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• #THE WHISPERER ECHO PARK MOVIE#

The garden scenes were filmed at the home of the filmmakers’ friend – and gardener – landscaper Alberto Hernandez.Īnd then there is the reality of gentrification.

Other scenes in “Quinceañera” show a tiny local church, a bench in the neighborhood park that offers views of downtown and one of the many sprawling staircases that date back generations, before cars dominated city streets. So many people have come here over the generations and added their little bit to Los Angeles, so it becomes this fantastic mix of things.” “Change is a good thing if it brings people like Wash and Richard who have a love of culture. “We’ve definitely seen a lot of changes in the area,” says Ryan, 31. Lifelong Echo Park resident Liz Ryan, who lives next door, didn’t just open her home to film crews, she inspired one of the its characters: a tolerant woman who understands the value of diversity and community. “We said paint the whole house if you want,” he says.

Melvin Villalobos, who lives across the street, loaned his front porch and backyard for a few key scenes. One man even let the filmmakers paint his kitchen “a really horrible pink,” Westmoreland says. They stayed with friends to allow their houses to be featured on film. They tolerated trucks filling the streets for three weeks straight and generators running late into the night. They brought tamales for the cast and crew, including vegan varieties for one vegetarian star.

#THE WHISPERER ECHO PARK MOVIE#

“People were very open and friendly and we got to know our neighbors, so the movie really grew from that sense of wanting to capture Echo Park on film.” “We’re the first white couple on this block, we’re the first gay couple on this block but there was no resistance,” says Westmoreland, 40. Glatzer and Westmoreland hoped to tell a universal story that reflects the people and the vibe of this little L.A. She forms an unlikely alliance with her cousin Carlos, a street tough exiled from his family for being gay, and her great-uncle Tomas, a kindhearted man who spends his days selling champurrado (a Mexican hot-chocolate drink) and tending his elaborate garden. “Quinceañera,” which opened Friday and took top honors at the Sundance Film Festival this year, tells the story of a girl ostracized by her family after she becomes pregnant shortly before her 15th birthday.

And we thought the quinceañera would be a perfect way to structure it because it’s a coming-of-age ceremony and the neighborhood’s kind of evolving as well, not necessarily in the most positive way.” “We started talking about a movie about a gentrifying neighborhood. “There are such different realities next door to each other,” says Glatzer, 54, who experienced his first quinceañera at his neighbor’s house in 2004. Inspired by their neighborhood and their neighbors, the two made “Quinceañera” (the name for a traditional rite of passage for 15-year-old Hispanic girls) to pay tribute to the area’s historic architecture and rich cultural heritage, noting the ongoing gentrification that threatens both. In recent years, it’s become a trendy enclave and real estate hot spot.įilmmakers Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland moved from West Hollywood to Echo Park five years ago. For decades, it was a mostly Hispanic, working-class neighborhood.

Before Hollywood was born, this community of 25,000 just north of downtown was the city’s filmmaking capital. The film “Quinceañera” was inspired by its 114-year-old star.Įcho Park, founded in 1892, is one of Los Angeles’ oldest neighborhoods.