New video technology recently installed in the Cincinnati Friends Meeting worship room made it the perfect venue for a private screening of the movie Radical with producer Christopher Zalla, attender Tom Zalla’s son.

A cluster of friends gathered between Christmas and New Year’s Eve to view the film about a renegade teacher in one of Mexico’s most poverty-stricken and under-performing schools. The teacher, portrayed by Latino film legend Eugenio Derbez, equips students from hard lives to learn at their pace and interest, developing critical thinking skills. After his principal declares the classroom is not a playground and neither is the playground a classroom, the teacher exposes the students to math and physics on the playground in a real-life lesson of discovery. Circumstance and tragedy almost split this beloved community apart until students arrive to take the final test the establishment has taught to them all year, and the teacher confesses that, even if students don’t know the answers, they have the capacity to figure it out. He also shares, through tears, that they have taught him far more than he has imparted.

Radical was the festival favorite at Sundance this year and is the highest-grossing film in Mexico with the largest local-language opening since COVID. It was shown for a week this fall in Cincinnati, where some meeting members caught a first viewing. It reached number five in U.S. ticket sales.

Informally chatting with Christopher after the screening was a joy. He shared his journey of filmmaking, including winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2007 for a film inspired by his experience living in Manhattan during 911. This work took such a toll that Zalla scrapped filmmaking and moved to Guatemala with his wife and one-year-old son. In paradise, he rediscovered his love of writing and was contacted by a peer from Columbia University who had teamed with Eugenio to tell this true story of Radical. They wanted Christopher on board.

At Columbia Christopher studied with famed American director Eila Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront) and adopted Kazan’s method for teaching film direction: to begin by asking students what stories they want to tell––sounding much like his recent film’s main character.

Christopher cast nonprofessional actors in the roles of the students, and the youngsters seemed to echo the premise of the story—children flourish when encouraged—and they yielded such natural, riveting performances. Because Eugenio is so famous, the children didn't know he was the star until he walked onto the set. Christopher said they would have been mobbed by paparazzi if word had gotten out. Their excitement in working with a legend translated onto the film.

Radical will likely be available for purchase on U.S. streaming services, and will be streaming soon on ViX, a Mexican outlet.

It was a rather profound moment to watch something in our worship room that embraces the radical Quaker testimonies of equality, social justice, simplicity, community, and integrity.

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