Chris Weitz is a writer and director, but most of his directing efforts (American Pie, The Golden Compass, New Moon) are films he didn't write. His new film, A Better Life, happens to be a personal story he didn't write. He brings it all together on The Treatment.
Weitz discusses how his own middle class upbringing and Mexican heritage influenced him, avoiding cliches about immigrant workers and gang culture, working with Homeboy Industries' Father Gregory Boyle to cast ex-gang members, and how that affiliation protected the East LA location from artistic theft by the film crew.
Banner image: Chris Weitz (C) directs José Julián and Demián Bichir (L to R) in A Better Life