"[Laughs.] Yeah, I mean, all these things obviously exist to some extent, but this was just, “Here are people.” And these are four main kids who are sort of just making their first forays into romance and what it means to be young men and young women. It doesn’t talk down to them, it doesn’t assume things. It all sort of flows from within these young people and from the actors themselves, and it has a humanity that I don’t think has been achieved before or after in depictions of people that age. So I always thrust it on our students, especially young Latino students who don’t see a whole lot of depictions of themselves in American movies."

"Growing up, I had a poster of the mid-nineties Tony Todd remake of Night of the Living Dead hanging on my bedroom wall that I had gotten it from the local video store when they were planning on tossing it. I love the remake, but it was the original George Romero black-and-white film that made me want to be a storyteller. It made me want to be a horror movie makeup artist. Making movies looked like fun! And looking back, aside from all that, the film has a racial and social component that I think elevated it beyond the typical horror film. And it was cool to see a Latino last name in the credits, quite frankly."

"I can’t help but love Giant. A lot of people don’t take Giant seriously. A lot of people like Rebel WIthout a Cause when you’re talking about a movie with James Dean and it’s okay, but I thought James Dean was practically Soupy Sales in that movie. Very over the top. Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor were great in this movie. It’s a classic sweeping story, it’s got a Gone with the Wind kind of vibe, and once again, the little guy who strikes oil becomes this power mad lunatic. Then the whole way they dealt with racism and how it was at the time in Texas, with the Latino wife of Dennis Hopper and that whole thing. Great story and well acted and looked like a movie, you know?"