Hector Galán on 'Cottonfields and Crossroads'

Hector Galán

As the critically acclaimed filmmaker of documentaries such as Songs of the Homeland and Accordion Dreams, Hector Galán has played an important role in documenting Tejano music. But making Los Lonely Boys: Cottonfields and Crossroads is perhaps his most personal work. When he discovered the band of brothers were homeboys from San Angelo, Galán thought he'd like to film them. After he saw them perform and heard their story, he knew he had to.

"It was at that moment, watching them perform an amazing rendition of their song 'Cottonfields and Crossroads,' that I felt an immediate connection," Galán said. "[It] provoked a profound sense of identity in me. I understood where the influences of their music came from."

Los Lonely Boys

For personal and professional reasons, Galán wanted to do a film on music from West Texas, and the Garza brothers appeared to be the perfect centerpiece. But Galán decided to take a different tack with Cottonfields and Crossroads.

"I wanted to go beyond a profile piece," Galán says. "I decided this film had to have a larger reach." A "larger reach" meant aiming for a documentary feature. The result is a hybrid that mixes the historical underpinnings of a documentary, the heart of the all-American rags-to-riches story, and a sort of anthropological songbook that emanates from West Texas that is, as the Garza brothers describe their work, distinctly "Texican." But that's not the only departure for Galán. Under the auspices of Lone Wolf Bridge Releasing, Galán Productions has taken a headfirst dive into the world of distribution.

"We decided to go for a theatrical release with this one," Galán says. Although several offers from television and the DVD market were offered, Galán felt the time was right to try this new venture, especially after the enthusiastic response the film had at its SXSW 06 premiere.

"A lot of distributors for documentaries don't know our market, but we do," he says. By targeting Latino-heavy cities and working with key contacts and organizations in these cities, Galán Productions is carving a distribution model that relies as much on grassroots and word-of-mouth advertising as it does on being "high tech Aztecs": using social networking sites to build interest and momentum. Speaking of which, more information about Los Lonely Boys: Cottonfields and Crossroads can be found at its MySpace site, www.myspace.com/loslonelyboysmovie.