San Angelo Native Returns Home for Movie Premiere

SAN ANGELO, TX - Sometimes in life, we lose our balance, and we have to find a way to get it back. This is the primary theme of the movie Reparation starring San Angelo native Marc Menchaca.

Menchaca and director of the award-winning independent film, Kyle Ham, will be in San Angelo on Sept. 9, 2016 for a premiere viewing. The premiere will take place at Icon Cinema, 2020 N. Bryant Blvd, at approximately 7 p.m. Menchaca and Ham will also host a question/answer session after the premiere.

The visit to San Angelo is part of a tour taking place in about 15 cities across the U.S. The tour kicks off tomorrow in Green Castle, Indiana, the shooting location of the film.

Thus far, Reparation, a 2015 psychological thriller, has been a “festival-favorite of audiences and juries, winning 11 [film festival] awards in just nine appearances on the circuit, including Best Actor (Menchaca) at the Breckenridge Film Festival; Audience Choice awards at the Austin Film Festival and Sedona International Film Festival; and Best Film at the Santa Fe Film Festival.”

A Brief Synopsis

Reparation is about Bob Stevens, a troubled Air Force veteran who buries his memories after a tragic event. Corruption surrounds the event, and Bob has to choose between upholding the law or having his partner’s back at all costs.

For years, Bob buries his memories and lives a simple life with his wife and daughter as a small-town vegetable farmer, until he’s confronted by Jerome Keller (Huertas), who is looking for answers of his own.

With Keller’s appearance, Bob’s life, and that of his family, starts to unravel, and his 8-year old daughter, Charlotte, discovers she holds the key to Bob’s forgotten past.

A West Texas Boy Comes Home

Marc Menchaca, 40, the lead actor of Reparation said he was “fairly shocked” when he learned the film would premiere in his hometown.

“When Kyle called me and told me that San Angelo was a possibility, I was like ‘San Angelo?’ I was completely excited,” he said.

Marc said he was mostly surprised that a movie chain in San Angelo would show an Indie Film like Reparation.

“That’s kind of crazy,” he added.

Marc, the son of Rudy and Cathy Menchaca, said, “Most of my family still lives in San Angelo.”

Marc said his family, who have been a big support of his acting career, are also excited about the premiere.

“My parents have been wanting to see this film for a long time,” he said. “To have it actually showing in San Angelo, I’m a little bit flattered that Kyle made that happen.”

A Little Menchaca History

Marc said he attended Central High School. Like many West Texas boys, he played football and soccer.

“I did kind of want to [act], but I never did,” Marc said.  

However, an event that occurred prior to graduation made Marc realize his enjoyment of being on stage.

He said there was a hypnotist who came to town, and the man asked for a volunteer from the audience. Marc was that volunteer. He said the man didn’t actually succeed in hypnotizing him, but he played along.

“I never got hypnotized,” Marc laughed. “I just kind of did what he said. I remember thinking, ‘I can do what I want and can’t be blamed for it because I’m supposedly hypnotized.’ And then you get laughs; and when I think back, I remember having that moment, ‘This is great!’”

He said that didn’t translate into wanting to be an actor until college. Marc attended A&M University as a business major when he realized he wanted to be an actor. He said the idea came after he watched Dead Poets Society.

At first, Marc thought of going to Los Angeles and dropping out of school, but the “cavalry came in” and talked him out of it.

Marc said he stayed for a while longer and ended up acting in a play at A&M. He also went up to Circle in the Square Theatre in New York for a summer acting program that provided a taste of what acting training was like, and he fell in love with the city.

“That’s when I decided I wanted to be an actor,” he said. He was about 20 years old.

While in New York at that program, Marc said working actors would come to the class each week. He said there was a woman who came once. He can’t remember her name, but she gave advice that resonated with him.

“I just remember her telling everybody, ‘Don’t major in theatre; major in history or English, or anything that is going to expand your knowledge of the world,” Marc said.

Thus, Marc returned to A&M University and got his bachelor’s degree in English. Later, the first actual acting gig of his career was Of Mice and Men, and his first film, Screen Door Jesus (2003).

About Playing Bob

Reparation challenged Marc because, as the lead actor, he worked more than 20 days with no break. He had half a day off and had to drive to Indianapolis for a premiere of another movie he starred in.

“It taught me a lot,” Marc said about making the movie. “As the lead, you have to be instrumental in keeping the project going and keeping everybody’s spirits up.”

