"It's a dark world for everyone," he insists. "Everyone is fragile to some extent, and they all long for an image of themselves that is out of reach. I have a lot of empathy for these characters. Ultimately, the point of the film is that no matter how awful your circumstances are, you can learn to move on."
Arteta had screened reels from over 35 cinematographers before he saw Chavez's films. "I was having a hard time finding someone to shoot my film," he admits. "When you're an independent filmmaker with a small budget, one HMI, no generator and 40 locations, who's going to take a chance on you? You generally have to go with someone who isn't that experienced. I was lucky to get Chuy, who's at the top of his field in Mexico."
Arteta saw Bienvenido and El Bulto at a Puerto Rican film festival, and was so intrigued by Chavez's work that he sent the cinematographer the script for Star Maps. "The first thing I noticed about Chuy's style was that his camera didn't impose itself on the actors," says Arteta. "The choreography of the camera was organic, and allowed the actors' faces to tell the story. It's all in the eyes; no matter how fancy you want to get with moody lighting or camera moves, you need to connect with the expression in the eyes. Chuy has command of all the technical elements, but he never betrays his actor's faces. My film was an ensemble piece, with nine main characters, and Chuy chose a particular camera style for each one, to compliment their physicality and the way they moved. His camera held their faces in different ways. He never condescends to characters, no matter how evil or pathetic they may be. He doesn't take an aloof attitude toward them; he treats them with respect, and that was the key to making this film work."
Chavez compares his "organic" camerawork to a symphony in which the camera is one of many instruments. "For me, making a movie is like being a musician. My work is like music that plays in harmony with the actors and the other crew members. I can play in many different rhythms, but the important thing is to play with everyone else. In Mexico, we don't have many movies, but we have beautiful TV commercials. Many of the directors and cinematographers there do wonderful work, but they're not playing with the actors and the crew, they're playing for themselves. They get some pretty shots, but I'm always conscious of the photography. I like to see a story that inspires me, rather than one that distracts me with lovely pictures."
Chavez says that the filmmakers who have inspired him the most are director Wim Wenders and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC. The cameraman particularly admires Storaro's use of color in his favorite film, The Last Emperor. "I loved his use of blue in that film, and the reds and greens. I remember hearing that he'd used different colors to represent different ages of the empire, which intrigued me. But what really struck me about the films of both Wenders and Storaro was not the colors, or the camerawork. I'm never thinking about the camera when I watch their movies. I'm wrapped up in the harmony they create with the actors and the director."
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