Octavio Gómez Berríos:
Eugenia Yuan:
Aaron Paul:
Mandy Patinkin:
Choking Man
Cast & Credits
Synopsis
If you think you know Steve Barron from his music videos ("Billie Jean," "Money for Nothing," "Take on Me"), think again. The director best known for his seminal work on MTV in the early 1980's (not to mention the glitzy 1984 feature Electric Dreams) brings an entirely new aesthetic to bear on Choking Man, an intense blend of psychological drama and magical realism that speaks eloquently of the contemporary immigrant experience in America. Jorgé (Octavio Gómez Berríos) is a morbidly shy Ecuadorian dishwasher toiling away in a shabby Jamaica, Queens diner run by Rick (a Greek-accented Mandy Patinkin). Tormented on the job by his coworker Jerry (Aaron Paul) and controlled at home by his older, domineering male "roommate," Jorgé gropes mutely for a bond with Amy, a newly hired Korean waitress (Mail Order Wife's Eugenia Yuan). She tries to reciprocate, but the gulf that separates them may be too large. Interstitial fantasy sequences featuring an animated rabbit gives us the impressions of life from Jorgé's point of view, while a poster instructing diner patrons on how to perform the Heimlich Maneuver looms over and ultimately catalyzes the action. Shot over 18 days in Harlem and at Queens' Olympia Diner, Choking Man effectively portrays the polyglot milieu of the area around John F. Kennedy Airport, capturing the feeling of claustrophobia and almost literal asphyxiation newcomers to America experience as they struggle to find a place and a purpose in this strange land.
--Elliot Larkfield
+About The Director
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Steve Barron has directed some of the most popular videos of all time, including the videos for Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing," and A-Ha's "Take on Me." His first film Electric Dreams (1984) was an immediate cult classic, while his second film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1986) stunned the industry by becoming the first independent feature to break the $100 million mark. Barron went on to direct Coneheads, Rat, Mike Bassett - England Manager, and TV network mega-series Merlin, Arabian Nights, and Dreamkeeper, which garnered a slew of awards including twenty-five Emmy™ nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, and a DGA nod. In 2005, Barron put the world of studios and big budgets on hold to direct Choking Man. This personal film comes from his first original screenplay.
+Director Statement
This film marks the first time in 15 years that I sat down with a blank page to write my own concept to direct, and the first time it wasn't for a music video. Having control of the project's origins created a greater opportunity to be unusual, layered, and brave. In those years directing other people's work, my son grew up, and he has now helped me conceive this basic new idea. We sat in a Long Island diner, chatting about how anonymous the Heimlich maneuver poster must be to the citizens of New York, and a light bulb went on. Some months later, inspired by the cavalier spirit of New York independent movies like The Station Agent and Raising Victor Vargas, the blank page was filled with Choking Man. The tale centers on one of the thousands of immigrant kitchen workers in America who feel they no more belong to where they came from than where they live now. Jorge is as anonymous to the people around him as that constant government-issue graphic that lingers three feet in front of his face. This is the character you don't usually make a film about. This is the invisible man that gives you few clues as to what is going on inside his impenetrable mind. Where does he disappear to when he enters his lonely home? What happens when someone does actually "see" him? How far can he be moved from "who" he is? What is his breaking point? These are the questions I wanted to explore with Choking Man. Jamaica, Queens, felt like an apt setting for this story. It is, according to The New York Times, the most multicultural place on the planet, with 140 different languages spoken. Jorge doesn't seem to speak any one of them. His is the language of "shy."