Marc said during the filming of Reparation, he developed a strong bond with Brody Behr, a child actor who plays Ralph in the film. Ralph is an important part of Bob’s past and present.

“I kind of felt like I was a mentor in helping get a performance out of him. It was great,” Marc said.

He also said Virginia Newcomb, who plays his wife Lucy in the film, was instrumental in helping him with his role.

“Virginia was so great, and she gave me a lot to work on,” said Marc. “We had a great relationship. We kind of hit it off from the beginning. She kind of had to hold my hand a little bit through the project. I couldn’t have done it without her.”

This off-screen relationship transferred to the film. In the story, Bob is very dependent on his wife Lucy, especially when he’s overcome with PTSD.

“Hopefully, it translated into what we wanted to do in the film,” Marc said.

Marc added that he doesn’t have children, but in the movie he plays a father of Charlotte, whom he has a strong bond with. He said spending a lot of time with Brody off-screen helped with that aspect.

As for his character Bob, Marc said he’s similar to him in his “ability to get lost in the air.”

“I feel like Bob was just a good old Midwestern boy, and hopefully, I’m still a good old West Texas boy,” he laughed.

As for the audience in San Angelo, Marc said he hopes they notice the special relationship between Bob and Ralph, and on a bigger scale, the issues of PTSD.

“That’s actually a real thing, and it’s not addressed as much as it should be,” Marc said.

A Few Upcoming Projects

Marc currently lives in New York, but he’s in Atlanta shooting his next project Ozark, a series that will premiere on Netflix. It takes place in the Ozarks of Missouri. Marc said he’s not sure of the exact release date, but he’s estimating spring or fall of 2017.

Marc also has a second project in the works.

“I just worked on a show in Austin called The Son,” he explained. “It’s going to be a new AMC series that takes place in Texas. The book is just incredible, and the show looks really good. I’m playing this famous old Texas Ranger from 1849. It’s kind of like being back home.”

In Ozark, Marc is playing a “redneck” who gets involved with a guy who is laundering money for a cartel.

Transitioning between the two characters isn’t difficult, Marc said.

“There are some similarities in playing a cowboy and a redneck,” he joked. “One is a respectable cowboy, and the other is just a goofball redneck trying to make some smart decisions in life, but to other people, they may not be smart decisions.”

A Director’s Dream

Kyle Ham said Reparation is based on the play by Steve Timm. He and Kyle started writing the script 21 to 22 years ago.

“It was a play that was produced when I was a junior in college,” Kyle said. “Steve directed it on stage, sort of as a workshop, as he was finishing writing the play. I was kind of blown away by it.” 

A few years later, Kyle approached Steve and said he would like to write a screenplay adaptation of Reparation, and Steve offered for them to write it together.

Being that the film has won 11 awards, Kyle and Steve are “beside themselves.” Kyle said there was a time the team wondered if they would even be invited to any film festivals.

“We didn’t do all that many festivals. We did only nine,” he added; however, the film won 11 awards out of those nine festivals.

“Never would I have expected in a million years to have that kind of track record,” Kyle said. “I haven’t heard of other films that do that generally.”

Kyle said Steve wrote that play because he was exploring some of the things he experienced during his four years in the Air Force, particularly as an Air Force security policeman. Steve wanted to primarily explore the following question: what do you do when the two things you learn in basic training—enforcing the law and watching your buddy’s back—come into conflict with each other? He also wanted to address 18 and 19-year-olds having to deal with this conflict.

“That’s a heavy weight to carry,” Kyle said.

Kyle stated, in making the film, he wanted to appeal to people who love the Indie films of the 1990s, including the Coen Brother films.

“Indie film has changed, not for better or for worse, but it has definitely evolved,” said Kyle. “All of my filmmaking heroes are from that era.”

He said he hears all the time from people how they miss good storytelling. They’re tired of the comic book movies that don’t tell a complete story, or evolve.

“We really wanted to deliver that for an audience whose hungry for that,” he said.

Next week, the San Angelo audience members who are hungry for great storytelling will be able to watch Reparation, and Marc and Kyle will be present at the 7 p.m. premiere. They will stick around for a question and answer session.

People will be free to ask about characters, the directing of the movie, and enjoy a simple meet and greet.

“It will be a really fun, kind of special night,” said Kyle.