Melonie Diaz
©2013 Jeff Vespa
Writer, producer, and director Cesar Vargas (Tad the Lost Explorer and the upcoming John Cusack thriller, Grand Piano) has a very cool blog called UPLIFTT, and he recently had a great sit-down with Melonie Diaz about the extraordinary Sundance favorite, Fruitvale Station.
Diaz has done some truly interesting work in recent years. She continues to pay her dues with appearances in TV dramas like Nip/Tuck and Person of Interest; she was fascinating as the star in one of Rodrigo Garcia’s WIGS web series, Ro, but she’s truly made a name for herself in risky but fascinating independent films, including Lords of Dogtown, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Assassination of a High School President, Be Kind Rewind and now Fruitvale Station.
Fruitvale is a harrowing and hugely effective story, based on a true story, of a young family man’s run-in with the BART cops on New Year’s 2008 that goes horribly, horribly wrong. Directed by Ryan Coogler (his first feature-length film), it was a favorite at Sundance and all along the film festival circuit; it gets a full theatrical release–finally–Friday, July 12.
Vargas’ interview with Melonie is great. He gets her to talk about herself and the film with a refreshing honesty; great quotes include:
“Nobody in my family is an artist. I’m like the weird one. I was the eccentric one. Which is a nice way of saying weird. “
“[Melonie and director Ryan Coogler] both felt like this movie could be a vehicle to start conversations about what is happening right now in terms of our humanity and the way we treat each other. It was really exciting to work and talk to someone who has similar feelings about what’s happening.”
Take a look at the trailer below, then go read the full interview here, at UPLIFFT.
Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer, Michael Jordan
at Sundance
Then do what Cesar says:
“Go check out Fruitvale Station this Friday, July 12. Take your loved ones with you. The film is a testament of the power of diversity. Something we here, at UPLIFFT, stand for. It’s pivotal that we go and buy tickets of our own films. Not in frivolous blind support of just about anything regardless of how good or bad it is but in solidarity with the verisimilitude that we can create great content that is worthy of our dollars. Fruitvale Station is one of them. Purchase your ticket and go see it.”
…and while you’re at it, check out Cesar’s sci-fi/fantasy novel The Simulacrum, available on amazon.
