Remezcla
4/30/20
"The Red Pears tapped local filmmaker Anthony Solorzano, who gave the song the dramatic imagery it needed to turn on the waterworks... the video is as moving as you might expect, and on top of that, it’s presented in black and white.
About the video and his inspiration, Solorzano says, “[The song] has this dramatic weight, especially in those moments when the song crescendos as Henry starts wailing and the drums and guitars kick in. It’s cathartic. It elevates the melancholy of the song to an intense state where your sadness can no longer be contained and the only thing left is to cry your eyes out.”
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
6/19/17
“The cool thing about any independent film is it’s a cool chance to give insight into subcultures,” Solorzano said, “And the subculture here is the San Gabriel Valley, El Monte, the Latino-Asian fusion. It’s very unique, and we know it so well, but mainstream Hollywood does not portray it, and if they try, it’s not well done.”
Instead of simply holding casting calls in Hollywood, Solorzano held one at the Valley Mall. He figured actors living in Los Angeles would be willing to drive out to El Monte for a casting call, but unknowns from the San Gabriel Valley would have been unlikely to drive to Hollywood, Solorzano said... As a result, many of the runners and extras in the movie are locals with little-to-no professional acting experience.
“While the film is set in the San Gabriel Valley, it tells an American story about teenagers coming of age and finding their places in their community,” Solorzano said."
Remezcla
7/13/18
"Stripped down to their essence, there are no two genres that feel as quintessentially American as the high school film and the sports drama. The former has long enshrined images of the all-American teenager into our cultural imagination, while the latter has exemplified the idea that all it takes to win is sheer willpower and a can-do attitude. The two genres come together in Anthony Solorzano’s first feature film Varsity Punks."
LatinoLA
2/24/18
"I like stories that celebrate the uncelebrated, and cultural texture will always be part of my stories whether they take place in my hometown, the Midwest, or any other place," he says. "And if the Varsity Punks road tour has taught me something, it's that stories from any minority social group can resonate with the larger American crowd as long as they're sincere."
Athens Banner-Herald
8/10/17
"Rather than pursuing the traditional distribution routes and courting Hollywood, Solorzano and his producers went completely DIY to get the movie into theaters in order to connect directly with audiences looking for more original content. Since most multiplex theatres are either prohibitively expensive to rent out or close their doors completely on guerrilla-style productions, “Varsity Punks” has screened everywhere from arthouses and revival palaces to drive-ins and even pop-up events at parks.
“Indie filmmakers shouldn’t even try and compete with multi-million dollar movies,” says Solorzano. ”(We) have to be extra innovative. For every indie film, there’s gonna be a niche group with an appetite for that kind of story.”
KCET: Departures
4/28/15
"Solorzano and his "Varsity Punks" film crew are chronicling El Monte with a trio of strategic commitments drawn from the everyday lives of its people. The first is their relentless DIY approach, which might more accurately be described as "DIT" or Do-It Together...
The second is their detailed attention to place, exploring the ways that the landscapes of the San Gabriel Valley, from Garvey Avenue to the Santa Anita Creek, are made and re-made through the practices and performances of local people.
Finally, as scholar Wendy Cheng writes in the essay "East of East: Global Cosmopolitans of Suburban L.A,." the "defiant local edge" of these projects is not parochial, but "articulat[es] cosmopolitan hope upward from below." As Cheng observes, the "global cosmopolitans" such as Varsity Punks celebrate the "ordinary virtues" of El Monte, revealing "a place grounded in its true range of subjectivities, experiences, and imaginative possibilities" and "not constrained by externally imposed stereotypes and power hierarchies."
KCET: Artbound
6/14/16
Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne partners with Artbound for an episode that looks into the future of Los Angeles. "Third L.A. with Architecture Critic Christopher Hawthorne" examines the city's architecture, urban planning, transportation and changing demographics, giving us a glimpse of Los Angeles as a model of urban reinvention for the nation and the world.
This Artbound episode looks at how Anthony Solorzano was harnessing community support for a local indie film in a place foreseen to undergo gentrification in the upcoming years -- the San Gabriel Valley.
Excerpt clip of the Artbound Episode
