Local D.P. David Chalker rides Latin New Wave

About the time the first of the Latin New Wave films, AMORES PERRES hit the screen, Filmmaker and Director of Photography Dave Chalker and I had a conversation about it's intense, gritty style...and the urgent need of waking up a largely passive movie going public. AMORES PERRES was followed by films such as Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, 21 GRAMS, CITY OF GOD, and the newly released SECUESTRO EXPRESS, which Chalker shot. The Latin New Wave is more than just using cinematic shock tactics for entertainment's sake: it's about the use of cinematic intensity to raise political awareness about class struggle, and the socio-political ramifications of the drug trade. Chalker's visually intense, and inventive short film HYPOCRITE won the Golden Gate Award at the S.F. Intl F.F. a number of years ago, and went on to screen at the Palm Springs Intl F.F. That screening led to his assignment to shoot the gritty SECUESTRO EXPRESS in Venezuela, a story of the kidnapping of an upper class Latin couple. The film makes the most of the portability of the DV camera...a perfect case of picking the right media and the right D.P. for the intense story. Check out the sequence with the amputee skateboarder, as well as the climactic sequence of the lead actress at the edge of a cliff with her kidnappers...that's where a tiny camera and a good eye pays off. Playing NOW at the AMC 1000 Vaness.SECUESTRO EXPRESS,directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz, 2004, Venezuela.