''Star Maps'' is a 1997 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

co-written and directed by

Miguel Arteta Miguel Arteta (born 1965) is a Puerto Rican director of film and television, known for his independent film ''Chuck & Buck'' (2000), for which he received the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award, and for the films ''The Good Girl'' (2002) ...

and starring

Douglas Spain Douglas Spain (born April 15, 1974) is an American film and television actor, director and producer. In 1998 Spain was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in the category of Best Debut Performance for his role in the film ''Star Maps''. In ...

. The film is the directorial debut of Miguel Arteta, and it was first presented at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

. It was a critical hit, receiving five

Independent Spirit Award The Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glas ...

nominations, including Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay.

Synopsis

This

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

tale concerns the gap that exists between East and West

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

kids try to pursue the American Dream. After five years of living in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, an 18-year-old youth returns to Los Angeles with aspirations of becoming a movie star. At the urging of his father, a pimp who sells maps to stars' homes as a cover, the young man turns to

hustling Hustling is the deceptive act of disguising one's skill in a sport or game with the intent of luring someone of probably lesser skill into gambling (or gambling for higher than current stakes) with the hustler, as a form of both a confidence tri ...

as a way to meet Hollywood insiders. Things start to look up when he hooks up with the producer of the popular daytime soap opera ''Carmel County''. However his overbearing father and his mentally unstable mother threaten to get in the way of his dreams.

Cast

as Carlos Amado * Efrain Figueroa as Pepe Amato * Kandeyce Jorden as Jennifer Upland * Lysa Flores as Maria Amato * Annette Murphy as Letti *

Martha Veléz Martha Veléz (born in New York City on August 25, 1945) is an American singer and actress of Puerto Rican descent. Biography Veléz started singing at age five and won an opera scholarship at age 12, as a mezzo-soprano. She studied for three ...

as Teressa Amato *

Robin Thomas Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') ** Bush-robin **Forest ro ...

as Martin * Vincent Chandler as Juancito Amato * Al Vincente as Fred Marin *

Zak Penn Zak Penn (born March 23, 1968) is an American screenwriter. Penn wrote and directed ''Incident at Loch Ness'' and ''The Grand (film), The Grand'', wrote the script for The Incredible Hulk (film), ''The Incredible Hulk'', co-wrote the scripts for ...

as Carmel County Writer * Mike White as Carmel County Writer *

Michael Peña Michael Anthony Peña (; ; born January 13, 1976) is an American actor. He has starred in many films, including ''Crash'' (2004), ''World Trade Center'' (2006), ''Shooter'' (2007), ''Observe and Report'' (2009), ''Tower Heist'' (2011), '' Battle: ...

as Star Map Boy *

Caesar Garcia Caesar Garcia (born November 13, 1981) is an American diver. He competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. Wi ...

as Star Map Boy

Production

The director,

, came to the US from

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

at the age of 16. He described ''Star Maps'' as the "worst idea" a first time filmmaker could attempt, due to its large number of characters and locations, as well as the unorthodox subject matter. Arteta met the movie's producer

Matthew Greenfield Matthew Greenfield is the president of Searchlight Pictures, which has produced five Best Picture winners, including Slumdog Millionaire, Birdman, 12 Years a Slave, The Shape of Water, and Nomadland. Greenfield and fellow Searchlight president ...

while studying film at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

. The duo initially tried to convince people in Hollywood to fund the film. However, in the end, it would be financed to the tune of $90,000 by a group of 15 private investors. The first investor they found committed $50,000 to the project. At this point, Arteta and Greenfield went ahead with casting and location scouting. It took a year for them to attain the remaining $40,000. Once they did, they began shooting the movie. The cast and crew primarily consisted of friends, due to the project's financial limitations. 11 months after principal photography began, Arteta wanted re-shoots to make the plot more coherent. Many of Arteta's friends initially wouldn't return his calls when he asked them to come back for the re-shoots. He stated "They thought we should have just worked with what we had and moved on, but we chose to use the money we had originally set aside for post-production to re-shoot, and then worried about raising the additional money for post."

Release

After premiering at the 1997 edition of the

, it was picked up by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

's indie acquisition division

Fox Searchlight Pictures Searchlight Pictures, Inc. is an American film production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is part of the Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1994 as Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. for 20th Century Fox (later 20th Century St ...

for $2.5 million. The deal was seen as a big coup for Arteta. Fox Searchlight would give ''Star Maps'' a US theatrical release in July 1997.

References

External links

* * * {{Miguel Arteta 1997 films 1997 comedy-drama films American comedy-drama films Films about prostitution in the United States Films directed by Miguel Arteta American LGBT-related films Fox Searchlight Pictures films 1990s Spanish-language films 1997 directorial debut films 1990s English-language films 1997 multilingual films American multilingual films Spanish-language American films Films about male prostitution in the United States 1997 independent films American independent films 1990s American films