Music-driven short film Departure premieres at the HBO New York International Latino Film Festival in the “Music is My Weapon” showcase August 19 at 12PM at Clearview Cinemas Chelsea Screen 8 and August 20 at 12PM at AMC Empire Screen 14.
Departure, a short romantic comedy featuring music from Mexican-American artist Mauricio Alexander, examines the struggle to find the balance between love and labor living in New York City. The film blends romantic comedy and music video formats with a sincere character study of artists searching for something bigger than themselves.
Shot on location in Clinton Hill, Fort Greene and Dumbo, Brooklyn, Departure follows a week in the life of recently dumped and unemployed computer store manager Alex Reyes as he tries to deal with the departure of his long-term, ex-girlfriend, Ana.
Alex’s closest friends add comic relief to his troubles, while he bares his soul performing in Fort Greene Park by day and sleeping in subways at night. In the park, Alex meets Mina, a beautiful, quirky aspiring visual artist, and their chemistry ignites into original music and a fresh romance.
Writer and director Mauricio Alexander based the short narrative on his life in Fort Greene, Brooklyn’s unconventional world of local multi-disciplinary artists. “A year after graduating from Oberlin, I moved to Brooklyn only to spend the next few years struggling to stay in relationships and at day jobs that I wasn’t happy with because I couldn’t commit to my art. I went through several major breakups and the only thing I could really count on was my own music, which was like a security blanket and a weapon in one. I became an emcee in the underground political hip-hop community and fell in love with a B-girl, Pratt art student. I wanted to capture this story with songs and on film, because my neighborhood was so significant to the major events in my life.”
Inspired by music videos as story narratives, Mauricio Alexander focused on the short film format: “Since Apple’s success with iPods, we experience our day in bits of short soundtracks. So I started to play with the idea of a short story that could be a music video and visa-versa. My music and songs by other artists that help to tell the story were selected and fit like a playlist in the film. And the character of Alex experiences everything in songs. For me, the visual is directly linked to the aural. It adds another dimension of emotion in life and in art. ”
Departure aims to capture the heart and humor of the 20-something break-up, and the inspiration that music and art provides as people struggle to move on, regardless of where they are from.Departure features Tracy Perez as Mina (seen in NYILFF and Imagen winner St. Paul and Collision, winner of Best Drama at the All American Film Festival), Brian Luna as Brian (seen in No Reservations opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones, and in In the Dark) and Mauricio Alexander as Alex (seen on Sundance Channel’s award-winning The Captive and the online series East Willy B).