Raba co-stars with Liam Neeson in the entertaining action thriller The Marksman, a Voltage Films production now available on digital.

While Raba and three-time Oscar-nominated director Robert Lorenz (American Sniper) agreed on how his character should look, the film’s producers were not so sure. “So the day of the audition, I decided to shave my head… basically I wanted to scare them a little bit, so they could believe I could do it,” recalls the actor. He adds, “I created this whole persona and went to the audition in character, and I guess they were a little scared by it.”

In The Marksman, a hardened border town rancher (Neeson) helps a young Mexican boy escape to safety across America as vicious drug cartel assassins are on their heels. Jim Hanson (Neeson) is an ex-marine sniper and anti-immigration vigilante who lives along the Arizona-Mexico border. When he discovers a mother and her young son, Rosa (Teresa Ruiz) and Miguel (Jacob Perez), entering the U.S. illegally to run away from a cartel, the ex-soldier also crosses paths unavoidably with Mauricio (Raba) and his henchmen. The men exchange fire, the mother dies in the shootout, and Hanson kills the drug lord’s brother. The ex-soldier and border vigilante faces two choices: leave the kid behind or protect him from certain death at the hands of Mauricio.

RABA’S VILLAINS
Just like Neeson, tough-guy roles have a way to find Raba, an athletic actor with good looks and a kind smile who can effortlessly transform himself into a menace with a simple smirk–or a shaved head. Questionable characters like Mauricio are kind of his cup of tea. “I think that modern television and film have given us the opportunity of creating very complex and interesting characters, especially villains,” states Raba. 

He seems to relish the complexities of multilayered characters who do bad things to good people.“It’s very fun to play a villain because, you know, you just have more margins when you play a good guy,” explains the actor. “You play these villains (and) you can move around, have a little bit more freedom.” But, do criminals like Mauricio have a heart? There is a moment in The Marksman in which Raba attempts to address the question. 

Playing a bad guy against Oscar-nominated Neeson was both exciting and challenging, confides the South American star. And also a big responsibility. “You need to create something that’s believable, right? Something that actually creates a counterpart for an actor like Liam,” he says. “So I guess that’s why I decided to go a little bit bigger, you know, than usual.” The intention, he explains, was to give the impression that “there was something dangerous enough to make Liam run.” Not an easy task as Neeson is known for playing characters that take the fight to the enemy, like retired CIA operative Bryan Mills in the blockbuster Taken film series where he battles international criminals. 

This is not the first time the South American actor portrays a narcotrafficker in Hollywood. He recently played Juan Diego “El Catrin” Zamora, the head of a small family cartel, in the CBS All Access TV series Coyote. Two years ago, Raba was cast as the drug kingpin Diego Garcia in the vigilante action film Peppermint, opposite Jennifer Garner.

‘A CHESS GAME’
With typecasting being a common risk faced by Latino actors in Hollywood, Raba is aware of the toxic impact of negative stereotypes and emphasizes he doesn’t want to portray Latino bad guys all the time. “That’s not what I want to do as an actor because as a Latino I know that is not who we are,” he states. However, improving the standing of Latinos in Hollywood will take more time, according to the actor, who expresses optimism in the future. “We are playing a chess game but will eventually make sure that people understand who we are,” he says. Meanwhile, Raba says he’ll keep on striving to be a “great professional” in all of his performances.  

The South American actor started his acting career in telenovelas about two decades ago and eventually went global. Raba starred in the 1990s soap operas Amor en Forma and La Reina de Queens in his natal Colombia and later La Niña de mis Ojos in Venezuela, which raised his international profile. He also appeared in the comedy series Los Caballeros las Prefieren Brutas. Then came Colombian movies like the crime dramas En Coma and El Cartel de los Sapos.

Joining forces with Venezuelan star Edgar Ramirez (Yes Day, The Bourne Ultimatum), Raba founded Drive Pictures and executive produced and starred in the crime thriller Secreto de Confesión, the company’s only film produced so far since 2013 as Raba’s Hollywood career was about to take off.

