Fellini Film Star Attached to Feature

Peter Gonzales-Falcón to join

The Black Messiah Murders Production

<Friday, Feb 23, 2007 - San Antonio> Peter Gonzales-Falcón will play a principal role in the Lance Flores film, The Black Messiah Murders. . The story tracks the events of the 1969 raid on Black Panther Party members in Chicago, as well as J. Edgar Hoover's domestic spying and social interdiction programs. The theme explores the murders of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, including related operations of Hoover's notorious COINTELPRO program.

Gonzales will portray "Mel", a friend of Sam Cohen, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, who revealed an attempted cover-up of the deliberate murders by Special Police Officers, working under the supervision of the FBI. The cover-up involved not only the FBI but also senior members of the Department of Justice and a Federal Judge. Mel is the proprietor of a downtown Chicago tavern, a watering hole for some of the politically powerful and various mobsters.

Peter Gonzales who grew up in the small Texas town of La Pryor, was chosen by Federico Fellini to play the famous director in Roma, an impressionistic movie about Fellini’s vision of Rome during Mussolini’s fascist regime. The Hollywood Reporter (October 17, 1977; M-36) wrote that Gonzales “[had] often been identified with the late James Dean and Montgomery Clift because he seem(ed) to possess that same facial expression.” His engaging presence on set and unique acting style influenced the sensual Mexican super star, Isela Vega, to cast Peter for her directing debut in Las Amantes del señor de la noche.

Gonzales returns to the silver screen in a starring role in this highly controversial and politically charged screenplay. It has already drawn angry responses out of Chicago. Callers, claiming to represent sentiments of the public interest, are extremely concerned about how Cook County and Chicago law enforcement will be portrayed. They believe the film will cast a bad light upon the City.

Recently, a renewal of the Chicago culture-war was ignited by the attempt of Chicago 2nd Ward Alderwoman Madeline Haithcock, to have the City name a portion of West Monroe Street “The Fred Hampton Way.” Ald. Haithcock’s effort was supported by the Chicago Black Panther Party co-founder, U.S. Congressman Bobby Rush. Right on the heels of this controversy, another firestorm erupted over results of an official report which affirm that Chicago police tortured suspects (192 black men) in interrogation rooms during the ‘70s and ‘80s --revelations of the torture had been written into the screenplay before it became public.

The report has stirred a public outrage that now threatens Chicago’s chances to host the 2016 Olympic Games. Some Chicago officials are wary that The Black Messiah Murders film, scheduled for an early 2008 release, would put Chicago’s dirty laundry in the international public eye and seriously jeopardize Chicago’s bid to the Olympic Committee.

Gonzales’ first response after reading a copy of the shooting script was, “Puedo sólo responde, ‘una mentira dura sólo hasta que la verdad llega,’”-- an Iberian proverb “that a lie lasts only until the truth arrives.” He said, “This is an incredibly powerful screenplay ... a truly important piece of work ... It’s an issue that can be resolved only  by acceptance of the truth.” He continued, “Otherwise there will never be forgiveness and healing.”

“I was committed to do the part as soon as I finished reading the script,” Gonzales said. No stranger to socially provocative storylines, Peter played a starring role in  L'Hospite for another Italian director, Liliana Cavani, acclaimed for her controversial films. As well, he also starred in the Mexican director Arturo Ripstein’s film El Santo Oficio, a controversial film about the Catholic Church’s Papal Inquisition.

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Gonzales as Fellini, Age 18, in Roma

Director Liliana Cavani with Peter Gonzales on the set of L'Hospite.