“A superior pop-star portrait. Ms. Espinosa’s ferocious performance evokes both and Miley Cyrus.” -Stephen Holden, The New York Times

“…outstanding performances.” -Alejandro Alemán, El Universal

“Gloria may be the best biopic the Mexican film industry has accomplished to date…” -Leonardo García Tsao, La Jornada

“…Excellent directing…” -Edgardo Reséndiz, El Norte

“…a storytelling masterpiece.” -Álvaro Cueva, Milenio

“…Gloria has an unexpected secret weapon called Sofía Espinosa. “ -Ernesto Diez Martínez, Reforma

“It’s impossible to deny that it’s a great movie.” -Aguilar Arturo, RollingStone

“Hard, thought provoking, entertaining and high-quality.” “A stark picture of young girls who are victims of show business.” -Columba Vertiz, Proceso

“…Masterfully directed.” -Christian Jungen, Neue Zürcher Zeitung

A Freshwater Sailor and the Hurricane Gloria Swiss-born Christian Keller had never directed a film before; however, he spent 10 years trying to shoot Gloria Trevi's story. By Pablo Zulaica | Date: 01/20/15

Among the unlikely great deeds that were once news stories, there is one in particular that would serve to explain Swiss-born Christian Keller's story and how he was able to film the complex life of Mexican singer, Gloria Trevi. On a Monday in March of 2003, people in Switzerland were ecstatic: the Alinghi ship had just arrived to the coast of New Zealand, winning the America's Cup – a sort of sailing world cup–after 152 years of American hegemony. This achievement impressed many people: the champion of the most prestigious sailboat race was a vessel from Switzerland, a landlocked country.

When Ernesto Bertarelli, a billionaire from Geneva, envisioned a trimaran that would compete for the Cup, people thought he was crazy. The same thing would happen to Keller. An article from the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, a Swiss newspaper, tried to explain the deed: “Swiss engineering, along with the financial support from idealistic rich people and sponsors were as crucial as on board performance”. The ship's captain was from New Zealand and the crew members were from 15 different countries. “Alinghi's most Swiss-like features were its reliability, efficiency and determination”, the article said.

In 2005, Christian Keller obtained the rights to film the life story of 's most controversial pop artist. By that time, she was already a hurricane capable of making waves and headlines in Latin America by just lifting a finger. The odyssey of making this film, later called Gloria, was only just beginning. Keller, a 19-year- old Zurich-born who had no degree, money or experience in films, seemed like the least suitable person to handle Trevi's furious outbursts. The Swiss-born was a freshwater sailor.

“I was very naive back then”, says Keller, smiling, from his home in Mexico City. “I wanted to make a small and independent film, and I thought it would take me a year.”

Actually, it took him a decade, but it was an amazing experience: if the wind is not at your back you should have good reasons for sailing into the unknown for years. The storm

When he was 16, Keller moved to Canada because he thought he would never make a film in his country. At that time his father directed a manufacturing plant, his mother was an elementary school teacher and his younger sister had not begun studying Biology yet. He was looking for a story to film, and he was thinking about studying Physics. In Canada, he did not study Filmmaking or Physics. He survived with some money that was sent to him, and with his income as a software programmer. He lived that way until he was 19 and found his story.

On September 21, 2004, a judge ruled that Gloria Trevi, who was then in prison in Chihuahua, should be released. Trevi had been arrested in Brazil, where she spent three years in prison before being extradited to this northern jail, where she would spend another two years. She was arrested along with Sergio Andrade, musician and producer who had launched her, and several other stars from the 90's, into stardom. Trevi, who was in her early twenties, was living with Andrade and they were in a relationship. However, he would often meet older and younger wannabes that Trevi allegedly helped him to attract. According to several books published at that time, Trevi was involved in a series of undercover abuses and subplots involving other girls, all of whom were very young. In another murky episode, a son of Trevi and Andrade died in Brazil. In legal terms, he got the worst part. However, waters remained turbulent for Trevi. The media enjoyed butchering her every time she went into or out of jail.

