Hollowood Valley News

 The True Chongo
     by Brian T. Walker, staff contributor.
July 11, 2002 (Los Angeles)    
          September tragedies brought post-production to a halt for independent film producers Jalbert and Finch Mesa of WJ Productions, who feared their first feature, "Chongo's Workout," would not be finished in time for the upcoming holiday season, or even completed at all.
          By last December, the budget for the straight-to-video adult feature had skyrocketed to almost 4 million dollars, more than the originally budgeted $360,000. This is due in part to a controversial tax initiative, known among insiders as the "gay porn tax," which quietly passed into effect as of early last November in support of FDNY disaster relief funds. But terrorism and disaster could not alone be blamed for the company's misfortunes. Ensuing litigation from an earlier unrelated lawsuit involving unpaid animal trainers and underage actors finally forced the company into bankruptcy.
          Having no recourse, the native New Mexico pair decided to take their project on the road, touring the uncompleted movie on the independent film circuit in hopes of attracting potential investors. Despite positive audience reception at several festivals, the down-on-their-luck duo could not secure a solid deal.
          The four minute film, intended to exhibit on eight separate projectors simultaneously and on loop in specially-designed presentation spaces throughout the New Mexico desert landscape and abandoned suburban drive-in movie theaters, has gained critical praise from

numerous groups of academic distinction, including the prestigious Ladd's Valley Arts & Research Institute and the community-based MEC Corps design-counseling group. The film features a young male actor performing various acts of physical exertion and self-stimulation, presented in a whimsical and comic style which appeals to both pedophiles and drug addicts alike. The energetic soundtrack features accordion music from world-renowned performer Freseik Plymouth.
          "When I set out to make a film, I knew that I wanted to capture a certain spirit or energy that one can only find in the Southwest.," explained the 32 year-old director, Jalbert Mesa. "Being 1/8th Sioux Indian makes me think that perhaps I know a little something about spiritual forces in nature, and so I felt that if I made a movie I could show the world what it's like to be Native American in a sense, to be one with the land.
          The imagery that has a lot of meaning for us doesn't necessarily express the same things to an American audience, so my intent was to translate it, convert the ideas into understandable and modern metaphors." He pauses to think and finally explains, "nothing says the Old West like gay soft porn."
          The big break for these Hollywood hopefuls came at the 2nd Annual Los Angeles Cacophony Society Five-minute Film Festival, held at Mr. T's Bowl in Highland Park. It was that night when the Mesas were made an offer by Bapudi.com
they couldn't refuse: exclusive distribution rights for over $25 million.
          Currently the unfinished film exists in numerous scattered film canisters throughout the Southwest where "cinema-rcheologists" will painstakingly reassemble and restore the original cinematic prints to its previous pristine brilliance. It will then be digitally archived and remastered using state-of-the-art mastering equipment at Fontenbleua Estudios in Barcelona, Spain. Although the deal clearly saves the Mesa Bros. company from financial collapse, the filmmakers claim something of an artistic compromise had to be made.
          "Well, the exhibit idea is sort of dead now. Bapudi is paying for the restoration and all that good stuff, I mean I can finally put all of the lawsuit and bankruptcy stuff behind me, but it's sad that we'll never get to see it presented the way we originally intended it," explained Finch Mesa, executive producer as well as assistant stunt coordinator on the project.
          The Bapudi deal will allow the media company to broadcast the film on their website but clearly limits the filmmaker's rights to present any exhibitions in the future, although the contract does specify that in the future, a specially-commissioned "Director's Cut" is a possibility if the feature attracts a certain audience segment online and favorable economic conditions resume. In the meanwhile, fans forming the cult-group "Sisters of Chongo" are praying daily and self-flagellating in ecstatic rapture. Until the cops show up.
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