Our Story

La Bamba 2: Hell is a Drag is a camp, trash, sci-fi, horror, avantguarde, DIY fan made, not-for-profit, unauthorized fantasy, parody sequel to the 1987 film La Bamba. The film is set 100 years after the ending of original La Bamba and centers on the journey of artist Rob Fatal [played by former Suncoast motion pictures employee Rob Fatal], an obsessive fan of Ritchie Valens [played by queer performance artist/scholar/adult actor Jiz Lee].

On the Day of the Dead 2059, Fatal is pulled into the underworld by Donna, Ritchie�s girlfriend in life, who tells Fatal that Ritchie has been kidnapped by a band of rock stars [including Selena, Buddy Holly, Kurt Cobain] who are jealous of Ritchie's greatness and his bad ass biopic La Bamba which has immortalized him on earth as one of the greatest musicians/ artists of all time. Fatal, Donna and the Valens family including Connie, Bob and Rosie [played by the neo-Chicano art collective the Pinata Brigade] set out on a mission to rescue Ritchie while encountering along the way a barrage of challenges that put to the test the constructs of domesticity, gender, Catholicism, fantasy, fame, celebrity, sexuality, high art culture, violence and obsession.

La Bamba 2 is a community project being co-produced by Johnny "We <3 Johnny" Flores and Rob Fatal.

The Impact

La Bamba 2 is a collaborative film effort from a band of social minorities: women, queers, ethnic minorities. We aim to put our confrontational vision back into the world; to turn a mirror on the world whose structures and policy aim to hold people in a constant state of self-doubt, self-questioning, normality. Particularly as a work of Chicano film, La Bamba 2: Hell Is A Drag is a missing voice. In the 1980 and 90s, the only representation of any queer or gay people in predominant Chicano film was in the violent rape scenes of prison movies like Blood In Blood Out (1993) and American Me (1992).

In the last few years films like La Mission (2009) and Gun Hill Road (2011) have put the topic of queer/trans/gay in the forefront of the Chicano film and as such in the forefront into the minds of the Chicanos [well, those who have actually seen the films]. Still though, these films� stars are straight Chicano men dealing with the problem of gayness or queerness in their lives. And while they eventually come to terms with their children�s queerness in the films and grow to love and accept their kids for who they are, it is usually after some violent, rage, gun shooting, crazy gang related incident, blah blah blah. 

La Bamba 2: Hell Is A Drag is one of a handful of queer-made Chicano films by new radical directors and artists; maybe one of the first. La Bamba 2 is very simply making history by re-visioning history, present and future. Building from filmic works including Pink Flamingos (1972), Flaming Creatures (1963), Holy Mountain (1973), Hold Me While I�m Naked (1966), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959),  The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Suspiria (1977), Mi Vida Loca (1993), Un Chien Andalou (1929), The Watermelon Woman (1996) and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920),   La Bamba 2 is a personal work that opens and extends the conversations of queer and minority identity in film, surrealism, trash, camp, and genre deconstruction. The film is also just plain funny, scary, and damn beautiful. 

Simply put, if we do not raise our meager goal of raising  $2,380 by Halloween, La Bamba 2 can not be made and this new and emerging voice in Chicano, artistic and cinenematic history will be missing; plain and simple.

Your money will, in all honesty, help etch a new era in Chicano film and a new voice in radical underground cinema.

What We Need & What You Get

Here is a very literal break down of our budget. Starting from the top and trickling to the bottom,  this is exactly where your donated money will be going:

Set Design: $900 . 

This $900 will be applied to building materials including lumber to build the sets and to buy found props like doors, windows, lighting rig beams, walls. A big chunk of this will also fo towards paint and nails.

Some very great people who believe in the film have already donated to the film items like furniture, lights, decorations, etc� Our amazing and brilliant set designer Adrienne and her team of builders are donating their time for the film free of charge.  All of this has greatly lowered our set design costs to only $900.

Film stock and processing: $884.

Half of the film is shot in 16mm film. This coupled with film processing and digital tranfer of the film footage equals a chunk of change totaling $884. We have an organization willing to donate the 16mm film cameras, battery packs and camera motors to the project for free which has dropped our film costs to $884. 

Costumes: $400.

 Our costume designer Andrea is rummaging through as many Goodwills and Thriftowns as she can to make some of these costumes come together. However, the 6 main actors need custom-made costumes that were designed specifically for La Bamba 2. We worked out a deal with a materials supplier to get all of our yards of varying materials for only $400 [the original total was about $900].  Andrea is again donating her time on the film as a collaborating artist so we need to help her get the materials to do her job.

Indiegogo surcharge: $196.56

Indie gogo takes 9% of what we raise so I have to factor that in so we actually get our aimed budget.

So, to recap:  $900 + $400 + $884 +  $196.56 = La Bamba 2 gets made.

Check out the perks list to see what you get when you donate.

Other Ways You Can Help

Tell people to donate! Tell people about the movie! Volunteer to work on this film with us! 

You can contact me at robfatal@gmail.com for any questions or comments you might have.