Amid stacks of money and liquor bottles, Tony Montana and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán sit collectively inside a portray. One fictional and the opposite actual, the drug lords look nonchalant.
“That’s us!” says filmmaker Raúl “RJ” Sanchez with joyful mischief after I level out the centerpiece on the principle wall of their workplace in Downtown L.A. Sanchez’s companion in inventive crime, Pasqual Gutiérrez, tells me they acquired the body close by at Santee Alley.
Positioned on a avenue nook within the Style District, their area, which doubles as a person cave, displays their artistic influences, their ties to L.A. and their offbeat humorousness. Earlier than they moved in 2021, the place was a shoe retailer referred to as Latino Style — the storefront signal stays.
Stroll in and also you’ll discover the underside half of a model flaunting male genitalia (“That was our stunt penis from [the short film] ‘Shut Up and Fish,’” says Sanchez laughing). There’s additionally a cumbersome metallic construction that resembles a torture system, a teal inexperienced sofa (which they acquired for below $100), images books and keepsakes on cabinets that after displayed footwear. It’s a mini museum to their historical past to this point. Or, as Sanchez calls it, it’s “a dwelling mind.”
Recognized artistically as Cliqua, the in-demand duo has already labored with among the music trade’s greatest names. Their resume consists of directing movies for Dangerous Bunny (“La Difícil”), the Weeknd (“Save Your Tears”), J Balvin (“Reggaeton”) and Rosalía (“Yo x Ti, Tu x Mi”).
This yr, Gutiérrez crossed over into function filmmaking along with his docufiction debut “Severe Individuals,” a deeply private “cringe comedy” that he co-directed with longtime pal Ben Mullinkosson. Following its premiere on the Sundance Movie Pageant, the movie had a theatrical launch in November and is now obtainable to stream on a number of VOD platforms.
On display screen, Gutiérrez and Sanchez play variations of themselves: music video administrators in an trade that takes itself too significantly. Whereas anticipating his first baby with companion Christine Yuan, additionally a filmmaker, Gutiérrez discovered himself caught between his dedication to his partnership with Sanchez and his duty as a soon-to-be father. The Gutiérrez in “Severe Individuals” hires a doppelganger to switch him in his skilled commitments.
“There have been some issues coming our approach the place if each Raúl and I weren’t obtainable to do it, they might go away. Purchasers can be uninterested if it wasn’t the Cliqua model,” Gutiérrez says. “That was deeply irritating and haunting for me as a result of it was like, ‘Raúl isn’t selecting to have a child, however I’m. And that is affecting us, as a result of he can’t do all the pieces on his personal as a result of folks aren’t letting him do it.’”
Although each Gutiérrez and Sanchez match below the generic identification umbrella of “Mexican American,” every of them knowingly embodies a definite “taste of Mexican.”
“I undoubtedly determine with Chicano quite a bit,” says Gutiérrez. “I’m second-generation and rising up I knew about lowriders and East L.A. barrio s—.” Raised between East Los Angeles and Pomona, Gutiérrez believes his Latino identification is exclusive to L.A.
Sanchez, however, is the kid of immigrants from Mexico Metropolis and Jalisco. As a first-generation child within the South Bay metropolis of Gardena, his worldview was formed in a different way.
“We’ve all the time had that cut up. You characterize extra what it’s to be on this nation for extra generations, and I really feel like I’m new. The tradition I affiliate with extra is Mexican however extra rancho s—,” Sanchez explains. A vivid reminiscence for Sanchez is his grandfather slaughtering a pig and driving round South Central on his pickup truck promoting it. “The Chicano heritage wasn’t a factor for me, it was extra the immigrant expertise,” he says.
“I grew up talking extra Spanglish,” says Gutiérrez. “However Spanish was Raúl’s first language.”
Their inventive alliance is an amalgamation of what every brings to their friendship. Sanchez acquired Gutiérrez into Los Tigres del Norte and corridos, whereas Gutiérrez launched him to Lil Rob’s “Summer time Nights” and the 1993 film “Blood In Blood Out,” which Gutiérrez considers a foundational cultural artifact in his life.
“Each of us have crossed in direction of the opposite’s facet a bit extra,” says Sanchez. The 2 met by means of their then-girlfriends (now their wives and moms of their respective kids) nearly a decade in the past. At that time they every had been already directing music movies.
“We actually bonded over that shared expertise of, ‘What’s it like making an attempt to navigate this trade as a Latino?’” provides Sanchez.
For Gutiérrez, one among 5 siblings, his curiosity in filmmaking is linked to one among his older brothers who had a little bit of a double life. “He was a gang member, however he was additionally a low-key cinephile,” he says. “He used to work in artwork home theaters, and we used to simply watch bizarre stuff for a bit child to look at. A number of ‘Blood In Blood Out,’ however additionally stuff like ‘Amélie.’”
Together with his father’s help, Gutiérrez attended Chapman College to review movie manufacturing.
“My pops stated, ‘Rising up nobody ever requested me what I wished to do. That wasn’t even an choice for me,’” Gutiérrez remembers. “‘And the truth that you bought accepted to this faculty, we’ll simply discover a approach. We’ll take all of the loans out. Go attempt to see how it’s.’ My father empowered me to observe my goals for positive.”
