Negocios Now

www.negociosnow.com Agosto 2023 7 By David Steinkraus A fter long and successful careers in finance, Mar- tín Cabrera Jr. and Robert Aguilar took on a different type of risk. They backed a movie. It wasn't the prospects of a large return on investment that moti- vated them, they said. "We want young black and brown people to see themsel- ves on the silver screen," Agui- lar said. "Not only was it black and brown people in the movie. It was also a movie by black and brown people: the director behind the scenes, the financing by Martin and I." Cabrera is the CEO of Cabre- ra Capital Markets, a national investment banking and broke- rage firm based in Chicago. Agui- lar is president of the company. Their movie is "Story Ave," set in New York and focused on a young man (played by Asante Blackk) who is at a turning point in his life. He tries to hold up an older man, but his intended vic- tim instead becomes his mentor. Playing the mentor is veteran character Luis Guzmán, who is also a longtime friend of Cabrera. It was Guzmán who brought the script to the two Chicago inves- tors and suggested they finance it. Cabrera and Aguilar formed a separate company and used their own money to back the film. "We do a lot of advocacy on access to capital for minority- and women-owned businesses, and especially for Latinos," Cabrera said. "This is just one other aspect of it in a different industry. We know how difficult it is to succeed and all of the rejection you have to go through. Even though we're the largest Latino bank in the country, we still go through struggles, and we're 23 years old." The film won a special jury award this year for cinematogra- phy at the prestigious South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. In June, the film had its Chicago premier at the Music Box Theater. There have been similar movies such as "Karate Kid," Aquilar said, where an older per- son mentors a younger person. "I think the message was something important for Robert and I," Cabrera said. "Even though we're two Latino kids, some of our mentors were an Irishman, an Italian, a teacher, and an African American teacher as well." Everyone has mentors, he said, those good-hearted indi- viduals of various backgrounds who always try to help others. Director Aristotle Torres grew up in the Bronx. He's never com- mitted armed robbery, he said but understands from his own life as an artist what it's like for a young person to feel alo- ne and unsupported. His goal with "Story Ave," he said, was to show that as humans we're all just trying to survive. "Sometimes you do things you don't necessa- rily morally agree with, but you're trying to just get through the day." He said he had the idea for "Story Ave" in 2017, and in 2018 made a short film without any intention of making a feature-length film. In the meantime, he continued a career of directing music videos. Then he happened to meet Mike Flynn, most recently co-creator of the TV series "East New York," and showed him the short film. Flynn sent the film to Sundance, the creative center for aspiring film- makers established by actor Robert Redford, Torres said. Sundance asked to see a script for a longer film, but Torres was in the middle of directing a com- mercial for Starbucks, his biggest job ever. He begged off, but Sun- dance was persistent and offered to read a script if he could send one immediately. "I knew making commercials was not what I wanted to do in 20 years," Torres said. He retur- ned the money to Starbucks and wrote a script in five weeks. Sun- dance picked him for a director's workshop, but he still had to come up with a couple of million dollars to make the film. "Even with my resume as a director, all the awards I've won going through the prestigious Sun- dance Labs, having the iconic Luis Guzmán attached, 107 compa- nies passed on my movie. Making movies in itself is a miracle, but making an independent film right now is near impossible," he said. Chicago financiers help filmmaker to help community Story Ave is a movie by and starring Latinos and African Americans, and it almost wasn't made. Luis Guzmán and Asante Blackk in a scene from Story Ave. From the left, Martín Cabrera Jr., Cemi Guzmán, Luis Guzmán, Asante Blackk, Aristotle Torres, and Robert Aguilar during the premiere of Story Ave, in Chicago.

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