Making Of
This movie was shot in two weeks, for $5,000. I put the cast and crew in my 2006 Toyota RAV4 and drove from Los Angeles to Fresno, down to Mexico, and across the Baja Peninsula. With the lowest budget for a feature film in the history of most festivals, "Alta California" won Best Directorial Debut at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (an award shared with Brittany Snow) and was an Official Selection at Dances With Films, with a SOLD OUT screening at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood, CA.
Meet the Director
Andrés Taboada was born in Perú, where he resided until a scholarship allowed him to finish high school in Germany. After receiving a Bachelor's degree in Biology in California, and working as a teacher in Southeast Asia, he eventually came back to the States, and Miami is where he performed stand-up comedy for the very first time while pursuing a Master's in Education. After grad school, he attended the UCLA Summer Film Institute, where he met some of the people with whom he collaborates to this day. Andrés now lives in Los Angeles, where he won the Funny and Foreign-Born Showcase at the Glendale Comedy Festival. He also won the award for Best Comedic Actor at Miami WebFest and was a finalist at the World Series of Comedy. He has since turned his focus towards his first feature film, a bilingual dramedy called Alta California, which he wrote, produced, and directed.