Photo Provided by Uptown Films Locations
Eclipsing the rest of the Bronx’s Grand Concourse, which is filled with middle-of-the-road stores lined up next to each other, is the 45,000-square-foot Loew’s Paradise Theatre, one of the many venues Uptown Film Locations provides for independent films and other production.
This upcoming April the company will celebrate its first year anniversary. So soon, it has accumulated 100 plus locations citywide, including the Paradise Theatre, from a small diner on 103rd and West to 265 and Broadway. They provide locations for filmmakers who’re looking for certain places that evoke particular moods or styles. The Bronx is among the crème de la crème of art deco cities in the world, and once Chief executive officer and founder of Uptown Film Locations Marc Cuevas returned to his hometown, he realized its potential.
Photo Provided By Uptown Film Locations
Cuevas is aware of indie films’ significance and value despite features’ financial superiority over them.
“To make money in this sort of business, you have to deal with the higher end clientele. But, it is important to also be very open towards working with students and independent films,” said Cuevas.
Still, his intimate connection to the borough is not to be mistaken with his intentions for the company. He made it clear that, “Uptown Film Locations is definitively a service; this is not a personal crusade.”
Such conscientiousness has led the company to a successful year, to an acceptable extent; evidence of that was the company’s first client, the indie drama “Gun Hill Road,” directed by Rashaad Ernesto Green.
The film starred experienced actors Esai Morales and Judy Reyes. Morales plays an ex-convict, not long ago released from prison, who returns to his home in the Bronx and finds his family on edge because of how he might take the news of his son’s unforeseen lifestyle. Over and above that, the film did ever so well at the Sundance Film Festival this past January and was acquired by Motion Film Group, Inc. The indie drama is expected to be in theaters this upcoming summer. On that account, Uptown Film Locations is pleased by its involvement in the film’s production.
Cuevas stated, “Gun Hill Road did well at Sundance. And, we’re very proud that that film would not have gotten made without our assistance.”
With the first-rate start the company got off to with Gun Hill Road, one would imagine that widespread occurrence of similar success would follow; sad to say, that was not the case. At times, either someone or something can take the wind out of someone’s sails. In Uptown Film Locations’ case, it was the wind, in the literal manner; the abundant number of snowstorms that hit New York this winter scared away interested prospects and presented the company with a drought.
In spite of that, the company’s spirits were not dampened thanks to support from New York City Council member Maria de Carmen Arroyo of District 17 in the Bronx and the non-profit organization Rooftop Films. When Arroyo was not able to help firsthand, she pointed in the direction of one who could. To boot, Rooftop Films is a famed organization that just continues to provide aid in various ways. The same cannot be said for the majority of the Bronx.
“The arts are not supported. There is not enough eternal spending to cultivate grass roots,” Cuevas said, in regards to the lack of synergy in the Bronx.
Resilience has allowed the work of the company to increase the Bronx’s annual production percentage from two percent to five percent, during the company’s first 11 months of existence. Besides the annual rise, foreign interests throughout the inaugural months add to the company’s conviction that independent filmmakers and other production will no longer underutilize the Bronx.
Cuevas had this to say, “We have had scouts from: music videos in Japan, commercial web series in Spain, photo shoots in Paris, and we’ve even did some advanced scouting for Warner Brothers. Has any of this turned over into any real money? No because most of the shoots went in another direction, but the fact they utilized the service and came to an area they normally wouldn’t consider is a beginning.”
