THIS SITE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS
JE M’APPELLE ALVIE BALICOCO
An autofiction road trip feature following a GenX Filipino-American suicide survivor and his millennial Parisian buddy as they travel through the people, places and institutions of his past that f***ked him up.
Synopsis
Part road movie, part memoir, part found footage, and part French indie film, Je m'appelle Alvie Balicoco follows a struggling 53-year-old Filipino-American immigrant living in Paris who returns to America with his millennial French friend for a road trip to see U2 in Las Vegas. What starts as a concert road trip slowly becomes a journey through his entire past, forcing him to come clean about family, identity, ambition, failure, and the country he once believed in.
All he wants is to finally feel better. Or be done with all of it.
Absurd. Heartfelt. Funny. Bloody real.
Director's Note
Reimagining Hollywood convention
I finally stopped waiting for the Hollywood gatekeepers. I faithfully followed its rules for decades. Inspired by the ghosts of the Nouvelle Vague and directors like Chloé Zhao, Justine Triet, Sean Baker, and Joachim Trier, I set out to direct my own story, financed by me.
Embolded by more than twenty years of set production experience, I felt I could direct an ambitious road movie with a five-person crew shooting through Paris, Dublin, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle, and New York—and play the lead role. Had I followed the conventional Hollywood development process of endlessly perfecting the perfect logline and script, I’d still be writing. Getting the film on its feet was my development process. Through movement work, shooting, editing, and iterative shooting windows, both the story and my performance found their soul.
Part political statement, part experiment, and part I don't have any more fucks to give, I’m telling a Filipino-American story about an older, average-looking Filipino-American at the center of his own story: a cinematic self-portrait experimenting with the art of found footage, autobiography, and fiction within the form of conventional cinema.
I chose to play the lead for many layered reasons; not only do I enjoy performing and would never get this opportunity otherwise to play such a complex character, but because it allowed me, as a director of actors, to deeply investigate how truthful emotional performance can be achieved. By weaving my own history into Alvie’s odyssey, I could draw from a lifetime of photographs, found footage, and audio tapes, giving him a lived history no art department could manufacture. Besides, I’d be hard pressed to cast an average-looking, fifty-something Filipino-American actor who speaks French, has good comedic timing , cries on cue, and do his own stunts.
— Vince Duqué
Production Notes
Making an International Road Movie
on a Microbudget
François Truffaut said, "the film of tomorrow appears to me as even more personal than an individual and autobiographical novel, like a confession, or a diary."
To do so, what is required is to soften the barriers typically erected by the scale and infrastructure traditionally associated with making a feature length film.
In a sense, Je m'appelle Alvie Balicoco is my thesis film to apply Truffaut's idea into a workable and sustainable filmmaking model.
Every production decision was made to optimize creative freedom while making an ambitious international road movie I financed myself. A core crew of five to seven people allowed us to travel lightly across Paris, Dublin, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle, Queens, West Point, and New York, maintaining a minimal footprint while being open to discoveries in story and performance.
The technology and equipment were tailored to give us the freedom to rehearse, experiment, rewrite, revisit scenes, and return for additional photography without the constraints of a conventional production schedule; while an embodied storytelling process—through rehearsal, movement work, and emotional investigation—encouraged not only investigating ideas on our feet rather than solely at the writing desk, but as critically, an ability to continue to mine deeper in story even while being logistically pressed on location.
I adapted the planning, communication, and organizational discipline of large studio production experience to a small, highly mobile way of making ambitious cinema. The approach allows the production to expand or contract according to the creative and practical demands of each filmmaking stage.
Je m'appelle Alvie Balicoco marks the beginning of this bespoke manner of directing films. To pave the way to generate more realized opportunities to make deeply personal movies rooted in my experiences as a Filipino-American.
WORK-IN-PROGRESS SCENES
The following sequences are current unfinished edits meant as references for creative and logistical post-production planning. Not picture locked, not color graded, no sound mix, no sound design. Temp music.
Prelude: Alvie moves to Paris.
A montage of cell phone videos and Instagram stories tells the backstory of Alvie leaving his old friends and home of 40+ years for Paris, France with his cat Maddey. Alive immerses into Paris head first, auditioning anything and everything in his first year. Then grandma and Maddey die unexpectedly...