From the moment she was discovered by Andrade until she was arrested, Trevi grew up while selling out shows and wall calendars. With the few clothes she sported in those calendars as well as with her shows, she was trying to make the same statement against old habits. Trevi did not sing: she screamed. She spitted out the lyrics in a deep voice, which was as raucous as her mane. Trevi was a hurricane, a typhoon, a gale. Teenagers listened to her behind their mothers' back. The gay community considered her their new icon. Her going from a major network to its competitor started a war between corporations. However, when she was at the peak of the wave the winds suddenly changed. One of the girls in Andrade's harem testified before a judge. And Hurricane Trevi received three new last names: corruption of minors, kidnapping, and rape. It was the perfect cyclogenesis.

Christian Keller did not know who Gloria Trevi was when he read that she had been released from jail. All he new was that he liked films by James Cameron, George Lucas and Anthony Minghella. However, in a rooftop in New York City, while reading the Los Angeles Times, he immediately realized that this was the story he wanted to film. “For me, this is the story of a girl who is in love and wants to be loved”, he explains in English. It was interesting for him to see how something so simple as love can make a person do such terrible things. “I always think of it as a very simple human story”, he says. “I hope people can see it that way.”

But Trevi's story was not so easy to shoot. First, his main focus was to obtain the film rights, gather some money to make the film, and build a good team that could make up for his lack of experience.

“I didn't know many people”, he says. “I got Gloria's manager's phone number and I called her: ‘I'm a guy from Switzerland, give me the film rights!’.”

Ten years later, he laughs about his naivety, and about everything he still needed to experience in the filmmaking industry.

“She said yes.”

That was enough to make him start working. He admits that the fact that nobody believed in him actually favored him. It would take him almost one year to obtain a written agreement for the rights, and that would not be the last time he would have to deal with complications. However, he thought that if he had fair wind he would have to set sail.

The crew

Keller does not look like a filmmaker. When he opens his door, it turns out he is blond and pale, exactly as one would imagine a blond and pale man from Switzerland. His soft and calm voice matches his slim figure, which is camouflaged by a plain black sweater —they say he always dresses like that— and that he barely makes a sound when he walks. He smiles; no signs of phlegm. He is currently 28 years old, and other than during the press conferences for the film, he has never been interviewed. So far, the best adjectives the media has used to describe him are “Swiss” and “unknown”. He is not even fluent in Spanish, and he almost hesitates when calling himself a film director. His profile on Internet Movie Data Base would be blank if the next releases were not added.

When we say that before this he had not filmed anything, we mean anything:

“I had only made a short film which was less than one minute long.”

Nevertheless, Keller built a team that any new director would have dreamed of having for their debuts. For instance, Alan Curtiss served as co-producer on Gloria but before that he was the assistant director on Dead Poets Society and The Truman Show. Christian found his phone number on the Directors Guild of America website. “No one looks there”, he says, almost excusing himself. Another crew member is Barrie Osborne: his IMDb profile shows he has won an Oscar as a producer. Gloria will be his last entry after productions such as The Lord of the Rings or The Matrix. Christian found his email address in the same directory.

And the list goes on. Matthias Ehrenberg, Mexican, also co-producer, participated in Sexo, pudor y lágrimas (Sex, Shame & Tears). Patricia Rommel is in charge of the editing (The Lives of Others), and the sound is done by Matías Barberis (La jaula de oro [The Golden Dream]). Choosing the screenwriter was a key decision. “We wanted a journalistic approach because every person involved was saying something different”, he says. “I called Sabina Berman —Mexican journalist and four times winner of the Mexican National Theater Prize—. Somebody mentioned Sabina but they said we should not bother calling her because she was going to say no, and that she was a very serious person. I called her and she said yes. Although it sounds easier than it actually is.”

Keller knew that a person like Osborne reads, easily, one hundred scripts per year. “I wanted to meet him in person, even to see if he was the right choice, and he agreed”, Keller remembers. He borrowed some money and flew to New Zealand, where Osborne was still living while working on The Lord of the Rings. “We cooked together, I gave him the script, I played one of Gloria's shows, and he accepted.”

