The Kill Floor is a short narrative film directed by Carlos Avila (Grim, Price of Glory, Fotonovelas) which follows Gil Navarro (Jaime Zevallos), a young Latinx reporter who returns to his rural hometown during the COVID-19 pandemic to report on the urgent and deadly circumstances threatening the meatpacking workers where his father, Augustine (Miguel Najera) works.
Selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as an Oscar-qualified film, The Kill Floor is an emotional story full of tension, grief, and injustice. Yet, like our collective time in lockdown during the COVID-19 epidemic, the audience is left with the comfort of the most enduring of all human emotions: love. Love for a son, a career, a community, and eventually, self love.
The film was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on the meatpacking industry and its workers, particularly in the Latino community. Through the character of Gill, Avila focused on the different stories of the workers. He interviewed meatpacking workers, union representatives, activists, and journalists who covered the stories in real time and created a fictionalized version of events capturing the worker experience while exploring important themes of community and father-son relationships.
“In the meatpacking plant workers I spoke with, I recognized people like my family and friends and their dedication to work. I felt that this story of Latino essential workers was important and necessary to tell. Often, these stories are forgotten. I wanted to call attention to what happened.” – Carlos Avila
Latin Heat was able to catch up with director Carlos Avila to talk about his process in writing/producing and directing his short film and why he felt he needed to tell this story.
Latin Heat: Tell us about some of the stories and experiences of the workers in the meatpacking plants.
Carlos Avila: Although The Kill Floor is a fictional story, it uses as its backdrop the very real crisis in the meatpacking industry during the early days of the pandemic. COVID-19 spread like wildfire through numerous meatpacking plants. It impacted many workers because that industry was either unprepared to deal with the crisis or uninterested in mitigating the risks posed by the virus if it was to slow down production. We were committed to telling this story with humor, emotion, and vivid characterizations.
LH: Why focus on the Latino community?
Because Latinos are such a big part of the workforce in these plants, the Latino community was heavily impacted by COVID-19. In the research that I did prior to writing, I interviewed meatpacking plant workers and read many accounts of their experiences. The workers that I interviewed in Vernon, California told me about a worker at the plant who went to extremes to hide his symptoms from his co-workers because he was desperate to work so that he could continue to provide for his family. That gentleman eventually died because by the time he got medical attention he couldn’t be saved. Another story I read was about Saul Sanchez, a meatpacking plant worker in Greeley, Colorado. Mr. Sanchez was in his 70s, and he had worked at a plant there for over 30 years. He was one of the first workers to get COVID-19 at the plant. He was admitted to the ICU and put on a ventilator, and eventually he died. A few days before he passed, he told his family to tell the plant management not to be concerned because he would soon be back to work. There’s some of Mr. Sanchez in the The Kill Floor character, Agustin. Working in the meatpacking industry is challenging on any given day, but during COVID-19, it was particularly perilous.
LH: What was the writing process like for this film?
CA: As I was writing The Kill Floor, it was very clear to me that there was a tremendous responsibility in telling a story like this. I wanted to dramatize and not sensationalize. I steeped myself heavily in the world of the meatpacking plants through interviews, firsthand observation, and research prior to writing the script. I’m a good listener, and I got so much out of the conversations I had with the meatpacking plant workers and union representatives in Vernon, California, the activists in Crete, Nebraska, and the journalists on both the East and West Coasts who covered the story. I integrated details, events, and perspectives with my storytelling instincts to develop a narrative that reflects a true version of what occurred.
LH: Why did you choose to tell the story through both present day scenes and flashbacks?
CA:The Kill Floor uses flashbacks in order to provide an emotional dimension to our characters. Because [the film] has a short running time of 27 minutes, I knew I had to be economical in providing a context for the relationships.
The flashbacks made sense in terms of storytelling and being able to convey some understanding of the Gil/Agustin relationship. I wanted the flashbacks to resonate when we finally got to the present-day Gil/Agustin scenes.
Some of the settings for the present-day scenes are the same as in the flashbacks, and yet so much has changed in the characters’ lives and in terms of their relationship. I was less interested in using flashbacks for exposition but more in providing emotional depth.
LH: What did you learn about the Latino spirit and work ethic throughout the making of this film?
CA: One of the stories that impacted me as I read the newspapers and watched the news was the crisis that was unfolding in the meatpacking plants. Given the nature of meat processing industry — people standing in close proximity to each other — COVID-19 spread quickly through those facilities. I knew that many Latinos were working in the poultry plants in the American South, but as I read and researched more, I was impressed to see how many Latinos worked in meatpacking plants throughout the United States. I was moved by these stories that I was reading.
It seemed like there was a clash between big business and the dedicated Latino work ethic. These corporations wanted to keep operating regardless of the human cost. They even successfully lobbied the former President and his administration to pass an Executive Order so that they would be declared ‘essential businesses.’ This gave these corporations liability protections if workers got sick. In the plant workers I spoke with, I recognized people like my family and friends and their dedication to work. I felt that this story of Latino essential workers was important and necessary to tell. Often, these stories are forgotten. I wanted to call attention to what happened. My goal was to make a film that would resonate with audiences. I also wanted the film to be a ‘witness’ to what happened.
LH: Where did this story come from?
CA: In the early days of the pandemic, as with so many other people, I was glued to the news. I was wondering whether we were facing the apocalypse or whether the world would make it through the crisis. I started reading about the COVID-19 crisis happening in the meatpacking plants. When I found out how many Latinos worked in these plants and how Latino communities were so heavily impacted, I knew that I needed to tell this story. Now and then, as a filmmaker, you encounter a story that needs to be told. For me, The Kill Floor was one of those stories.
LH: Why is being Oscar Qualifying important for this and other short films?
CA: Qualifying for the Academy Awards tells me that our film is of significant merit and worthy of playing alongside the other short films that have also qualified this year. It is a wonderful achievement to be in a category that includes important films from all over the world. The hope, of course, is that this additional visibility for The Kill Floor gives much-needed attention to the subject matter of our film and the role of Latino essential workers during the pandemic.