Alvie starts his Paris day with a good cry.
Alvie loves Paris. He really does. But even after two years after he left L.A., the sadness hasn't gone away.
Alvie zips through Paris on his bike.
Alvie knows the Paris streets quite well. Slashing through the City of Love sans helmet, sans fear, he respects the Parisian urban jungle but this is a man with no more fucks to give.
PROD NOTE: A case study in executing stunts nouvelle vague style but with Hollywood studio precision minus the bureaucracy. 5 person crew. No permits. Airtight prep. Totally safe.
Alvie beats himself up over learning French.
In the focus to realise his true self in Paris, French never settles naturally on Alvie’s tongue and it frustrates him that he is unable to express the full range of the true Alvie B, but Michelle, his French tutor, implores him to not be so impatiently American about it.
Alvie goes to a Paris house party looking to make a friend or two.
All his adult life in the States, Alvie has always been the life of the party, but Alvie is frustrated that even after two years living in Paris, the French version of Alvie is a shadow of himself. He takes a Cali weed gummy to loosen him up and voila, Sandrine appears.
Alvie puts Florian through U2
Bootcamp.
Alvie, the self-proclaimed U2 art historian, takes his millenial French buddy Florian through an intense crash course of U2 history, to include a pilgrimage to U2's Dublin, where Florian begins to comprehend that U2 is much deeper than a fan obsession.
PROD NOTE: The music rights are important here; will adapt scene dependent on what's avail. Will be edited down to runtime of 4 min.
Showing Florian Alvie's Hollywood
On day 2 of Alvie giving Florian his magical mystery tour of Los Angeles that only a local can, Alvie finds himself wrestling with his old life in Hollywood.
Alvie comes clean to Selina, his old lover. Meanwhile, Florian visits his old pal Jerome.
On the last day of the LA portion of the road trip, Alvie reconnects with an an old soul mate for the first time in five years. Florian is envious of his old French buddy who is living his American Dream in LA.
Alvie and Florian drive to Las Vegas. Shit hits the fan.
After three days in Hell-A going through the hell of his past, Alvie and Florian head to Las Vegas on Route 66 for the big U2 show at the Sphere but a major fuck-up triggers Alvie to have a meltdown. Florian is of no help.
Alvie and Florian trip balls at Joshua Tree.
Florian isn't ready to return to Paris. He wants a bit more nature so Alvie takes him to the California desert, at the Harmony Hotel where U2 stayed during the Joshua Tree recordings. To Alvie's surprise, Florian pulls out a baggie of magic mushrooms...leading to his ego-death eaxperience.
PROD NOTE: VFX and sound design play a major storytelling role here, bringing this sequence psychedelically to life and deeply connecting it to Alvie’s individuation journey.
Alvie and Florian go to West Point.
Illuminated with personal insights from the mushroom trip, Alvie is compelled to go to the college that formed his world view and deepen his understanding of himself.
In NYC on Election Night '24, Alvie says goodbye to America.
It is Election Night 2024 in Times Square where Alvie confirms that America is no longer home and hasn't been for quite awhile.
Current Status
Seeking Partners for Final Delivery
The movie is deep in post-production. The first assembly cut is complete, and we are now immersed in picture refinement, sound design, color grading, visual effects, and final finishing. Alongside the remaining post-production work, we are seeking finishing funds while assembling the final creative and strategic team, including a VFX team for several sequences, a music supervisor, composer, impact producer, publicity team, and sales, distribution, and festival partners in preparation for a 2027 premiere and release.
Production
Post-Production
Editorial
Jeremy Marc (creative producer & supervising editor)
Sound
Juan Cisneros (production)
Music
Vince Duqué
Alan Smithee (production - LA, NY)
Seeking Music Supervisor (UK Based)
Colour
Seeking feature film colorist
Benoît Lecointre (co-editor)
Seeking sound designer
Seeking Composer
VFX / MOTION Graphics
Festival Strategy
Producing Partners
Seeking motion graphics team
Seeking VFX team
Seeking Impact producer
Seeking Executive Producers
Leslie Cauquais (line producer - Paris)