RAISING INTERNATIONAL PROFILE
His casting in the English-language The 33, the 2015 biographical survival drama starring Antonio Banderas and based on the disaster of 33 miners trapped inside a Chilean mine, opened up more international doors for Raba. That same year, the former galan de telenovelas was cast in the ABC series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Joey Gutierrez, a superhuman with the power to melt and reshape metals, one of a few but growing number of Latino superheroes on the small and big screens. In addition to Peppermint and Coyote, he has also appeared in series like the military drama Six on A+E and the crime drama Narcos on Netflix. 

Asked whether he will like to play any other superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as he did with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., or other franchise, Raba says he has other plans. “You know, I would love to work towards the idea that we can create…superheroes but my quest right now is to portray characters that Latinx children and youths can look at and say, ‘Wow, it would be cool to be like that one day,’” states Raba. “I think that should be our quest and that’s what I would like to work towards right now.”

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USC’s recent Latinos in Film study found Latinx actors in films to be only three percent of lead or co-lead roles in top-performing movies during the past 12 years. This, however is not news, this has been the case (give or take a half percentage point here and there) for decades.

Equitas Entertainment’s, an independent production company is making its mission to make films that will address the lack of diversity. Their latest film Imprisoned does just that with Latinx talent in front of and behind the camera.  The indie thriller stars Laurence Fishburne and Juan Pablo Raba, and an all Latinx supporting cast including, Juana Acosta, Esai Morales, Jon Huertas, and Edward James Olmos. Behind the cameras, they hired a majority of Latino crew

Equitas Entertainment hired 10 Latinx department heads in casting and production roles. Their mission is to produce compelling and important projects that provide opportunities for the under-served in the film industry while closing the gender pay gap.

In the thriller, Imprisoned, Dylan Burke (Raba), attempts to move on from his former life as a criminal, with his true love, Maria (Acosta). He soon realizes that his past will continue to haunt him when he learns the new local prison warden, Daniel Calvin (Fishburne), has not forgiven him for an old crime.

Daniel Calvin is a man haunted by a past full of loss, revenge, and guilt. He’s living a life far different than the one he had years earlier as the strong-willed prison warden overseeing the lives of hundreds of violent criminals. He does everything in his power to make sure that Burke pays for his past mistakes, even going as far as to frame him for a murder he didn’t commit, landing him back in jail. When the prison erupts into a riot, Burke and Calvin are each forced to make a choice between righteousness and revenge.

Imprisoned is set for theatrical release by Cinema Libre Studio.

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Equitas Entertainment Partners’ (EEP) powerful drama, Imprisoned, will have its world premiere at the 2019 Marché Du Film, the world’s largest movie marketplace, being held from May 13^th to 22^nd during the Cannes International Film Festival. Representing Equitas for sales and distribution is Cinema Libre International, the worldwide sales agency of Cinema Libre Studio. 

“We are excited to be screening our film Imprisoned at the Cannes Film Market,” said Executive Producer, Holly Levow. “There is no greater opportunity for independent filmmakers than to show our work in front of hundreds of buyers looking to strike a deal.” “And we are pleased that our social impact message aligns with that of Cinema Libre.”

Writer/Director Paul Kampf is proud to premiere this powerful and complicated story of hope, redemption, revenge, and forgiveness to Cannes’ discerning audience.  He says, “Screening this film for the Cannes buyers and audience will begin the buzz for our domestic theatrical release which will begin with our commitment to release in Puerto Rico in early September and work its way across the country in selected cities.”

The Marché du Film, the business wing of the Festival de Cannes, is the key stepping stone in the creation, production, and distribution of films around the world. The Marché du Film draws its strength from the diversity of the people it brings together: 12,400 industry professionals including 3900 producers, 3300 buyers and distributors and 1000 festival programmers all gathered in one unique setting to obtain financing, seize opportunities and take the pulse of international film creation and innovation. 

