In ‘Gasoline Rainbow’, Ross Brothers Capture Generation Z’s Doubt and Spontaneity: ‘Nothing Was Easy, and Everything Was Beautiful’

At the end of high school, time speeds up and the years blur together. During the school period, the course of life is clear and practically an imposition. Afterwards, however, choices must be made — and the results of these decisions are increasingly permanent.

In Rainbow Gasolineyou Ross Brothers put five teenagers who are living this moment in front of the cameras. Before embarking on adult life, Tony, Micah, Nichole, Nathaly It is Makai — real names — load a van with their backpacks and head on a trip to the Pacific coast. A route that should be simple becomes a challenge to get around, but is filled with new friendships and beautiful landscapes.

“We’ve been working together since we were kids. We started making ‘movies’ when we were kids, in our backyard. So, we’ve been at it for a long time. He’s my best friend, I trust him completely. We work together because it’s fun,” he opened up. if Bill Ross IV at a press conference by MUBI — producer of the feature film.

“And we complement each other. I think we make each other better. I think each person’s abilities grow and change in that process. We motivate each other and complement each other. I always want to impress him and do better than him. There’s friendly competition in all of this,” he added. Turner Ross.

Fiction or documentary?

With Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (2020) and Contemporary Color (2016) in their curriculum, the Ross Brothers mix fiction and reality in their works, but do not settle on either concept.

“This is a very artisanal, low-budget, small-crew, independent film. We have a lot of freedom with it, but for that reason it shares a lot of the tradition of non-fiction cinema. We decided it was important, imperative , that we fit into another categorization”, he said Turner.

The production is not formed by pure improvisation: “We compose the film, there is a shooting script, a production idea. The film is written and rewritten in the present”, he clarified. However, “there are no dialogues on paper”.

The shooting script is more for the production, the financial and for what Bill and I know what situation we are dealing with, what kind of images, emotions, we need to achieve in order to create the conditions and capture everything. We asked them to be themselves, but also to be believable without acting — never to be someone they are not, or our spokespeople. – Turner

The filmmaker duo had to be careful not to impose their own vision on the narrative. As Turner It is Bill pointed out, they were also in this transitional phase, but they wanted to give Gen Z characters space to tell their own stories authentically.

“When I graduated from school, I didn’t know if I wanted to leave, I didn’t know what to do,” he recalled. Bill. “I used to wash dishes in a restaurant, I loved my friends very much. So leaving them… I didn’t know if it was something I wanted to do. This confusion that they face, I really identify with that.”

Challenges

Without a detailed itinerary, “every day had the potential to be an absolute disaster,” he joked. Bill. The brothers planned Rainbow Gasoline when the world was still facing the covid-19 pandemic: “We composed an adventure film during a pandemic, without knowing when the world would reopen. We didn’t have the main cast until two weeks before we started filming”, he said Turner.

The disruption, even if temporary, of relationships with other people and even with life outside the home, set the tone for the preparation for filming. “We didn’t have the van until two days before filming,” he added. Bill.

There’s beauty even in gasoline spilled on the ground, which can form a rainbow, and the filmmaking duo was looking for beauty on Oregon roads.

[O filme] it also sucked us out of our lives at a time when we were seeking reconnection, emotionally, personally, physically. The way we work requires us to be present for everything all the time and ensuring that things continue. It was a risk. When we returned home, our house was hit by a hurricane, and we spent a year and a half trying to figure out how to make sense of everything we captured. Nothing was easy, and everything was beautiful. – Turner

Cast

Tony Aburto, Micah Bunch, Nichole Dukes, Nathaly Garcia It is Makai Garza They were attracted by the idea of ​​leaving school in style: with a different summer job. “These were kids who weren’t looking for a career in acting, it was more like a summer job — a really weird summer job — for them,” he said. Bill.

“The three boys knew each other, and the two girls knew each other—not only did they know each other, they were good friends. We were hoping that if we put them in the same place, they would come together. And that’s what happened: as soon as we put them together in a room, they soon forgot to Turner and me”, he recalled Bill.

Amid delinquent acts, such as hitching a ride on a freight train and burning a piano on the beach, the characters opened up to each other and to viewers, revealing aspects of the life they would return to at the end of filming. The profanity-laden language and decisive actions of the group of teenagers did not hinder their fragility. The five listen to advice from the adults they encounter and are even deceived by other young people.

“We chose them because they were the type of children who would go on a trip, they are curious, they wanted to see places outside of their small town…”, he began Bill. “And they wanted to be part of what we were doing. It required a lot of complicity. It was six weeks on the road filming every day”, he added Turner.

The almost two hours of film, however, were not enough to reveal issues related to sexuality, for example. Shy flirtations were overshadowed by gestures of friendship. Turner mused, “You always learn more if you go further. This was much more about their camaraderie and sense of purpose, this idea of ​​an unknown frontier and confrontation, rather than focusing on their sexuality, weaknesses.”

Everyone had their romance, their own lives to return to in their own dramas. We got a little window into their world when they shared it with us. It was mostly about being on the move, meeting other people, understanding themselves in contrast or in comparison to others, finding their reflections and having a cathartic emotional moment. There are things happening off-screen. – Turner

Soundtrack

“The children chose all the songs for the film,” he reported. Bill, laughing about the actors’ playlist. “We just wanted them to be themselves, listening Armas e Rosas or Cypress Hill. It was very funny. When we were recording with them, they were listening to these songs that we grew up listening to. We were like, ‘Why the hell do you know this?'”

When we were younger, we had to go to a store and buy a CD. They have access to everything, so everything is new to them. That’s quite nice. It’s great to have this sense of discovery about the music we listen to. – Bill