A Netflix TV Show and an Upcoming Lifetime Movie Keeping Roberts Busy During The Pandemic
By Karina Noelle Castillo
Influenced by his experiences as a Mexican-American, television and film producer Mark Roberts is passionate about bringing Latino stories to the screen. “There’s a lot of conversation about Latino stories, about Mexican American stories, about Mexican immigrant stories. There’s so many different stories that fall into the category of Latino, now Latinx,” Roberts explains, and is why he feels he and actor/producer/TV host Mario Lopez work so well together. “I think Mario and I have a tendency to really connect on our journeys as Mexican Americans. So we have a tendency to really be positive about who we are, about what we’re capable of”.
Roberts and Lopez recently teamed up to produce Feliz NaviDAD, one of the first movies to go into production during the pandemic for the Lifetime Network. This marks over a handful of collaborations for Roberts and Lopez over the past fifteen years, which includes their current hit TV show The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia currently airing part two of their first season on Netflix.
Roberts began his career on the iconic film The Three Amigos when he was 19 years old. Transitioning from a studio tour guide, Roberts jumped on the opportunity to become a production assistant on the film. He was responsible for wrangling the extras on this comedy classic and the experience helped fuel his passion for filmmaking.
His first break was on Los Angeles station of Telemundo when Eddie Dominguez, the general manager at the time, brought him on board to produce a Christmas Special. Although Roberts didn’t have any experience as a full fledged producer at the time, Dominguez didn’t see a problem. He recognized that Roberts was not afraid of the challenge and gave him the support to dip his toes into his first major producing endeavor.
Roberts is also a seasoned documentary producer. His most recent project was Carlos Almaraz: Playing with Fire. The documentary premiered last year at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Almaraz, who passed in 1989 from his struggle with AIDS, was a prominent Mexican American artist and early proponent of the Chicano street arts movement. Carlos Almaraz: Playing with Fire is a retrospective of his impact on the Chicano and American arts community through his influential art and cultural activism. “His story was so rich and he was so talented and I didn’t understand why people didn’t understand who he was,” states Roberts. “Through the documentary work I figured out that, Latinos and Mexican artists that lived here in the United States weren’t categorized in the same way that American and European Artists were. So they were sort of a forgotten bunch.”
Continuing with the goal of bringing the Latino experience to the masses, The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia is a perfect example of what Roberts does so well. The series premiered early this year on February 17th. It spotlights a 15 year old scientist Ashley Garcia (Paulina Chavez) as she moves across the country to pursue a career in robotics, all while trying to navigate the peaks and valleys of her newfound teen-dom.
Roberts talked about how he and Lopez came to the idea for the show. “Originally our conversation was very small about ‘Hey let’s do something about a genius kid that happens to be Latino and that comes from this great line…and is a genius.’ And over a ten year period it developed into Ashley Garcia. The evolution of it was Seth Kurland coming in, and Netflix coming in…But the heart of it is creatively was wanting to do something that’s positive.”
The idea for the TV film Feliz NaviDAD was hatched while Roberts walked and talked from one of Lopez’s jobs to another. With such a busy person, Robert says you have to catch him in between jobs. “On this one day, we had been wanting to do a Christmas movie ourselves, [with a ] Latino theme because there’s not a lot of Christmas movies with a Latino theme. So, we were in the elevator and he looks at me and says ‘How hard could this be?’ So that afternoon I sort of wrote what we talked about,” said Roberts.
As luck would have it, Roberts was having dinner that night with one of their investors in their Casa Mexico Tequila venture. The investor expressed interest in the creative duo’s next filmmaking project and upon hearing the news of their Christmas film, he signed on to fund the script and get things started. From there, screenwriters Peter and Eliza Murrieta were hired and they found themselves in pre-production film.
“It’s this beautiful story about a father and a daughter and how ‘this song’ became an anthem for her when she was little; she didn’t know it was the Feliz Navidad song [by Jose Feliciano], she thought it was Feliz NaviDAD about her dad. So they connected on this different level and she wants him [her dad who is a widower] to find a new love and she wants him to find the spirit again, and that happens in the movie.”
The shoot began in the first week of June and as one of the first project to shoot during the pandemic. There was much more to prepare for, as Roberts explained it, a “wild” ride. He detailed the extra precautions the production needed to take in order to get the go ahead from SAG-AFTRA and the other unions/guilds.
“It added an additional layer to everything we did, on and off the set. We put a lot of thought and research into our protocol and learned from the CDC, state, county and industry groups as they adjusted each week. I’m not sure if we were the first, but I know we were one of very few films shooting at the beginning of June, so we had to make sure our crew and cast understood the plans clearly. This was a new experience for everyone.
As filmmakers, we are used to obstacles, big and small – we sort of thrive on forcing a square peg into a perfect circle. But add the ever present gravity and unknown of unpredictable Covid-19 and it felt like producing a film while being a contestant on Wipeout! Was today the day a crew member tested positive? Would our actors be affected? We started each day with precautions and protocol and when the DP was ready with the first shot, we all focused on what we came to do. I did get the sense it was important for people to work and for those of us who put Feliz NaviDAD together, we were committed to bringing this film to completion for the holidays 2020.
We did follow strict protocol. A negative test was required before arriving on location. Testing once a week was mandatory. Temps, heart rate and a questionnaire before anyone went on set, everyday. Temps before you received your individually wrapped lunch. No craft service! That was tough. Movie sets love snacks.”
Mission accomplished by the team. Feliz NaviDAD is now in post production and is due out for the holidays in December 2020.
In addition to the film and television projects Roberts has is also partnered with Lopez on the Casa Mexico Tequila brand with Olympian boxer Oscar de La Hoya as a partner. Casa México was a big hit at Lopez’s wedding a few years back, with his friends and family becoming major fans, so when the opportunity arose, they decided to become partners with Don Buccio, the founder of the tequila. The group of partners recently travelled to Mexico to shoot a commercial as they are getting ready to launch a major marketing campaign for the brand.
And if his talent and working on multiple productions didn’t extend far enough, Roberts also has a podcast called Let’s Get Into It with fellow filmmaker and makeup artist Rod “Tuddy” Rinks, in which the pair look to inspire aspiring filmmakers by providing them with invaluable lessons from their experiences with production over the years. For more information on Roberts’ projects you can follow him on @iceroberts on Instagram.