Feature Film
Welcome to Benavides, Texas, where petite girls can deadlift 280 pounds, military recruiters roam high schools, and a patriotic Mexican-American community that has been there before it was Texas struggles with an economy literally collapsing around it.
Luz Garcia wants out, and powerlifting is her ticket. It’s all or nothing for her…until nothing stares her in the face.
Rarely do we see a female protagonist with such agency, intelligence and flawed humanity, and the experience is enormously satisfying.
-Caroline Libresco, Sundance Film Festival
Kapok Pictures is a film development and production company founded by the husband and wife team of Writer/Producer Daniel Meisel and Writer/Director Amy Wendel.
Following mulitple award-winning and nationally televised short films, their first feature, BENAVIDES BORN, premiered in competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, where it also earned Wendel the L'Oreal Paris Women of Vision Award. The South-Texas based drama, which Wendel and Meisel co-wrote, Wendel directed, and Meisel produced, was released theatrically in eight major markets as ALL SHE CAN and began airing on HBO in February of 2012. The film's lengthy festival run included the Nantucket Film Festival (Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award), Ashland Film Festival, and the Deauville American Film Festival in France. It was called "enormously satisfying" by Sundance Film Festival Senior Programmer Caroline Libresco, "entertaining and enlightening" by the Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt and "a remarkable and absorbing story nicely performed by a strong ensemble" by Chris Honor of the Ashland Daily Tidings. ALL SHE CAN earned its lead actress, Corina Calderon, "Actor to Watch" by the Sundance Film Festival in 2011 and a Best Film Actress Award Nomination by the Imagen Foundation in 2012. The film also stars Jeremy Ray Valdez (LA MISSION), Joseph Julian Soria (HAMLET 2, ARMY WIVES), Julio Cesar Cedillo (THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA, COWBOYS & ALIENS), Julia Vera (REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES), and Jesse Medeles (ONE HEART).
