Style Magazine Newswire | 1/24/2014, 2:03 p.m. | Updated on 1/24/2014, 2:03 p.m.
Diego Luna is Mexican, but his first English-language film as a director is a truly American story — a biopic about the migrant farmworker leader Cesar Chavez and the grape boycott of the late 1960s.
It's surprising that there hasn't yet been a big film about the influential labor leader, but with the immigration debate in full swing, the time seems ripe for more of a focus on Chavez. This week at Sundance the documentary Cesar's Last Fast debuted; Luna's film will be released this March.
Luna explains it was challenging to get U.S. financing — the first funders were Mexican — but as buzz has built Participant and others have come on board and the film now has distribution deals in both the U.S. and Mexico.
"There's a reality that the market is changing and the stories of the Latino community need to be out because there's a huge audience in need of films that would represent them," he says.
The film focuses on just ten years in Chavez's life and Luna says he chose to focus on the boycott and Chavez's personal relationships to give a better sense of who he was as a person.
Cesar Chavez stars Michael Pena as Chavez, alongside Rosario Dawson, Jacob Vargas, America Ferrera, and John Malkovich. It will be released on March 28, 2014.
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