Imprisoned, starring Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix, Parabellum) with a powerful Latin cast including: Juan Pablo Raba (Wild District, Peppermint, Netflix’s Narcos), Juana Acosta (Olivier Assayas’ TV miniseriesCarlos, Velvet), Jon Huertas (This Is Us, Castle), Esai Morales (Ozark, How to Get Away with Murder), John Heard and Edward James Olmos (Mayans MC, Battlestar Galactica), is scheduled to screen on May 18, 19 and 20^th at the Cannes Film Market.

Cinema Libre and Equitas Entertainment will host a panel, MAKING SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE FILMS at The American Pavilion on Monday, May 20^th at 10:00am where filmmakers, Holly Levow and writer/director Paul Kampf, will share clips from the film, lessons from filming in Puerto Rico and EEP’s focus on making a social impact, moderated by CLS’ Philippe Diaz. A market badge and invitation is required and may be picked up at Cinema Libre booth located at Riviera F3. 

Imprisoned tells the story of Daniel Calvin (Fishburne), a man haunted by a past full of loss, revenge and guilt. He’s living a life far different than the one he had years earlier as the strong-willed prison warden overseeing the lives of hundreds of violent criminals in a Puerto Rican prison. One of those men, Dylan Burke (Raba), had made many mistakes in his life, but he put his dark past behind him when he found his true love, Maria (Acosta). It is the idyllic life they both never dreamed. But when Warden Calvin realizes Dylan is the man that caused his wife’s death twenty years earlier, a darkness grows in him and leads to framing Dylan for a brutal murder that he did not commit. When Dylan is locked away under Warden Calvin’s charge, the hunter becomes the hunted. But Dylan’s will is too strong to let the warden turn him back into the man he once was, as Dylan chooses righteousness over revenge. In the end, the warden is left with the guilt of his actions and only one choice to rectify all the wrong he has done.

 View Trailer

Equitas Entertainment Partners believes films can have a positive social impact by exploring facets of lives often overlooked and also by the manner in which they make films. Their model endeavors to prove that stories can be entertaining, thought–provoking, socially responsible and fiscally profitable. Gender pay equality matched with opportunities for the under-represented in front of and behind the camera makes a more rounded work environment and serves the project at every level. 

Equitas Entertainment is based in Los Angeles. For more information about their films, please visit: www.equitasentertainment.com

Detailed information about the film and screening schedules are listed in the Pocket Guide, the Dailies, Cannes Market News and at Cinando.com.

Imprisoned — U.S. and Latin American theatrical release – August, 2019
Equitas Entertainment Partners
Writer / Director: Paul Kampf
Executive Producer: Holly Levow
Producer: Tom Sperry

Cannes Sales Agents: Cristian Bettler, cbettler@cinemalibrestudio.com
International@cinemalibrestudio.com

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Produced by Holly Levow and Paul Kampf

By Bel Hernandez

Holly Levow and Paul Kampf, partners of Equitas Entertainment Partners, are looking to disrupt the filmmaking status quo in Hollywood. They are doing it with their latest film Imprisoned which stars Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix), Juan Pablo Raba (Narcos), Juana Acosta (Velvet), Jon Huertas (This is Us), Esai Morales (Ozark), Edward James Olmos (Mayans MC) and John Heard (Living Among Us).

Both Levow and Kampf (who wrote and directed Imprisoned) believe films can have a positive social impact while at the same time address diversity, equal pay, inclusion and collaboration. It’s Equitas’ mission to produce films that are “compelling and important projects that provide opportunities for the under-served in the film industry while closing the gender pay gap”.

So how does an attorney/businesswoman/philanthropist (Levow) working with high-tech startups, team up with a 25-year veteran in the entertainment industry (actor/writer/director Kampf) and decide they want to produce socially responsible and fiscally successful films?  That is the question Latin Heat wanted answered, and so we sat down with Holly and Paul.

LATIN HEAT: How did you two meet?

