Robert did everything else: he wrote the script, lit, shot, sound recorded, and directed the film, then edited the footage into a finished feature (Rodriguez, Rebel). Carlos played the Mariachi and was the movie’s co-producer, assisting Robert by finding locations (a bar, a brothel, a jail, a ranch house), props (a pickup truck, a city bus, an antique bathtub), and getting his hometown buddies to play most of the parts. It was filmed using a friend’s 16mm camera in Ciudad Acuña, across the Rio Grande from Del Rio, Texas, where a high school friend of his, Carlos Gallardo, lived. (Bedhead, IMDb).ĭeciding to make a feature-length film next, Rodriguez raised $7,000 by volunteering for a month-long medical trial and spent the summer before his senior year shooting El Mariachi. It went on to win five Best Short Film awards, including one from the prestigious Black Maria Film Festival. Not surprisingly, the final project in his first film production class was another comedic Rodriguez family short, Bedhead (1990). By the time he was accepted to the University of Texas at Austin, he had thousands of hours of movie writing, directing, shooting, and editing experience. Using his father’s VHS camera, he made dozens of short family comedies starring his nine brothers and sisters (Black). Growing up in San Antonio, Texas, he became consumed with making films in his early teens. Robert Rodriguez began filmmaking by making Mexican American children’s comedies.

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