written by roman flores, regular contributor
edited by sarina e. guerra
From the writings of a college film student to awards in Los Angeles-based film festivals to upcoming airings on streaming services in multiple countries worldwide, local filmmaker Ryan Brandt’s The Man From Jalisco series continues to gear up before its final film festival push in Hollywood before airing on Tubi in the coming months.
Since its first TV broadcasts and postings on YouTube by Brandt’s production company, RJLB Pictures, Brandt has been working on updating the project’s film and sound quality to be able to meet streaming industry standards for outlets such as Tubi and Hulu, Brandt told People’s Press in August 2025. Updated postings on RJLB’s YouTube channel of episodes of The Man From Jalisco have been uploaded since December 2019.
Now, The Man From Jalisco has once again become an official selection for the Silicon Beach Film Festival in 2025, this time for Episode 10. The season one finale will air at the TCL Chinese Theatre through the Silicon Beach Film Fest, which runs from September 4-11. The Man from Jalisco Episode 10 will air on September 7 at 12:15 p.m., Brandt said.
In addition, a live event will be held in promotion of the film and its mission of…
“Desalinating the
ocean water & Saving
the Valley’s farms,”
…at The Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood on Saturday, September 6, in Hollywood, according to an RJLB Pictures press release.
Photo courtesy of IMDB
Photo courtesy of Ryan Brandt
The one season episodic began in Brandt’s (of the Brawley Brandts) UCLA film school writings back in 2004, shifting gears from what was going to be a short film to a full season episodic and first filming in 2009. Episode 10 completed filming in 2023 amid a mix of Brandt’s own funding, various local sponsors and airings on local channels such as KSWT 13, having first aired on TV through Mexicali’s Canal 66 in 2016.
Since 2010, The Man From Jalisco has been gaining recognition and award wins at independent film festivals, including the Imperial Valley Film Festival (Part 1 in 2010, Part 2 in 2017), the Yuma Film Festival (Part 2 in 2011), the Golden State Film Festival (Part 5 in 2024) and the Silicon Valley Film Festival (official selections for Part 5 in 2024, Part 10 in 2025).
The series itself is about a ghost writer at a fictional Imperial Valley-based newspaper who discovered a connection between water sales out of the Valley to large cities being (fictionally) connected to larger dastardly schemes by Mexican drug cartels. It highlights the Valley’s real-world struggle for water right issues and shortages due to water sales to larger cities in a fictional version of the Imperial Valley, capturing the flavor of the Valley’s deep roots in agriculture, its mix of Mexican and American cultures, and touches on other familiar, real-world border issues such as drug trafficking and immigration.
People’s Press caught up with writer/director/producer and Imperial resident Ryan Brandt as well as actor/local emcee Gerardo Venegas, of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, for a couple Q&A sessions before they head out to Tinsel Town to continue the local series’ epic, 10-plus year run.
Roman: What is “The Man From Jalisco?”
RYAN: “It’s about a ghostwriter in a newspaper that discovers secret information about a drug cartel trying to take the Valley’s water and turn the Valley back into a desert. It’s mainly about a family from [the Mexican state of] Jalisco who wants to pursue the American Dream, but they run into this conflict. They’re trying to get away from the drug cartels back in Jalisco but now these same cartels are in the Imperial Valley, California, and they’re trying to take the water away. Wherever this family goes, their livelihood is jeopardized by the cartel.”
“Part 10 is the season finale of season one and wraps up the saga – for now – of the water issue. It’s the good guys trying to defeat the bad guys, so we’ll see what happens.”
Roman: Where did the inspiration for creating “The Man From Jalisco” come from?
RYAN: “It was inspired by my dad’s employee, Abel, whose family is from Jalisco. I was [in film school] at UCLA and they said, ‘Write about a hero who inspires you,’ so I picked Abel because, to me, he was one of the hardest working people in Brawley, who – I believe – inspired a lot of people throughout the Valley too.”
“My dad had been
involved in the
water issue wars
back in the ’90s…
…and was trying to help stop some things from happening, from people trying to sell the water away from the Valley, and he was in the newspapers at the time, so the main character kind of intertwines my dad and Abel together as The Man From Jalisco.”
Roman: Tell us about the history of this project and its longevity. It seems like it was a long journey from writing in UCLA, to filming in the Imperial Valley and San Diego, to wins and selections at these Hollywood film festivals, and now, working towards glowing up for streaming on global-type platforms like Tubi…and possibly Hulu?
RYAN: “It’s been 20 years or more that I’ve been working on this project. In 2009 I filmed the first part of the script and made a TV pilot. For a while it didn’t really go anywhere after winning some awards, but then I said, ‘What if I just kept filming it?’ So I got all of season one done, including Part 10, so now we’re working hard to put it on Tubi.”
“The Filmhub [a worldwide tv and film distribution platform] is very picky, so that’s why it’s taken a while to get all the episodes right with all the subtitles and stuff. Martin Castro, Abby Solaris and a lot of people have been helping me get it together. Now we got a good reason why people will want to see the episodes.”
