LAFF 2016: Director Raafi Rivero Talks “72 Hours: A Brooklyn Love Story”Posted by Wilson Morales
June 6, 2016
Currently playing at the 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival is “72 Hours: A Brooklyn Love Story,” a Brooklyn coming-of-age story dealing with modern masculinity, sexuality, police and first love. The film follows a weekend in the life of a charismatic crew-leader Caesar as he prepares to leave for college and must come to grips with old and new relationships.
The film was created by the young filmmakers of REEL WORKS, an NYC organization teaching inner-city kids filmmaking skills. The film was originally a short by one of the students, that was then turned into this feature-length story. The cast includes Melvin Mogoli, Andrea-Rachel Parker, Erinn Westbrook, Bilal Ngondo, and Roshanna Paul.
Directing the feature was Raafi Rivero, who not only is a filmmaker but a photographer as well. In his bio, Rivero has directed numerous short films, advertisements, and music videos in addition to work in design. His directing credits include a suite of promos for HBO’s True Blood, content for Microsoft, Sony, The Rockefeller Foundation, and an Art Directors Club award-winning viral campaign for the Maryland Lottery.
In speaking with Blackfilm.com, Rivero talks about how he came onboard to direct this film, which started as a short.
How did the story come about?
Raafi Rivero: It started as a short documentary that was produced by a student filmmaker and organization called Reel Works and what they do is mentor teens who are interested in filmmaking. It was a really good story and they were interested in turning it into a feature film but they didn’t exactly know who and how and a buddy of mine is on the board of Reel Works and we had worked a film together a few years and he recommended me who could adapt that short film into a feature. Over the course of a few months, and they had interviewed as well, but they offered it to me, and we workshopped a lot of the students at Reel Works, mainly for me to get in touch with 17 year-olds and be in their world and hear their language and rhythm. We wanted to use some of the teens at Reel Works as actors in small parts in the film. This was some of the workshopping that I did before writing the script and then we ended up casting people who had never been in a film before, a couple of people from Reel Works, to some experienced actors. Some of them had been on television and some had agents. We had this cast of different working styles and experiences.
How long did it take to construct the story from a short to a feature?
RR: It took several months. The original story was almost 7 minutes. I had to come up with 80 new minutes. The core storyline in the film didn’t exist at all in the short. What the short and the feature have in common is that there is a guy named Ceasar and his girl named Kaia and he’s heartbroken over the course of one weekend. From there, I added in this whole story of him leaving Brooklyn, almost as a way to show off the borough and visit all sorts of locations within Brooklyn, but also as a way to give the narrative a sense of arc and tension. He’s leaving in three days and all this stuff happens when he has to grow up.
He wants to leave town in the right way but there are these dramatic pressure. That took like three to five months to really hone that and find the right balance between the narrative drive and having emotions and heartbreaks that you want to have in a lot of different scenes. At one point it was going to be a summer movie but we ended shooting in the winter. We had to make those adjustments over time. We also wanted to make something that felt true to the original piece.
How was working with Melvin Mogoli, who plays Ceasar?
RR: That was the character where we spent the most time casting. We had the Kaia role cast first and that helped us. Andrea-Rachel Parker, who plays Kaia, was able to with the guys who came in for the role of Ceasar and we wanted someone who had that mix of vulnerability and intangible character that you root for. In the script the guy does things that aren’t so nice, and you have to find someone who is accessible and likable. Ceasar is figuring out how to be a nice person and when we found Melvin, he had all those intangibles. He just had the charisma and when his smile cracked, the whole room opens up; but he also had the acting chops and the language. It felt a great fit for us. He had a great Brooklyn accent and a lot of the cast had authentic New York Brooklyn, when really makes the film feel true to the location. We were happy that we found someone who can do all those things.
Can you talk shooting around Brooklyn?
RR: I’ve lived in Brooklyn for about 13 years and just about as long as I have lived in any city. It’s my home. I love living there. I love the diversity, the architecture and the livability and the proximity to Manhattan. It’s just a great place. Brooklyn has become a brand over over the past two years. It’s come to stand for a lot of things that only represent a very specific community within Brooklyn. It’s a very diverse area. We wanted to show the parts of Brooklyn that are hiding in plain site; the things that are beautiful but people may not find remarkable and the beautiful life that you can live there. We shot on Eastern Parkway, which is this beautiful avenue, where if you are a kid, that’s what you do. Walk up and down and go to your friend’s place or the Jamaica paddy spot. You go to these places that no one is checking for and we wanted to show the beauty that happens in this places.
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