‘The Yellow Rose’ Director Diane Paragas On Bringing Country Music And The Texas Filipino Experience To The Screen [Interview]
By Caroline Cao/Aug. 9, 2019 3:00 pm EST
Where did you shoot the detention center?We shot in an Austin Amory. It’s an abandoned building on the outskirts of Austin. We recreated the detention center in that building. We also see the Philippines in a montage. Talk about shooting the Philippines.The Philippines was the last shoot. We shot it after a couple of months after we wrapped up in Austin. I was able to know what to shoot. It was important for me to shoot in the Philippines to show the pain of separation and their different lives. I wanted to show that the Philippines were not a horrible place, probably better when the mother left the country. You spoke about receiving plenty of refusals, some “nos” from distributors. What kind of nos did you get? A lot of the nos were “we just don’t know what to do with the film.” One, even though Lea and Eva are icons on Broadway, they’re not the average American household name. They’re not what Hollywood considers bankable stars to drive box office. Two, there’s the Filipino experience. It feels too small to Hollywood. When the film was finished, almost everyone said liked it, loved it, but couldn’t figure out how to release it. Those are the kind of nos that we got. I showed it internationally in Mexico last week. The mostly Mexican audience was moved. We had a predominantly white audience at an Arkansas screening gushing about the film. The reality is that it plays as a universal film. But people tend to pigeonhole it because there have been so few Filipino characters in the media. That and combined with a lack of, quote unquote, stars.You and Dale Watson wrote some of the music. What was the process of writing country music?It was always my intention to cast real musicians so they can write the music in character. There’s Dale Watson, the face of Ameripolitan, a mixture of country music, swing, and rockabilly to honor the traditions of classic country music. His sound influences the sound of the film.We wrote our big song “Square Peg,” when we were rehearsing the short film with Thia Megia. She’s an amazing musician and American Idol finalist. We had two or three days to rehearse. On her first day when she arrived, Thia, Dale and I sat down. In a couple of hours, we wrote “Square Peg” and recorded in the one week of production. There’s Dale’s song “My Circumstance.” He wrote that based on a scripted line that got cut in the final product. I also wrote “Quietly into the Night” during production of the feature film. We recorded it on the last day of production, before Eva flew off to rehearse for Hadestown in London.Where do you hope you take this film and what you hope this film will do for the Trump era?As of now, we do have offers for distributions and we’re just trying to work through those before a theatrical release. We hope to be in theatres soon. I hope they enjoy the music. The message of the movie is almost secondary to the young girl’s growth as a musician. I hope they glimpse into the lives of people affected by immigration, family separation, and watching your back with uncertainty. I wanted to create a new kind of hero. I wanted Rose to be a role model for young girls regardless of where they come from. A lot of the trailer responses are from young women who relate. So many men have responded to the film. Men come up to me after the film to say, “I love this movie.” I do hope it starts a conversation and gives another perspective to an experience that is infuriating because there are people who agree with the brutality on immigrants. My goal as a filmmaker is to entertain the audience and hope they come out moved and hopeful.
To find screenings of The Yellow Rose, visit http://www.yellowrosefilm.com/screenings
