Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Team Marco’s Julio Vincent Gambuto

Filmmaker and screenwriter Julio Vincent Gambuto knows how to make an introduction. His feature directorial debut, Team Marco, has become one of the most talked-about films of 2020 and received rave reviews from both moviegoers and critics, earning the Audience Award for Best Family Features at the Mill Valley Film Festival.

The coming-of-age comedy follows the budding relationship between a young boy and his grandfather as well as the marriage between new-age technology and old-world values.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to chat with Julio about Team Marco, the lessons he learned as a filmmaker, and what’s next for him.

Career

PC: How did you discover your passion for the arts and storytelling?
Julio: I started out as an actor. The bug bit me when I was in sixth grade in a production of The Hobbit on Staten Island in 1990. It hasn’t stopped since. I was an actor first, and then developed a one-man show about ten years ago that I performed in New York. We ran it once a month for about two years in New York and LA, and then we had a movie deal. An independent company wanted to make it a film, but that fell apart during the recession.

So, I just got really angry. I was thirty-two and things weren’t going my way. I said, “You know what? That’s it. I’m putting myself back in school and I’m going to pivot.” We even used the word “pivot” back then. [laughs] I was like, “I’m going to pivot here and go back to school.” So, I went to film school in my early thirties, and then the train took off from there and hasn’t stopped since. Film school turned into a short career in television and then I decided to launch my own company and started making movies. Here we are. This is our first one.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Julio: So many people—I’ve had some really incredible mentors. I’ve had really incredible teachers. Those are the people who pick you up when you’re down. There are definitely people who inspire me in culture and people who I look up to, but it’s the people in my life that have been able to say, “Look, this is a road you should go down,” or, “Look, this is the road you should avoid.”

Team Marco

PC: Tell us about Team Marco and the inspiration behind the film.
Julio: Team Marco is a family film we released on all digital platforms and on demand on cable. It’s the story of a young boy named Marco who’s obsessed with his iPad and video games. When his grandfather moves into the house, he thinks it’s crazy that he’s always on technology, so he drags Marco to the park and teaches him how to play bocce ball. The movie is about the friendship that evolves, unexpectedly, between Marco and his grandfather, and then Marco and all the guys who play on the local team.

I’m the uncle of seven nieces and nephews here in New York City. One day I walked into my nephew’s house and he didn’t look up from his screen to say hello. It was a very strange moment when I realized, “Oh wow. I am the older generation here.” I instantly became my grandfather. Sort of unbeknownst to me, my grandfather was in me, and I looked at the kid and said, “Get off the damn thing and come say hello to your uncle.”

I don’t particularly consider myself conservative in any way in my life or my politics, but when it comes to family traditions and things that have been in our family for years and generations, and frankly, a century, I get very protective of that. I love my nieces and nephews, and I certainly want them to enjoy all the things that life gives them. To be honest, I played a lot of video games myself when I was a kid, but I just want them to look up every now and then and carry on some of the traditions that have been given to them.

PC: You wrote, produced, and directed the film. How early on in the process did you realize you wanted to wear all those hats? How beneficial was it to have that prior experience?
Julio: That’s a great question. A lot of independent artists and independent filmmakers wear a lot of hats because they have to. It’s like you are forced to do multiple roles because budgets are low and resources are tight.

But when I was in film school, I did a directing thesis film. I stayed on to do producing on that film. Everyone thought I was crazy for doing both, but I wanted the experience; I wanted to understand the process from the director’s perspective and from the producer’s perspective. Those are two very different jobs. They collide on my desk every day, so I have to constantly remind whoever I’m talking to, “I’m wearing my producer hat right now,” or, “I’m wearing my director hat right now,” but I do enjoy all of it.

One of the reasons I became a filmmaker is that it employs all of the skills and things I love to do. I love talking to a poster designer about a graphic, or a typography, or a color. I love talking to an actor about a scene. I love talking to a company about how we can partner with them to be a part of the production. It’s a very broad role that I have because I have my hands in a lot of parts of the process, but it’s certainly been something that I’ve enjoyed.

PC: This film has been years in the making. What’s one thing you know now, that you wish you knew when you embarked on this journey.
Julio: Wow. I love that question. I wish I had known in the beginning how much work it was going to be and how long it would take because I would have paced myself differently. I’m a New Yorker—we do things full throttle, so I’m full throttle all the time. I think sometimes my body doesn’t always keep up, or my computer doesn’t always keep up. So, I think, I wish I had known it was a marathon, not a sprint. I think I would have drank more water and took more baths along the way, but we’re here. [laughs] We got to the finish line, which is the important thing.

PC: You’ve also said in previous interviews that as a director and filmmaker, you like to create an inclusive environment where everyone can contribute ideas. How did that shape the film and the story?
Julio: That’s a tough door to open with people. A lot of people on the cast, or the crew, or on the team in the office, from all parts of the production—whether that’s an investor, or an extra, or an intern, or anybody—people are very used to their opinion not mattering, or their opinion not being included, unfortunately. I operate very differently, where I ask everybody, from the guy who delivered the food to take a look at the shot with me, all the way to our biggest investors, “What do you think? You are the audience. Obviously, you’re biased, you have a connection to the movie in some way, but what do you think?” I don’t want to be told that things are great if they’re not great.

I tell people, “Look, my job is to synthesize that information. My job is to say no ninety-nine times out of a hundred, but it doesn’t mean you should stop telling me what you think or giving me suggestions or ideas.” I really see the role of the director as a filter, right? My role is to determine what actually makes it into the movie or not. I think our movie definitely represents a lot of those ideas. That’s why in film school they always taught me, “You don’t ever say it’s a film by Julio Vincent Gambuto, because at USC we believe it’s a communal effort.”

I think I’ve really carried that forward as best I possibly can. I always say that this is a film by Boro Five, which is our company, in order to represent everybody. There’s a joke here and there that other people wrote. There’s a suggestion about someone’s hair, or someone’s costume, or the way that someone should approach a moment, or a word that someone uses. I really relied on everybody to help me out.

PC: With this being your first feature film, what was the biggest takeaway? What did you learn about yourself as an artist and storyteller?
Julio: I learned that I’m very bossy. [laughs] I’m not sure I truly understood that before this experience. Maybe it was in me all the time and it took this experience to truly get it out of me. But look, I think the flip side of being inclusive, the flip side of asking everybody for their opinion, and the flip side of including as many people as possible in the process is that you have to be a strong force in order to move the ball forward. You have to be able to say no. You have to be able to be clear with what you’re saying to people or what their expectations are or any of that. The thing I’ve learned most is that I have that in me. It took three years and a movie to bring it out. I’m very grateful for that.

PC: What’s next for you and Boro Five?
Julio: I’m working on an animated movie right now, which is exciting. We’re starting to do pitches to studios in a few weeks. I wrote that over the course of this year, during the pandemic, with a really great production company in Los Angeles. We’re also working on our second movie from Boro Five, which was supposed to shoot this year, but got pushed to next year. That’s another family story. It’s a little bit “edgier” if you will, because it’s a little bit more dramatic. It’s less earnest, this next one. It really is probably more for an older adult audience or older children in their teens. It deals with themes of divorce, relationships, and finding your voice within your home and marriage—things like that. It’s based on my family in the ’90s. It’s a lot more autobiographical, which should be very interesting.

To keep up with Julio, follow him on Instagram. Watch Team Marco today.