Hawai'i filmmaker turns lens on cockfight culture
By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
Stephanie Castillo was in the fifth grade when she saw her first cockfight.
Associated Press
It was a Sunday, the award-winning documentary maker recalls, and her family had followed a dusty road down to a makeshift building in Kealia, an old plantation village near Kapa'a, Kaua'i. There were card tables around the perimeter of the room and a kitchen where Filipino food was prepared. And there was, of course, the pit where the roosters fought, a modest space illuminated by a shaft of light coming through the open ceiling.
Spectators watched a cockfight in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in September 2000. Cockfighting is popular in Puerto Rico, the Philippines and in other parts of the world but is legal in only two U.S. states. Hawai'i filmmaker Stephanie Castillo, whose grandfather was involved in the sport, has produced documentaries on those who love the sport — or sometimes, just love the roosters they raise.
"It was the strangest experience, but I can't look at it with a horrified eye," Castillo recalls. "I wasn't horrified, because every week my grandmother would grab a chicken, chop off its head, and that was what we ate for dinner. It was part of what I saw growing up."
Though she acknowledges cockfighting as a part of her heritage, Castillo says she can neither support nor condemn its reportedly expansive, largely secretive practice. Her desire, explored in depth in the soon-to-be-released DVD set "Cockfighters: The Interviews," is to understand cockfighting from the perspective of the people who breed and fight the birds.
Traveling to 10 states during summer 2000, Castillo collected interviews with more than 30 cockfighters and breeders. The result is an exhaustive eight-hour package that offers insights into the cockfighting subculture that are rarely addressed in the continuing push to outlaw the sport.
In light of a new federal law that makes it illegal to transport game birds for the purpose of fighting in other states, the interviews may also serve as a final first-hand record of the controversial sport before it is driven deeper underground. (Cockfighting is now legal in only two states: Louisiana and New Mexico).
"I had no plans for who would talk to me," she said. "I was not looking for a particular point of view or for (the project) ... to even have a point of view. I wanted to ask the questions, 'What, really, is cockfighting?' and 'Why do you do it?' I think this will make people question the stereotypes. Even if they come away with the same opinion, their opinion will be better informed."
Castillo says her inquiry grew out of her own desire to understand more fully the cockfighting lifestyle to which her grandfather devoted so much of his life.
Juan Castillo emigrated to Hawai'i from the Philippines in the 1920s, bringing with him a passion for breeding fighting cocks. He joined a hui, pooling money with other cockfighters to buy Mainland-bred red roosters via an intermediary in Hanalei, Kaua'i. Like the cockfighters his granddaughter interviewed, Juan Castillo enjoyed raising and preparing the birds more than the actual fighting. Like other breeders, he made modest money from his efforts, enough to cover the cost of feeding and housing the roosters.
Stephanie Castillo, whose 'Olena Productions co-produced the Emmy-Award-winning documentary "Simple Courage," started the cockfighters project right after completing a Master of Business Administration program at the University of Hawai'i in May 2000.
With a $70,000 donation from a local benefactor, Castillo bought digital video equipment and started trolling for interview subjects. When her attempts to get local cockfighters to speak on camera brought little success, she turned to the Internet to tap into the community of more than 200,000 cockfighters and breeders that is said to exist on the Mainland.
Stephanie Castillo interviewed members of the cockfight "fraternity."
"I told them my grandfather was a cockfighter, and that seemed to put them at ease," she says. "They call it a fraternity, and that's really what it is."
From June to September of that year, Castillo and a couple of hired cameramen (she filmed the last third of the interviews herself) traveled across the country talking to people like James Pope, owner of the Cedar Ridge Game Farm in Texas; breeder Charlie Johnson of Arkansas; and Mississippi breeding legend Johnnie Jumper.
"My grandfather and father took me to (cockfighting) pits in Hawai'i, so I knew what they were like," Castillo says. "I was more interested in the legal side. It turned out to be less predictable, and I was surprised by a lot of things I saw."
In a 12-minute short film and a 115-minute, six-interview mini-documentary using footage from the full-length series, Castillo presents a disarming look at the history, legends and traditions of cockfighting in America, as passed along through generations of "cockers." Her subjects talk about the popularity of the sport in colonial America, using birds brought over from England, and about how the fighting cock was a close second to the bald eagle in the competition to be national bird. They trace bloodlines of elite breeds throughout the cockfighting world (with numerous intersections in Hawai'i) and the human connections forged through a common love.
"Their experience is that defending cockfighting to outsiders doesn't make any difference," Castillo says. "But if people are willing to go in with an open mind, if they're willing to listen, these cockfighters are willing to share."
An 8-hour DVD series By Stephanie Castillo $140 Order at 739-3938, or see Web site
Allowed to speak for themselves, the cockfighters come off as mild, decent people, closer in spirit and interest to horse racers or dog breeders than to the bloodsport profiteers sometimes depicted in the media. "Bacon" Nivison of Utah talks about how he is "emotionally attached" to his birds. Johnson, the breeder from Arkansas, speaks warmly about the friends he's made in Hawai'i, with whom he exchanges visits.
'Cockfighters: The Interviews'
Castillo did manage to interview four Hawai'i residents, including Paul "No Ka Oi" Romias of Wai'anae, who speaks earnestly about the peculiarities of the local scene; the movement of fighting cocks between the Mainland, Hawai'i and the Philippines (where cockfighting is considered the national sport); and the mundane business of caring for the birds.
There is no graphic violence in the shortened version The Advertiser viewed (there is some rather tame footage from a pit in the Philippines), and Castillo did not film any illegal pits.
The raw footage sat for more than two years while Castillo worked on other projects and explored options for release. She finally edited the footage down to an eight-hour collection (intended mainly for cockfighting enthusiasts and for academic and historical reference) and the movie/mini-documentary (intended for film festivals and possible television broadcast) during a seven-week marathon of 12- to 16-hour workdays earlier this year. The punishing schedule allowed Castillo to keep her editing, duplicating and authoring costs to about $40,000.
Looking back, Castillo says the project gave her a better understanding of the type of life her grandfather lived. It did not resolve her ambivalence about the sport.
"I can't be for or against it. It is my cultural heritage," she says. "But on the other hand, I hate to see animals hurt or killed. It's a difficult paradox to live with."
The movie and mini-documentary will debut at the Cinema Paradise film festival in Honolulu in September.
Correction: The Web address for Stephanie Castillo's DVD set, "Cockfighters: The Interviews," is members.aol.com/cfighters4sale/buy_DVD.htm. An incorrect address appeared in a previous version of this story.
