Interview: Writer-Director Carmen Marron of “Endgame”

“Endgame” is a heartwarming family film inspired by the true story of a championship middle school chess team from a school in a poor Texas community. It stars “Modern Family’s” Rico Rodriguez and two actors from “Napoleon Dynamite,” Efran Ramirez and Jon Gries. Writer/director Carmen Marron talked to me about why it was important to her to tell this story.

How did you first hear about this chess team?

It was like three years ago actually I was working on another project and one of the producers on the other project was approached by the executive producer of “Endgame.” He knew her; they were both from Texas. He started writing a script about the story of what was going in Brownsville and he was like, “I would really like to make it into a movie and can you help me with that?” It was low-budget, they didn’t have much money. So she knew what I did with my first film, Go for It, that I basically put together myself. And she said, “Look, this is what you like to do, an inspirational movie, a movie that can help motivate youth and women in our society. This story might be up your alley. Would you be willing to jump on board and help make it happen?” I felt like it was going to be a lot of work and at the time it was not my priority. But then I researched it. I researched it online about the community, about Brownsville, about the teacher and the kids and everything and I was researching it all night and by the morning I was like, “I have to make this movie. I don’t care if I do it for free at this point.”

I grew up really poor in Chicago, one of 10 kids. My dad always raised me with the belief that one person can make a huge difference and so I felt like this is the perfect example of how this teacher in the third poorest community in the time in the US really turned it around and created so much faith and hope just for the love that he had and the belief that he had in these kids. He showed that you don’t need money, you don’t need the resources if you really have that hope and he turned it all around. It was amazing! And to see these kids, and how resilient they are. It reminded me of those kids that I worked with when I was a guidance counselor. These kids are put through so much at such a young age and you see what their potential is if they have adults around them who can make them believe that what they are going through is just going to make them stronger, it’s not going to ruin their future.

Why chess?

He said that he had it in his classroom and it didn’t cost any money. It’s very costly to put together a team and uniforms. And it’s about critical thinking and it helps keep the kids focused and in the classroom in their seats. That’s what these kids in detention weren’t able to do. And so he started doing that with them little by little and they were so perceptive. It just goes to show how resilient and so very resourceful they are. They are always thinking, they are always trying to figure out how they can survive really but he was just using it to make them analytical.

I liked the way you portrayed the culture of chess, shaking hands after every match, which you use to great dramatic effect in the film.

Yes, in addition to the analytic skill, it is important to teach them good sportsmanship and respect and to be able to look at the other kid in the eye regardless of who they are. And what he used to say is when he started the team, these were inner-city kids with no money. He put the uniforms together were just T-shirts and he said that when he first took them to Dallas the first year nobody even looked at them. They treated them like they were invisible, like they weren’t even contenders. So he wanted to teach the students that confidence. No matter who you play against, no matter how rich this kid is or what prep school he comes from you just look him in the eye and you wish him well and you have that sportsmanship which I thought was so beautiful.

It was great to see such strong female characters.

I think that’s my personal mission as a filmmaker. I did that with my first film and I am going to do that with every film. I really do believe and I think that what I learned as a guidance counselor that there really is such an imbalance of women role models or girl role models for these girls and so I really need to start creating stories that can show these young girls, older girls, older women as powerful role models and heroes and leaders in their own rights. It’s really important to me. That’s the mission that I have that I am going to continue to do because these young girls that I work with are just so hungry to try to identify with public figures. Unfortunately they are looking up to Kim Kardashian and Britney Spears and all of these women that really don’t care to be role models. And so I really want to create these characters that just have so much inner power, inner strength in them and intelligence and leadership. It is really like an obsession for me.

Now why was it important to you to include an undocumented character who was deported?

That was actually one of the requests of the executive producers because he is an attorney and he deals a lot with immigration law and also it was an issue that the coach said that he came across. Some of these kids on the team were undocumented. And so I really wanted to show that whether they are born here or not, they are living the American life just like the other kids and they are going through the journey together. You see the huge safety net that they don’t have under them that all the other kids have because all of this uncertainty with immigration laws and it shows the double burden that they are also dealing with as they are growing up but how they are also handling it with grace as much as possible.

Was it a challenge to work with so many young actors?

Well I completely understand is definitely, definitely a whole world onto itself working with kids I didn’t even know. But I have always worked with kids. I was a guidance counselor and I have a Masters in Educational Psychology so my goal is always to make a difference with kids through education. And so that was the easy part. The hard part is that dealing with the child labor laws because you have to treat them as employees in a way because you have this movie to make. I made the movie 19 days and these kids can only work six hour days and they have a teacher who has to spend time with them. When working with kids you have to be focused. You have to make sure that the kids are all on the same page before you even begin and that you just know. You have your vision and you know what it is because you really sometimes only have the one chance and you have to move on.

How do you go from being a guidance counselor to being a filmmaker?

That, I would say was divine intervention. I never wanted to be a filmmaker, to be honest with you. I always knew that I wanted to make a difference in society and that I was going to work with kids and with women but I didn’t know how. As a guidance counselor I loved what I did. I loved it, I loved it, I loved it. And then after about my second year, maybe after my first year I was thinking that I was making a difference with 600 kids. How can I reach much more? How can I reach the inner-city kids in Chicago? How can I reach them in LA and Texas? I was in Phoenix at the time and I didn’t know. I just knew that what I was doing at the school, I wanted to try to help more kids and so honestly I prayed a lot and it came to me when I was praying, when I was meditating and the answer was, “You have to tell what you’re trying to teach, how you are trying to inspire kids you have to make movies so that you can reach more.” And then from there I just followed my heart. Honestly I went to the library and I checked out a book on how to write a screenplay and then I just started writing, watching movies and then I just packed up my car and my dog and my laptop and moved to LA with a script.

“Bread and Roses,” I recommend that to everybody because when I saw the movie I moved to LA and for two years people basically laughed at me telling me that I had no idea what I was getting myself into, I didn’t know a thing about filmmaking. It’s like the worst industry to get into, to break into. Even when you are in it is even worse to try to move up. I remembered just feeling so dismayed and then I watched “Bread and Roses” and it just brought me back to life and I was like, “Those are the types of movies I want to make.” And then actually I reached out to Ken Loach, who directed it. I wrote him the longest letter on how I want to make this inspirational movie that revolves around inner-city girls and it deals with dance because I used to be a street dancer, blah blah blah and I wanted him to direct it and I wanted to be very raw and honest like “Bread and Roses.” And two weeks later his assistant calls me from London, wakes me up at seven in the morning and he says, “Ken and I read your email and he really wants me to tell you that you need to direct your movie.” And told him I don’t know how to direct a movie, I don’t know how to do anything like this, I just wrote it. And he said, “No, you really do. Your email spelled it all out and no one will have that passion like you. The hardest part is having the money and once you have the money everything is going to fall into place.” And so from there that’s when I just made the decision.