HOLLY: Well, Paul and I met on set of our first feature film together in 2015 and we were connected through a mutual friend – the female screenwriter who wanted to create a feature that was very female driven and she was connected to Paul. He helped mentor her in the screenwriting process and eventually helped us create this feature. We shot it all up in Portland, Oregon, where I’m based now, that’s where we actually met.

LH:  And what made you realize you “needed” to work together?

PAUL: I think the making of a film is really about who’s there. It’s really about the people. And so I think in our process of making that movie, we each had a chance to see how the other person looked at the process and how Holly is supportive and generous, and hopefully I was the same. I think that film was an example of how I work. That started our conversations about, well, if we’re going to continue building something together, it can’t just be a film at a time and have a great experience. What’s the purpose?

LH: You assembled an impressive cast for Imprisoned. So how did the cast come together?

PAUL: We met with Carla Hool who really, really, responded to the material. I love her taste in material and in actors and she was a big champion of our mission.

I had a lot of casting ideas, and she brought casting ideas and was able to get to anyone we felt was a good fit. We were able to sit down with every actor from Laurence [Fishburne] all the way through our cast in Puerto Rico and talk with them about what we’re trying to do with the film so that everyone who came on board knew what we were about.

When we received a quote for our female lead, we responded with something higher and they [agents] didn’t know what to do…

Levow

LH: You also did the unthinkable, you offered your actresses “equal pay”!  How and why did you do it?

HOLLY: There are a lot of things that we wanted to do differently, one of them was closing that gender pay gap. So we made a mandate when we decided to get together and form our production company that we will only make film projects where we can have gender pay equity, meaning we will pay our female the same as our male in the same role. Imprisoned was no exception. We were met with skepticism in the industry. It was exciting and also discouraging to see that it doesn’t happen more often.

LH:  What was the reaction?

HOLLY: So basically when we received a quote for our female lead, we responded with something higher and they [agents] didn’t know what to do, but they accepted it. They were a little skeptical about the whole situation. But ultimately, it came to fruition and it was very exciting.

LH: And tell us a little bit about the film. What is the film about?

PAUL: It’s simply a love story in the middle of a revenge thriller. It’s about someone who has paid his debt to society and found love and found redemption. He gets pulled back into the criminal system, not by his own doing, but by someone seeking revenge for something he had done years earlier. It really becomes a love triangle. In many ways it’s an allegory about what’s the best in us and how we overcome our demons. I think it surprisingly speaks to an audience in a way that a movie of this genre normally doesn’t.

LH: And it takes place in the prison?              

PAUL: Yeah. It takes place in Puerto Rico and much of the film is about the prison system, or around it, or protesting it, or dealing with laws that are enacted around the death penalty.

LH:  You have created partnerships in the community that will help bring attention to the issues in Imprisoned. Tell me about those partnerships.

PAUL: I’ll mention a few. So as an example, when we made this movie, we worked with a wonderful, non-profit organization in Puerto Rico that helps incarcerated men and women move out of the system and into opportunity. We were able to use almost 40 men who came out of the system in the movie as background extras, as well as a number of those in principal roles. We have built a relationship with this organization.

We’re now also working out a partnership with Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, which is an amazing organization. We want to try to find a way to provide opportunities for those in front and behind the camera who are looking to have a door open that might not ever be open for them. We’re also working with National Hispanic Foundation For the Arts, Esai Morales is one of the founders. We’re really about finding those partners who see our mission. That see how we are taking this movie into a different realm of social impact.

We’re really about finding those partners who see our mission. That see how we are taking this movie into a different realm of social impact.

Kampf

HOLLY: There are many different ways to create impact and you know, one of the ways is through our production practices, and one is through weaving in the social themes, in the actual content. Everything we do is rooted in this idea of diversity, equity, inclusion and collaboration. And we’re really trying to highlight social issues that are affecting us today, and mass incarceration is a huge problem facing us today. So we want to take this opportunity, this platform to highlight the issues, to talk about potential solutions and to drive audience members towards an action.

