Director J. Rick Castañeda (left) and cinematographer David Carstens discuss the next shot on the set of “All Sorts.”

Director J. Rick Castañeda discusses the next scene of “All Sorts” with actor Greena Park in which characters rappel off of giant filing cabinets.

Director J. Rick Castañeda (left) and cinematographer David Carstens discuss the next shot on the set of “All Sorts.”

Director J. Rick Castañeda discusses the next scene of “All Sorts” with actor Greena Park in which characters rappel off of giant filing cabinets.

It was 2003, the U.S. was in the middle of a recession, and J. Rick Castañeda was realizing it was “crazy hard” getting into the filmmaking industry.

He couldn’t get a job in filmmaking, and he also couldn’t get a regular job anywhere else. Not even Pizza Hut.

He ended up signing with a temporary employment agency, one which provided him with temporary contract work — an office job here and there in Los Angeles for a week or two at the time.

Most of the offices didn’t have any windows. In some, nobody talked to each other.

He spent his days inputting numbers from one spreadsheet to another and digitizing paperwork.

It wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to become a filmmaker.

His imagination became an escape from the drab windowless spaces he inhabited, writing strange screenplays and short stories set in office buildings.

In one story, he imagined a dark underground world of competitive folder filing — a basement, smoke, people waving money in the air like a boxing match, two people filing papers into office cabinets really fast in the center — and a young and talented filer hopeful, June.

He realized that vision in his second feature-length film, “All Sorts”, filmed in Yakima and screening at the Lincoln Theatre in Mount Vernon for one night only at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 12, as part of the film’s statewide promotional tour. To purchase tickets, visit lincolntheatre.org.

In “All Sorts,” characters rappel from drawer to drawer of massive filing cabinets in climbing equipment, strategize how to maximize filing speed efficiency, and fall in love to the sound of keyboard typing.

The process of bringing Castañeda’s championship filing fantasy from script to screen required some help and funding, though.

With a Kickstarter campaign and a handful of investors, mostly friends and family that believed in Castañeda’s vision, they raised over $100,000 to start production of the film.

With much of the cast and crew from Castañeda’s first film, “Cement Suitcase,” returning to film “All Sorts” and a month-long lease in an office building in Yakima, the cast and crew buckled down for production, with some sleeping in the office night after night.

Everywhere they went, the community seemed excited to pitch in for the filmmaking process, Castañeda said.

In the filming of a scene requiring protagonist Diego, played by Eli Vargas, to take a bath in his car in a plastic tub, the crew was forced to knock on doors, asking for water after forgetting to fill the tub.

The first house they knocked on was the home of Yakima’s mayor, Kathy Coffey, who kindly obliged.

“Film is a very collaborative art form. It’s not like a painting where one person can sit at a canvas and make something happen. I wrote and directed the movie, but so many different people added their ideas, and came aboard,” Castañeda said. “The community accepted us, and that’s one of the reasons why I chose to film (in Yakima) because I had filmed my first film, ‘Cement Suitcase’ (there) and experienced the same kind of love.”

With postproduction wrapping up in 2020, “All Sorts” premiered virtually at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2021 and had its international premiere at Raindance Film Festival 2021.

Now, “All Sorts” is making the rounds in Washington, touring theaters all around the state, from Spokane to Seattle, and Skagit Valley this week.

Castañeda said after seeing the reactions of audience members leaving screenings of “All Sorts,” promoting the film so that as many people can see it as possible is his No. 1 goal.

“I was able to see these perfect strangers walk in normal, you know, like, they went in normal … nobody was really smiling. And then I watched them come out, and everybody had this, like, look on their face, like they had been a part of something, like … they had thought about their life in a new way, or they had just a really good feeling. … The reason that I made this film is to kind of … make you think about your life in a new way.”

— Reporter Benjamin Leung: bleung@skagitpublishing.com, 360-416-2156, Twitter: @goskagit

Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.

Your comment has been submitted.

There was a problem reporting this.

Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.

Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.

Check your email for details.

Invalid password or account does not exist

Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.

An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account.

Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.

A receipt was sent to your email.