Christian Sesma
PAYDIRT writer/director

interview JORGE PEREZCHICA

Christian Sesmas is a local writer/director/producer, and in his free time operates Guacs Pop Up, a food experience based on the family’s restaurant legacy of 30 years in Palm Springs. After writing stories and getting his first short film screened at the Palm Springs Short Fest in 2004, Sesma fell in love with the medium and turned it into a full-time career. In 2020, he released PAYDIRT, a crime heist feature starring Luke Goss and Val Kilmer. Shot throughout the Coachella Valley, the film is available to stream on Amazon and iTunes. Since then, the prolific director has completed two additional films and has more in the works. Coachella Magazine sat down with Sesma at a coffee shop to talk about his love for movies and a bold vision to bring more production to the Coachella Valley.

CM: Hi Christian. Tell us more about your background and growing up in the Coachella Valley.
CHRISTIAN SESMA: Born and raised here in Palm Springs. My parents were from Mexicali, I’m first generation. We had walk-in restaurant for 30 years. It was sold last year. Graduated from Palm Springs High, went to San Diego state, got my degree in anthropology. I had no idea I was going to be in the movie business at all. I was, writing stories, creative stories. And then in 2004, I made my first short film and it got into the Palm Springs Short Festival. And the rest is history, man. You know, I did a short film and found my love for making movies. I was always a big movie box movie nerd, and here we are. We’ve made 12 feature films now and we have a lot of huge things on the horizon, which is really exciting. My offices are in LA. I’m still based here in Palm Springs. My family lives here, where this is my home.

What can you tell us about your latest film Paydirt, without giving away any spoilers.
It’s a really fun, cool crime heist, thriller, like Ocean’s 11 or Smokin’ Aces. It’s like a Soderbergh style of Out of Sight movie in a way. We have my buddy, Luke Goss, Val Kilmer, and you know, a bunch of guys coming together to do this kind of caper out in the middle of the desert. So it was a cool way for me to shoot in the city of Coachella. Coachella was home base and Salton Sea and Thermal. It’s like the stuff that never gets any love out there. You know what I mean? It’s like, everybody thinks of desert, they think right here at Palm Springs, and that’s my hometown, but I really wanted to showcase East Valley. 

What was it like working with Val Kilmer on set?
Well, I’ve been a massive, massive Val Kilmer fan from Tombstone, Top Gun, The Doors, and Willow. It’s working with a legend. And the beautiful thing is, everybody else knows you’re working with a legend and he was amazing. He was amazing. It was a blast, a lot of fun. I think it was the first time you see him doing anything action oriented since “Heat.” 

How supportive was the city of Coachella?
We couldn’t have done it without mayor Steven. They really, really supported us and we just couldn’t have done it without them. They were instrumental in really helping us pull this off. The idea for me, was to bring back a movie here, to show that we can do another, that we can build production here. We wanted to build that, bring that back here in the Valley, and make it a viable place, not just, you know, the mid-century modern Palm Springs, which is cool — but everybody knows that. 

Let’s talk about the production crew and local talent.
Yeah, so probably about 60% of our crew was here. And I brought in my keys from Los Angeles, but for the most part, you know, it was, half the crew was from here. Really cool. And the idea is to also mentor new people coming up that are interested in this. Because I’ve been mentoring for the high schools and stuff like that for years, for years, trying to say, “Hey, you could do it too. You can do it. I’m in LA all the time. There’s tons of people working in the industry out here, it’s like a dream. You can do it.” So, for us to be able to build something here and create an infrastructure for the youth and the Latino youth that don’t have the opportunities and go to all the great schools that other people do. It’s awesome.

What is the Paydirt soundtrack like?
Slipping Into Darkness is on it. Local bands (Giselle Woo). I want to do nothing but local music. My composer’s from Los Angeles, but music, all local, a hundred-percent and I’ve done that with all the movies. I’ve always used a lot of local artists. We put the word out like “Yo, who wants to be on a soundtrack?” It’s awesome.

Were there challenges filming in the city of Coachella?
Zero challenges. I mean, we’ve shot Fantasy Springs a lot. They were amazing. The tribe was amazing. Coachella, the city, it was a piece of cake. That’s why we’re bringing the next one out here. We’re going to be bringing more production out here. No doubt. 

How would you describe yourself as a storyteller?
I love action-adventure, you know, my passion, I like that kind of storytelling. My favorite movie is probably James Cameron’s Aliens. I love action Sci-FI a lot. I’m a huge Star Wars boss, you know? I think one could say I’m an action-adventure storyteller for sure. But I had a great time doing this crime heist movie too. I always go on the mainstream Latino storyteller. I’d love to make a Marvel movie, a comic book movie, a Star Wars movie, or just something of my own, but something along those lines that has global appeal. Some fun action, adventure scope, you know, and some fun, fun characters.

You recently opened an office in Los Angeles?
I’m involved in a company called Curated By Media and it’s basically a production and management firm focusing on stories and storytellers, people of color and women, and really trying to focus on that and really push that, support that and try to get those stories told.

Could you picture a studio here in the Coachella Valley?
My dream,  my dream would be to make this the way Robert Rodriguez did with Austin, you know? I mean, Robin Rodriguez turned Austin into what it is with Troublemaker Studios out there. That was his hometown. He became as gigantic as he is and you know, really brought production to that area. So, I think for us, we’re only two hours away from LA. I commute every week and everybody loves coming out here. So, we’re really just showing that this is a viable place to truly shoot, and that’s competitive with tax incentives.

Between Los Angeles and Palm Springs, what’s a factor you see missing here in the desert?
What’s missing here is just the fact that there’s just not an industry here. There’s just not. That would be something that we’d like to change. To build an infrastructure here, to build an industry here, to help spark [the idea], that would be the goal.

link: Christian Sesma