While promoting his new film, Cesar Chavez," director Diego Luna met with the Daily for a roundtable interview to discuss the new biopic, which premiered on March 28. The film tells the story of Cesar Chavez, a labor leader, advocate for agricultural workers and founder of the National Farm Workers Association in 1962.
The Tufts Daily: What made you decide to make the film now?
Diego Luna: Before, I was too young. I was surprised and a little shocked there was no film about [the] Cesar Chavez movement and about farmworkers in the '60s and '70s ... I am shocked there is no immigration reform in this country, I am shocked by the hypocrisy around issues like where food comes from, who's building this country ... I realized that [the Hispanic] community [in the U.S. isn't] portrayed in cinema as much as it should be. It is not celebrated in cinema. This is an attempt to remind everyone that something like this needed to happen for us to be where we are.
TD: When it came to your directing, did you have any rituals that you did to get you into the mindset? What did you do to prepare yourself?
DL: It's difficult to forget you are the director ... [The cast and crew] want confidence coming out from you ... You have to pretend you know everything you want to do. And then you go home, go to bed and ... realize you cannot sleep because you don't know what's best.
It's a struggle ... Nothing has been so personal in my life.
TD: When you read the script was there a particular scene you were looking forward to filming?
DL: When I read the script ... I was very excited to shoot in the fields. That was the main thing. We were thinking a lot, how do we portray the moment in the fields? It's hard not to romanticize the moments. You go, it looks amazing ... The green is very green