In August 2006, Alan Curtiss received a phone call at his home in Los Angeles. Keller introduced himself and insisted they should meet in person. Curtiss said he was about to leave for Germany, but Keller told him he was in Switzerland, so they made an appointment to meet in Munich. “I arrived a little earlier. I was staring at the door and did not know who (or what) to expect”, says Curtiss via email. “And when I saw his striking blond hair I thought he was a student, but it turned out to be Christian. Two hours later, I was completely shocked by Gloria's story, and by his persistence and passion when presenting it.”

In 2005, Ehrenberg was twice as old as Keller and had sworn not to produce any other directorial debut. Now, at his office in Mexico, he says that the film industry is a high risk sport. “Christian knew how to sell his project well, without being arrogant.” He says that Gloria deals with many taboos and that some compare Trevi's revival with that of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party). He also states that Keller is not a distracted Swiss gentleman. “He has the sense of smell and sensitivity towards something that triggered many things in this country”.

On the high seas

In 2005, Keller and Trevi lived together in Miami for a week, in order to start working. But sometimes hurricanes are named after women. By the fall of 2007, the date scheduled to begin shooting, many changes had created some delays. That year, Berman saw Trevi for the first time. In 2008, she attended her concerts and they met for the last time in March of 2009. Keller had already seen red figures, actors that stood him up and contracts about to expire. However, he got closer to sinking when the singer herself wanted to stop the making of the film, even though she had already collected the money for its rights.

It turned out there was someone else who wanted to make a film about Trevi. In July 2009, she was living in McAllen, , and she disapproved Keller's team's script, stating that “the girl portrayed there was nothing like her”. She filed a lawsuit against them in McAllen. While Sabina Berman was working, another person in that city claimed to have a film contract since 2004. That person also filed a lawsuit against Gloria for having signed a contract with Keller. Christian found himself involved in a circus of lawyers, who charged one thousand dollars an hour, in order to fix this problem.

Doubts were arising in the team, and investors were thinking about leaving. Finally, Keller convinced the lawyers and Gloria to meet with him.

According to Keller, in mid-January 2010, Sabina Berman and him met with Gloria. They agreed to reread the script together, line by line. One of those lines — one line in 104 pages— presented a problem. Gloria had misinterpreted it and she had become so angry that she had stopped reading. However, Keller adds that after having explained it to her, they continued reading and 10 hour later, Gloria thought the script was excellent.

The lawyers could barely understand. They all celebrated. Gloria was so happy she even took Keller and Berman to her hotel. They called Osborne and agreed that with the new film contract they should begin filming right away. They did not want to come across any other problem. For that reason, Keller was going to stay two or three extra days in McAllen, in order to bring himself the signed contract.

“We were not making a documentary but a film based on Gloria's world”, Ehrenberg explains. “And it is not the same to do it while she is alive than if she were not. Gloria is a great artist and our challenge was to make a great film and a great performance: it had to be stunning and powerful. And she is strong in public, but who knows if she is like that in private. Whitney Houston or Janis Joplin were sensitive and weak at the same time.”

As the film about her rise and fall was being developed, Trevi had the time to make a comeback and to rise higher than ever before. Throughout her career, she has received 62 gold records for her hits all over the continent. Oddly enough, her new album was entitled De película (Like a movie). However, and even though she once gave them the green light to make her film, she may not enjoy an explicit description of her turmoil.

Trevi must have had some doubts after the elation in McAllen. For that reason, six months after the second yes, Keller was still there, without the signed contract. Or money. He had to literally camp in front of the lawyers' office.

Keller admires Elon Musk, a South African businessman and physicist who created and sold his first video game at 12, migrated to the United States at 17, and created Tesla Motors and SpaceX —a company that sends rockets into space— before co- founding PayPal. When Keller was thinking about giving up, he used to remember an interview where Musk had stated: “I don't ever give up; I'd have to be dead or completely incapacitated”. Musk would not have left McAllen either.

Day after day, staying in the cheapest hotel he had found, Keller would ask Trevi's lawyers to give him the contract. And, incidentally, to drop the charges against him. He would spend entire days in front of the offices.