PAUL: What we’re really trying to do with this movie, and our partnerships – we’re trying to build an ecosystem. We’re trying to use this movie as a way of saying here’s a fictional story with themes that are important; [find] who our partners are that we can work with on mass incarceration; and build around it a way in which the film is not just a piece of entertainment, but a conversation that leads to action.

Then as we go forward with future films, what’s really going to be our learning curve is how do we build this system around it so that it’s sustainable as a social impact. That there is social currency, as much as there is currency because it’s a business. But we thankfully have an opportunity to look at what’s the social currency as well.

LH: And you were telling me you explained your mission to your talent and they totally  bought into your vision.

PAUL: Yes it was really wonderful to be able to do that especially with someone who loves the piece of material. They’re actors, it’s a job and they have no requirement to have passion [for] our mission. But really everyone in this movie responded to the mission and what’s been a nice surprise is that they looked at the material as a story that they would want to be a part of, and that’s enticing to them.

LH: And you have a great cast. You have actors from Los Angeles, Colombia, Puerto Rico; Latino actors from all over.

PAUL: It’s this wonderful, unique melting pot.  Juan Pablo Raba is Colombian and Juana Acosta is Colombian, but has been working in Spain for years, then there’s Edward James Olmos. Our film is about 25% in Spanish and it works very organically as an experience because when you [are] in Puerto Rico, people move between English and Spanish. That was important to us, that we don’t just try to tell the whitest version of this film, we try to tell an authentic version.

That would be our definition of success. That it permeates Hollywood and that this becomes the norm.

Levow

LH: You are now starting to roll out the film, however you’re not going the traditional distribution way.

PAUL: We are exploring the three-headed monster. We’re looking at the traditional distribution, looking for those partners that understand that our mission is important. So we’re exploring that, as we’re looking at some significant sponsors that are interested in getting involved to help us take the movie out in a more non-traditional way. It’s not just about the sale of the movie, it’s about how we can make a difference as we distribute it.

We’re looking at how we can give back, how can we give a portion of our ticket sales to organizations that we’re working with so that it isn’t just trying to reach communities, but also giving back to the community that’s supporting the movie.  What we’re trying to achieve is that other people can see the financial benefit and the social impact benefit and steal our model.

LH: Exactly, so you want people to take this model and run with it.                

HOLLY: That would be our definition of success. That it permeates Hollywood and that this becomes the norm. Paul alluded to the fact that, not only the actors, and the cast, but audience members, they’re craving this engagement and this ability to give back. I think, people want to get involved with the film and the project and what we’re trying to do, and we want to try to facilitate that with our audience members too. We definitely believe that you can be socially responsible and fiscally successful at the same time. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.

LH: You plan on having the world premiere of Imprisoned in Puerto Rico?

HOLLY: Yes, absolutely. We plan on having our premiere theatrical release in Puerto Rico. We feel very grateful to be able to have had this experience and really enjoyed all of our time there, with the cast and crew and we really want to bring it back to them so that they can see what they’ve worked on and share in the success. And also we want to highlight Puerto Rico to the world because we know there’s a lot of work left to be done there.

PAUL: We wrapped up about a month before the hurricane hit there. So it’s really important for us to go back there and celebrate the film, reconnect with a number of people and see what we can do with this film to make a difference.

LH: You’re going full circle – back to the source.

HOLLY: That’s it. Exactly.

LH: Hollywood says the Latino talent isn’t there. But you found the talent and employed them and with equal pay for the actresses. Where can we find out about the screenings and your partnerships and events?

They can go to theImprisonedmovie.com. You can also link to Equitasentertainment partners.com

PAUL: If anyone is interested in what we’re talking about, individuals, organizations that are interested in potentially exploring partnerships, please send us an email, write to us. We are very interested in figuring out ways to make a difference. We don’t have the answers, but we want to engage with people who have some ideas.

www.TheImprisonedMovie.com

www.EquitasEntertainment.com

Facebook: @TheImprisonedMovie

Instagram: @TheImprisonedMovie

Twitter: @MovieImprisoned

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