For Father's Day, I wanted to make something that didn't treat the holiday like a greeting card. For many people it carries memories of fathers who fell short, and those memories shape how they see everything that comes after.
Getting to know Cesar was a privilege. As he told his story, he would close his eyes, and you could watch him go back to those moments. Rather than recreate them, I wanted to put the viewer inside his memory, following him through the landscapes of his past.
My cinematographer and I built the look around that idea. The film starts in heightened, psychologically charged primary colors and gradually settles into a more naturalistic palette as Cesar moves from his past into his present. We shot with a set of unusual still-photo lenses that let the image bend and slip in and out of focus, so the film feels like traveling through memory.
