On October 19, the Latino Committee meeting was preceded by a conversation with Director Eduardo Sánchez (Yellowjackets, Queen of the South, The Blair Witch Project). In a conversation moderated by Director Andrew Molina (Uncharted), Sánchez discussed his career and transitioning from independent films into episodic television.
Recalling how The Blair Witch Project became a juggernaut, he said, “Blair Witch was kind of like a dream. I was fans of Robert Rodriguez and Steven Soderbergh, Kevin Smith —guys that had like made these kind of lower budget films and made a career out of these films. We never imagined that our film was gonna be competing with Hollywood movies. We were hoping for a cable deal, HBO or a DVD sale — just enough to get enough money to pay the investors back and then maybe make another movie. Then it just started exploding and was one of the buzzier movies at Sundance that year and all the showings were sold out immediately. We were completely flabbergasted. The marketing kept being expanding and we were competing with these Hollywood movies. I had to keep pinching myself. It was a crazy time but we knew how special it was, so we kept in our minds ‘This is this is never gonna happen to us again so just enjoy it and learn from it and hopefully make a career.’ So yeah it was just crazy time and it started our careers. I owe my career to Blair Witch so I'm very blessed to have been a part of it.”
In addition to his groundbreaking feature, The Blair Witch Project, Sánchez’s directorial credits include the features Exists, Seventh Moon, Portals and Satanic Hispanics; and episodes of Queen of the South, Charmed, Yellowjackets, American Horror Stories, Lucifer, Supernatural and From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series.
Sánchez has been a DGA member since 2014.
ABOUT THE COMMITTEE:
The Latino Committee was created as a networking group to advance career and job opportunities for Latino DGA members by improving craft skills, networking, and making Latinos better known to the Hollywood creative community.
See video from this event in the gallery below.