“A lot of the actors are really good. Luis Medina – who plays ‘Antonio,’ the main character – unfortunately, passed away after a severe battle with cancer, so he lives on through the series.”
Photo courtesy of Ryan Brandt
“I hope by the end of this fall or early winter it will all be up there on Tubi, and not just on Tubi but maybe on Hulu… I might enter the other episodes in other film festivals which I haven’t entered yet, like maybe Part 6 or 7.”
Roman: Why touch on some of these long-standing issues in the Imperial Valley, such as water rights and sales, in your film?
RYAN: “If we can teach people through the series and through the event at The Hard Rock Café about desalination and make people aware about the water [issue], it will make people aware that without water and without desalination we will starve.”
“That’s what the The Man From Jalisco is trying to do: it basically shows that if we keep robbing the Colorado River of water we will use all the resources that grow our food, but if the cities on the coast build desalination plants then they won’t need to get the water that is used for food, then everybody will have food in the supermarkets and everything will be fine. Why they use the river water when they have a whole ocean to the West is mind-boggling, especially since a lot of cities around the world use desalination.”
“And it’s not just the water issue…
but also the
border issue.
The Imperial Valley is right on the border of Mexico and that’s where the family comes from. They come from Jalisco, a really great state in Mexico that has a lot of family values and culture, like mariachi. I wanted to use the border issue (in the series) because it’s very tense right now with things like the border wall.”
“I just wanted to show a different perspective. To me, the cartel is the enemy and cartel that is pushing people into human trafficking. Some of these people, I think, do not know what they are getting into when they cross the border. I tried to show in the series that people crossing illegally are innocent and are just trying to find a better life, but there are sometimes people pushing them to go do these things. It’s really like a microcosm of what’s really going on.”
“To me, in the long run…I think if there’s a way…I’m not saying legalize, but if you’re going to be able to grow drugs in Mexico or South America or whatever, you might as well try to make it very expensive, otherwise we’re going to keep going through these same things. I think all this stuff with the hiding and the smuggling is not good. It’s kind of like Prohibition was in the ‘20s and ‘30s in a way. …I’m not saying drugs are good.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is The Man from Jalisco is an immigrant story about an immigrant family. I’m trying to show that trying to pursue the American Dream is a good thing. Get the criminals out of here, yes, but we also need to come together. I think most people are wanting to work and trying to do good.”
“There was something I saw about immigration, that people are freely going back to Mexico, but they have an opportunity to come back in the right way. I don’t know, I mean that’s one way that’s good, but if they’re already here what if there’s a way to get them to work? Something so they don’t have to go all the way back. I think there’s a way to do it.”
“I think Part 5 of The Man From Jalisco brings out these issues with a character who is an old woman…who I didn’t want to get sent back. I wanted her to finish her journey, because she’s a good woman.”
Photo courtesy of RJLB Pictures, YouTube
Roman: If someone has never seen this series before, why should they see it? What do you hope they get out of it?
RYAN: “I think they should see The Man From Jalisco for family values. If people are confused about what’s going on with all these border or water issues, they can learn from it. It’s a good little avenue, I think.”
“Yes, it’s not made for kids, but I think people can still learn from it. At least there are good guys, bad guys, and it could teach somebody. To me it’s a moral lesson, and we could all use a moral lesson, sometimes, to teach us to grow in a good way. The right way.”
“And on the water thing, we’ll keep on pushing the story out so people from big cities can learn, ‘Hey, desalination and using ocean water is not a bad thing. We should use the ocean water…
& let the farmers
use the [river]
waters for food.’ ”
RYAN: “We’ll keep on pushing the story out. We’re going to try to put it on local channels in San Diego and LA – if I get more sponsors – so people will learn desalination is a good thing.”
“We’ll be out at The Hard Rock Cafe on September 6th, a Saturday night, for the ‘STOP THE TRANSFER’ event. We’re going to have a live band with Mark Sellers & The Wild Horse. The music will start around 6-7 p.m. with great rock and roll songs, I’ll say a few things about The Man From Jalisco, and we’ll go until closing time. The next day people could go to the TCL Chinese Theatre and watch [Part 10] on Sunday at the Silicon Beach Film Festival at 12:15 p.m.
By winter it will be on Tubi, hopefully we’ll get it on Hulu, and then hopefully me and some of the actors can get together for season two. If we can make it a big show with big actors, why not? I’m going to try and pitch it different places. We’ll see how far it goes.”
Video courtesy of @ryanbrandt52 on Instagram
The STOP THE TRANSFER with “The Man From Jalisco” event will take place on Saturday, September 6 at The Hard Rock Cafe starting at 6 p.m. The Hard Rock Café is located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd Suite 105, Los Angeles, CA 90028.
The Silicon Beach Film Festival 2025 will run from September 4-11, at the TCL Chinese Theatres, located at 6925 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028. The Man From Jalisco-Part 10 will air on Sunday, September 7, as an official selection of the film festival, at 12:15 p.m.
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