00:03Amigos de Diario de las Américas, me encuentro con el director Elegance Breton por el estreno
00:08de By Any Means en Salas de Cielo.
00:18Elegance, what drew your attention when you read the screenplay and made you say, I want
00:23to tell this story?
00:24For me, I wanted to make a movie that moves, a movie that grabs you by the throat and
00:31doesn't ask any questions and makes no apologies.
00:35When I read it, honestly, I just had a really good fucking time.
00:39I enjoyed every page turn.
00:42The idea is, you know, after the inspection, I wanted to see what an Elegance Breton movie
00:47at scale actually looked like, right?
00:50How do I scale that up?
00:51I've always been interested in institutions and masculinity and the ways that individuals
00:57kind of respond to groups.
00:59And I got to do that in a package through this incredible duo between, you know, this
01:04mafia hitman and my FBI agent.
01:07I wanted to engage in, like, I love the cinema of John Woo, right?
01:11The velocity and the way that, you know, action serves as emotion.
01:15I love Tarantino's relationships with, like, tension and volatility and Scorsese's criminal
01:21psychology.
01:23And, you know, so this script really spoke to me for that reason, that incredible duo.
01:27But to create a cinematic language that is rooted in a black protagonist, right?
01:32To imagine what it is to be a black agent sent down to play their part in a civil rights
01:37movement.
01:38The case after case.
01:39Unsold.
01:40Unsold.
01:40Unsold.
01:41They don't care about us.
01:43FBI.
01:44No, you're not.
01:45You see this?
01:46I'll see you nothing.
01:47It's a very, a very difficult time period.
01:51And the film is inspired by true events.
01:55We got action, suspense, a lot of violence.
01:58Where did you draw the line between this historical fidelity and the dramatic license that the
02:04storytelling demanded?
02:06Um, for me, it's all around, like, first of all, you know, Vernon Dahmer is the moral
02:12center of the movie.
02:13Vernon Dahmer was a civil rights activist, a community leader, a family man.
02:18And when it comes down to it, he didn't die because he was powerless.
02:23He died because he understood the power of black citizenship.
02:26And I wanted to, I wanted to root the story in that truth so that any choice that I made
02:35was in honor of
02:36Vernon Dahmer.
02:37Another thing was that I was very much connected to the families that were involved in this
02:42story.
02:43The Scarpa family advised Greg Scarpa Jr.
02:46His sister Linda advised.
02:48Um, also was very much connected to the Dahmer family.
02:52Uh, Betty, Ellie Dahmer spoke to them and very much committed to just the overall story.
02:58I spoke to the judge that prosecuted Billy Roy Pitts.
03:01I spoke to other people who were his family that were aware.
03:05Billy Roy Pitts was in the Klan.
03:06He was one of the perpetrators of this violence.
03:08So, you know, for me, I had to wrap myself up in, you know, the real people.
03:14And that's so, so being sensitive to the real people, understanding what they went through,
03:21um, and really understanding how they felt.
03:24Like for instance, when we depict the attack against Vernon Dahmer, we're inside the family's
03:29point of view of that, right?
03:31This is not your grandma's civil rights movie.
03:33We are not exalting.
03:35We're not asking what is it like to be a Klan member who commits an atrocity.
03:40We're asking what is it like to be the Dahmer family to survive it.
03:45We'll be working together.
03:47I'mma hit up.
03:49You're partnering with one of the most ruthless mobsters in history.
03:53Well, I can feel like your background as documentary with that answer that you gave me, but also you
04:00have a background as photographer.
04:02Yes.
04:02Do you feel like as director, what part of your style is like embedded with that photographer's
04:10style that you have?
04:11That's such a good question.
04:12I don't.
04:13Okay.
04:13I'll say this.
04:14I have cinematic dyslexia.
04:15I don't really believe that there's a difference between documentary and fiction film.
04:19I think they're two very different pathways to the same result, which is ultimately a movie.
04:24So, you know, in that regard, I'm very much, I have a love for improvisation.
04:29I have a love for, like these two actors were so locked in.
04:34They were so, so good.
04:35And, you know, they were able to, so being on your toes, you know, not being so prescriptive that you're
04:41like, okay, we set this up.
04:42We have to do this.
04:44Well, if the actor has a great idea, let's be open to the actor's great idea and try to make
04:48that happen because that's going to feel more visceral and more real.
04:51So what comes through my photography, I think it's my taste.
04:54I love lighting.
04:55I love composition.
04:56You know, this movie is inspired by like, like I said, like, you know, Hong Kong cinema and noir film,
05:02right?
05:02So this idea of like, you know, people, working class people going into the shadows to bring dark elites into
05:10the light, you know, this kind of thing, you know, this is what drives me.
05:14So, so, and yeah, and then photographically, I also have a wide list of references.
05:20You know, my husband and I, Chester, we created a 400 page look book for this.
05:25We, yeah, we, we invoked the work of Sally Mann and William Eggleston.
05:30And I was, and I'm also, I have enough taste of photography to hire someone as brilliant as Auntie Ching,
05:36my cinematographer.
05:37Um, he's a genius and he brought in a lot of elements of, of Asian cinema craft and Asian noir
05:44Hong Kong cinema into the movie as well.
05:47Um, even the choices of lenses, you know, shooting in these anamorphic lenses and, you know, every, everything Auntie brought
05:53to it was great.
05:53And obviously the production designer, Tommy Love and my costume designer, Derek Akul Washington, that combination really, uh, is indicative
06:03of my, my photographic leanings.
06:05These crackers know their consequences.
06:08Why do you care?
06:09I only get paid if you tell my friend what he wants to know.
06:13We're relieving you of your duties, Agent Strider.
06:15Right now we have, we are in a country that's still deeply divided.
06:20Uh, by any means doesn't give us easy answers to these problems.
06:24What do you hope the audience take away from this movie?
06:28I want people to have a good fucking time first.
06:32And then I want them to think about it.
06:34Um, and to remember that, you know, without Vernon Dahmer, the story could never exist.
06:41Right.
06:42What happened to Vernon is real and it's happening as we speak.
06:46Dozens of black people are being hung throughout Mississippi.
06:52Nolan Wells, who God knows what happened to that poor boy.
06:55Um, the Supreme Court just gutted the Voting Rights Act that Vernon Dahmer died for.
07:01Think about that.
07:03Right.
07:03Vernon wasn't killed because he was powerless.
07:06He was killed because he understood the power of black citizenship.
07:10So I hope people see this movie and they have a good fucking time.
07:13And then go out and exercise their right to vote.
07:16Whoever they're going to vote for, go out and vote.
07:18Honor this man's legacy.
07:20Register if you're not registered.
07:21And bring someone along with you.
07:24If you don't vote, you don't count.
07:26If you don't vote, you don't count.
07:28You just made my press.
07:29Yes.
07:29You just made my talking points.
07:30I'm going to take that for the rest of the day now.
07:37Fighting me is necessary.
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