13:41character arc of joe and and learning how to you know be a uh young man with some honor and some

13:46integrity and that becomes you just have to integrate that into the story otherwise that

13:50why make a story why make a golf movie if you're not going to use the elements of golf to create a

13:54character arc so um so that's my long way of saying I don't know I didn't know a lot about golf but I

13:59know about characters I guess so I just turned the golf things I learned into characters and and when I

14:04wasn't when I didn't know something Dennis Quaid was there to chastise me and tell me that's not how they

14:08would do it this is bullshit and all that so it was fine it was totally fine yeah yeah it was

14:13interesting you talked about the you know building the suspense and the montages because I do think

14:19that's one of the big challenges about a sports movie because this is a sports movie that doesn't

14:24involve running it's not like a basketball movie or a football movie and it's a slower game and so it

14:30was wondering you know how you went about structuring it and you've kind of discussed it um but

14:38you know what were the discussions like as you tried to figure out okay how are we going to make

14:44this kind of build a suspense during the gameplay even though like you said it's not just about golf

14:49that's the vehicle but yet you did have to shoot a shoot games of golf and a golf competition and make

14:56that interesting and compelling so what what was your strategy for doing that well partly from like a

15:05stylistic standpoint you know uh we didn't want any of the montages to feel the same you don't want it

15:10to be repetitive and so you design I you know we designed the montages to be a reflection of where

15:15the characters are in the story so the first montage we shot on tripod long lens is very static very uh

15:21low energy music they're just being polite they're just trying to not offend and they just and so that's

15:27how that stylistically that's how the thing is is shot and edited uh over the course of the film you

15:32kind of get higher energy the camera moves faster by the time you get to the end they're they're

15:36hitting on on the beat of the fast jazz music and everything's in sync and it's much higher energy

15:41and you just create a sense that they're um you know they're progressing so that's a stylistic thing

15:47uh as far as like uh suspense and stakes really what you have to do is I had to use

15:54thing for example I had to use Joe to build in the suspense that you see him you know fighting people

15:59for no reason or breaking windows or doing things so you kind of know he's explosive and then you put

16:04him in a situation where being explosive ruins your chances of winning golf and that's the so then the

16:09stakes become like is he going to basically blow his own chances because that's actually a big theme

16:13of golf is that uh which JB articulates is that golf technically you have an opponent but really like

16:19it's you versus your own score and uh you know you can just look at how Tiger Woods career

16:26tanked after all of his controversy I mean it's such a psychological game that if your head isn't

16:30in the right place it doesn't work and so so then the the challenge of those tournaments is is kind of

16:36creating the suspense of the character's art like will he uh be able to get through this without

16:41sabotaging himself in some ways you know yeah that's that's also very interesting so my final

16:48question is I feel like anytime you based a story on a book you have to cut things for for expediency

16:57sake was there a particular story you wish you could have included in the script but didn't

17:03because of editing and you had to cut that baby out yeah you know it's funny because there's just

17:10there's so many things like I'm really big into theme and and so so like for example in our movie we

17:16designed it so that um like the color palette of the film it was like we decided that green represented

17:22the luscious the money the wealth the so then the golf courses are the luscious that's where all the

17:27green is the the country club is green and um and then the further you get from that by the time you

17:32get to Joe's house it's yellow and dry and um and there's no water and uh and so there's little bits

17:38of things that were in the book that are real like for example uh in Del Rio when they when they in the

17:44in maybe it was in the 40s I don't know when they actually built that club but the actual course

17:48itself they built it originally around there's a spring that provides water for the whole town

17:52and the people who built the golf course built this built the golf course around the spring

17:56and they got like a 99 year lease to for a dollar to get unlimited water for their golf course you know

18:02basically in perpetuity while everybody else in the neighborhood everybody else in town has to pay

18:06for water for example and like these are things that I was like I wish there's a way like

18:09thematically that that's so poignant but there's no way to fit those sorts of things it's just not

18:14interesting about visually but they're like interesting facts that you kind of wish that

18:18you people would know that there's real things like this that um that are related to this story

18:23but just they're not cinematic enough to and they're not related to a character so you just can't put

18:27those sort of things so um so just in general I think I there's little things like that here and

18:34there that I found interesting that I feel like that help you know in a medium other than a movie

18:39uh it would make sense but for the most part I think uh half the power of this uh of a true story

18:46is is just leaving out the boring stuff and people don't you know like if you just take out enough

18:51boring stuff and you just distill it down to what was really interesting about this person's life and

18:56how they how they really felt um I feel like these these true stories actually end up being stronger

19:02you know it's just you could always bog them down too much and in the realism and and so uh so

19:07ultimately I'm yeah I'm actually I feel like we told the story we want to tell and and uh I'm pretty

19:14happy with you know everything we were able to say with it I think well thank you so much for your time

19:21I enjoyed the movie and I hope it goes well at South by Southwest and uh I encourage you guys to

19:27check it out it's a great underdog sports story and um looking forward to see what you do next

19:33yeah thanks so much I do appreciate it all right have a good night

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