Sanchez had a much less linear path into filmmaking. He graduated from UC Berkley with a level in historic historical past with the intent of going to legislation faculty. As a substitute, he returned to L.A. to attempt his hand at movie, an curiosity that developed from his enjoyment of video video games rising up and movie research programs in school.
However how does one break into making music movies?
“To start with, plenty of occasions you’re capturing movies to your associates,” says Gutiérrez. “In case you are artistic in L.A., you realize different creatives and one among them is a music artist or one among them is a rapper or in a rock band. And also you begin that approach.”
“My sister was courting a rapper, so I used to be capturing his movies,” provides Sanchez.
Nonetheless, they each aspired to make function movies.
“Even once we had been on the beginnings of Cliqua, the language we’ve got all the time used to even speak about music movies has all the time been film-centric,” says Sanchez. “These are the influences. We converse in films.”
After assembly and hanging out for some time, Gutiérrez and Sanchez had been desirous to work collectively. That chance got here with the video for J Balvin’s “Reggaeton,” which they needed to signal on to do with out with the ability to do a lot preparation. Within the aftermath of that optimistic expertise, they determined to create Cliqua, which initially additionally included music artist Milkman (MLKMN).
The title comes from the guide “Varrio” by Gusmano Cesaretti, an Italian photographer who documented East L.A. tradition within the Seventies, together with the Klique Automobile Membership.
The video for J Balvin kick-started their careers. They quickly discovered themselves a distinct segment as reggaeton turned globally in style and a brand new crop of artists revitalized its aesthetic. However at the same time as they ultimately crossed over to different corners of the trade and landed constant work with the Weeknd, they had been conscious of the bounds to their artistic freedom.
“Music movies are humorous as a result of they’re clearly not actually our work both; we’re on the service of one other artist,” explains Sanchez. “We’re executing another person’s imaginative and prescient even when the temporary is mostly open. It’s not actually us, however we’re in there.”
“Music movies are laborious, man,” provides Gutiérrez. “The tough factor about music movies that’s completely different from function filmmaking is that it’s so quick. You get an idea, and also you possibly have two days to give you an concept and write a therapy for it. Then from there, you might have a shoot date, however the shoot date can get pushed and it may get pulled relying on the artist.”
In 2023, Gutiérrez and Sanchez launched their first narrative quick movie, “Shut Up and Fish,” about 4 “Edgars” (younger Latino males with bowl cuts) on a ship. Their impetus was to subvert the expectations of tales involving characters from their group.
“We wished to make it really feel like an [Ingmar] Bergman movie, as a result of we’d by no means seen that, particularly with these children,” says Gutiérrez. One of many actors they forged within the quick, Miguel Huerta, performs Gutiérrez’s chaotic doppelganger in “Severe Individuals.”
For “Severe Individuals,” Gutiérrez and Mullinkosson invoked arthouse references, such because the vignettes within the movies of Swedish auteur Roy Andersson, or the surveillance really feel of Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Curiosity.” Gutiérrez makes a degree of mentioning these inspirations in Q&As and interviews in hopes of igniting the curiosity of these watching “Severe Individuals.”
“Making [that culture] accessible has all the time been a aim, whether or not that’s acutely aware or unconscious,” says Gutiérrez.
It was an anxiety-induced dream that first impressed Gutiérrez to jot down “Severe Individuals” to satirize the leisure trade. Within the dream, Gutiérrez went on Craigslist to rent a look-alike in an effort to stability his private {and professional} commitments. As quickly as he wakened, he advised his dream intimately to Yuan, who urged he flip it into a movie.
Gutiérrez introduced Mullinkosson on board given his background in documentary, and since he thought co-directing it with Sanchez may make it too meta for consolation.
“This trade is so aggressive and so demanding that each single director has a concern that in the event you say no to a single mission, you’re by no means going to get hit up once more,” says Mullinkosson on Zoom from Chengdu, China, the place he lives. “On the finish of the day, we’re simply making films — like, this isn’t that critical.”
Sanchez hesitated at first in regards to the concept of being on digicam, however his loyalty to Gutiérrez proved stronger than the reservations. “I truly acquired a kick out of seeing myself on display screen,” Sanchez says. “Once you see your self projected that massive, you begin to perceive what you’re feeling prefer to different folks on this planet, which was a really attention-grabbing out-of-body expertise.”
“Vulnerabilities are what make films particular, particularly this one as a result of Pasqual, Raúl and Christine opened their actual lives to being on digicam, and it’s very private,” says Mullinkosson. “Once you could be as courageous as them to share your actual life, one thing lovely occurs.”
Gutiérrez and Sanchez, who additionally turned a father quickly after our interview, are at the moment creating a brand new function movie, “Golden Boy,” which they describe as a “Stand by Me”-type of story about 4 Edgars. One in every of them thinks former boxer Oscar De La Hoya is his long-lost father. They go on a journey throughout California to confront De La Hoya.
“Music is the place we began, however the aim has all the time been to do long-form, to do options,” says Gutiérrez. “And now with ‘Severe Individuals,’ one is on the market.”