“They hated me and threatened to call the police. I would wait for them in the lobby, and they would exit through the back door.”

He lost 77 pounds that he has not gained back yet. He says he got to a point of eating bread left overs from the room next door.

In the summer of 2010, he was about to sink after having spent six months there, when the lawyers gave him the signed piece of paper.

Keller at the helm

“He is stubborn as hell”, Ehrenberg explains. “Even when he had no experience as a producer, or had not even made a short film, Christian was obsessive and had clarity, and he was able to handle the situation; he took the helm. We provided him with the ship, the machinery, the crew, the sails, and the maps. When he fails, we serve as copilots. But he delivered a powerful film, which was very well done. And since he knows what he wants, he has let himself be influenced. It has been a very organic way of working: his way; highly risky.”

He adds: “I see him as a person in charge. He knows what is at stake. I think his feet are on the ground. He is humble but demanding. And he has worked hard to make this film”.

First and foremost, Keller values having found the right people, and is happy about it. “He was lucky enough and had the virtue of knowing which door to knock on”, says Ehrenberg.

Regarding what the shooting entailed, Curtiss says on his email: “For seven years there were many changes as to how and where the film would be made, but Keller never hesitated in his vision and he consistently convinced the rest of us”. Sabina Berman states on another email: “He is strong like a Swiss watch. His strength lies in his conviction about what he wants, as well as his patience, good sense of humor, and loyalty. He asked each person closely involved in this project to give the best, our excellence. He never settled for half our effort. She also mentioned the words 'demanding' and 'humble'.

Today, after seeing him so quiet in his house, it seems Keller plays his cards very well. It is very unlikely that throughout the process he had seemed like an experienced director. Even new directors usually start directing after having assisted or played other functions in previous films. “He is stubborn and he has the necessary energy to go where he has to —says Ehrenberg—. That is his virtue. He is a talented and obsessive man with very good taste. And this film, his directorial debut, gave him more expertise than studying Filmmaking.”

After having dealt with Trevi's stormy waters, Keller states that his interest in life is to study Physics, although he is not sure if he will have the time for that. He claims that, even though he has always wanted to make films, he is still interested in science.

“Physics is the other side of the brain. In films and physics everything is possible, but they are different approaches. For me, they both try to make sense of the world. Whenever I am stressed, I solve problems and make calculations.”

Keller says that solving problems distracts himself from things that make no sense.

Land in sight

The filming of Gloria began on November 30, 2013. And it presents the typical anecdotes of any complicated shooting. For instance, Sofía Espinosa and Marco Pérez —who play Trevi and Andrade— arrived at the last minute due to the resignation of the actors previously chosen. Pérez was casted a week before beginning. Filming began one day before the film rights expired.

Now it seems like Trevi could not have been played by an actress other than Espinosa. “Everything in this film seems crazy —Keller states—. Almost every person in the team feel this is one of the most complicated films they have ever done, and without a doubt, the craziest one.” According to him, that has to do with the film's karma, because the process somehow resembles the story that is being told. He has not spoken to Trevi again since McAllen. Keller believes she wants to forget: “I can't blame her”. And, differences aside, he says that he even saw himself reflected on her in some aspects. Maybe in how unconventional their lives are; or in the effort they made for so long. “I haven't done anything before, and I have nothing to prove. I left my home when I was 16, and I haven't studied anything. I believe this is my masters' degree and my PhD, all at once. Although I have no document to prove it.” What he does have is a lot of doubts.

—Still? —I ask.

—Of course! The film should be successful, very successful.

—Do you count on that?

—Yes, I do. I'm very happy about how things are going.

So it seems, since Universal Pictures will distribute it throughout the continent. Soon, Keller may be able to decide whether he will make another film or study Physics instead. But stormy stories require caution. “This navigation has encountered many sandbanks and reefs. And we haven't arrived yet. Until we secure and clean the boat, we won't be there yet”, Ehrenberg says.

The Alinghi won the Cup twice in a row. If Gloria does well, we will have to see whether Keller, the Swiss captain, decides to set sail again.