And the winner is...
- February 18, 2010
By Doug Hoagland
dhoagland@selmaenterprise.com
Selma native April Rodriguez worked as a sound effects editor on a documentary film that's up for an Oscar on March 7. The 27-year-old Rodriguez didn't grow up dreaming of Oscar glory. She played soccer and participated in the Marine Corps Junior ROTC battalion at Selma High. In fact, Rodriguez used to say that people in the arts needed to get "a real job." Now she's one of those people, and she'll be attending an Oscar telecast on March 7 with her parents, Sara and Oscar Rodriguez of Selma.
However, they won't be in Hollywood, where the Oscar show will be held at the Kodak Theatre. The producers of the documentary film can't get seats at the Kodak for the whole production staff, Rodriguez said. Instead, she and her parents will go to a San Rafael theater to watch the ceremony at an event sanctioned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (Actually, San Rafael is closer to April Rodriguez's home; she lives in Hayward.)
People at the San Rafael event will be dressed up. Food and wine will be served. Excitement will be in the air.
"It's not crucial that I be in Hollywood for the Oscars," said Rodriguez. "I don't like the spotlight anyway so this is fine with me."
The documentary that Rodriguez worked on is titled, "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers." It's the real-life story about how Ellsberg, a government employee, leaked top-secret documents about the Vietnam War to a New York Times reporter in 1971.
If the film wins the Oscar for best documentary feature, the golden statue will go to the producers, not to Rodriguez and other editors.
However, that doesn't lessen the excitement for Rodriguez and her family.
Her mother, Sara, said: "April has worked very hard. She's a perfectionist. It's an honor for her and her company."
April Rodriguez graduated from Selma High in 2001 and she considered joining the military because she wanted to travel. However, her parents changed her mind.
"I always told her, 'If you want to be a success, you have to go to college,' " said Sara Rodriguez.
Working on films, however, was the furthest thing from April Rodriguez's mind when she started college. She picked geology as her major.
Rodriguez was going to study rocks and how the earth was formed. Geology fit with her love of the outdoors. Then she took a class that changed her direction.
It was a theater class, and the technical part of putting on plays -- building sets, running sound boards, working behind the scenes -- captured her interest. She liked the work because it was hands-on, demanded her complete attention and provided instant gratification.
Acting had no appeal to her. "No. No. No. No way," she joked.
Rodriguez graduated from California State University, Hayward in 2005 with a degree in theater arts. She then furthered her education by completing two specialized programs in California and Arizona, learning how to use computer programs and equipment to create, record and edit sound and music.
Rodriguez then returned to the Bay Area, eventually landing a job at Berkeley Sound Artists -- where she still works and where she worked on the Oscar-nominated documentary. She's been involved in about a dozen films, most of them documentaries, for the Berkeley company.
Getting to this point hasn't been easy. Money has been tight, and after returning from Arizona, Rodriguez parked her car for two weeks at a Hayward church and slept there. Rodriguez then moved up to a sorority sister's couch.
"I'm still not rolling in money, but I do now have my own room with a door," she said. She's renting the room from a friend.
The film work is both exciting and demanding. For the Oscar-nominated documentary, Rodriguez did the sound effects in an animated scene (rare for a documentary) in which Ellsberg considers how to pass the Pentagon Papers to the reporter without raising suspicion.
She also created the sounds in a scene that depicts American bombing during the Vietnam War.
That is a world far from Selma, but Rodriguez has not forgotten her home town -- or the support she received here. She is particularly grateful for the encouragement that came from her mother's co-workers at the Selma Unified district office. They included Isabel Corral, Pam Howard, Regina Mulligan, Terry Romero, Rose Rangel, Betty Alves, Jennifer Looney and Susan Urias. Gina Mechigian, dean of instruction of Selma High, also has encouraged Rodriguez.
Corral, the superintendent's secretary, said she's thrilled for Rodriguez's success. "She has worked hard for whatever she wanted," said Corral. "To get this nomination is amazing."
April Rodriguez said she's grateful for the continued support of people back home: "I'm just as thankful for them as they are happy for me."