When Cary Fukunaga showed his short film Victoria Para Chino at Sundance in 2005, he could not have been prepared for the transformative effect it would have on his life.

Then a cinematography grad student at New York University, he felt compelled to direct after reading about the 81 immigrants trapped inside a trailer in Victoria, Texas. And while 19 of those immigrants would ultimately die, Fukunaga would go on to receive 24 national awards for his film, including an honorable mention at Sundance and a Student Academy Award.

After that success, Fukunaga found he had an opportunity to make his first feature film. He decided to tell the tale of immigrants from Honduras crossing through Central America, a perilous journey before even reaching the U.S. border.

He did extensive research prior to writing and directing Sin Nombre (Spanish for “without a name”), which culminated in him taking the three-week trip atop a cargo train-the same way real immigrants and soon his characters would-across Mexico. When he came back to Sundance this year, his film won for best directing and cinematography.

The Chronicle sat down with Fukunaga to talk about his goals, visual style and what it was like doing first-person research.

The Chronicle: After showing ‘Victoria Para Chino’ at Sundance in 2005, did you have some kind of deal to make ‘Sin Nombre’?

Cary Fukunaga: I had no idea who was going to pick up the film, but there was opportunity and interest to write the feature film. When those windows of opportunity happen you take advantage of it and do the work. But I had no idea who was going to finance it.

When you did the research, did you just dive in?

Yeah, 100 percent. But I did professional things at the same time. I sought out representation at the same time as I was doing that. So by the time I turned in my script to Sundance for the labs, I already had an agent, a manager and a lawyer.

What kind of research did you do for the film?

ust your sort of standard field research. I would be down there interviewing people that were-in terms of immigration-anthropologists in the government, as well as immigrants and members of the gangs that were involved in immigration and their enemies. I finished about three weeks of interviews in Chiapas by riding the train. And then I went up to the northern border to do research there, as well.

Were there any other films or directors that you drew from stylistically or otherwise?

I was consciously avoiding doing anything with the camera that felt like what they’ve been doing in films the last 10 years, which is kind of very shaky, hand-held, smaller shutter angles and really contrasty, oversaturated or undersaturated images. Everything was just super stylized, and what I was going for was something else in this film-something much more naturalistic with a slower paced editing style.

Having studied for, and done cinematography yourself, did you have a good idea of what you wanted the film to look like? And how did you achieve that?

I had a director of photography shooting it, and he wasn’t autonomous. I mean he is awesome, Adrian is. He’s a warrior. He worked tirelessly to achieve what we were going for, and we had very little time. Adrian knew I was a cinematographer, as well, but he has way more experience than I do. So in no way was I teaching him how to do anything. So it was just a question of him respecting my visual taste. We talked very early on and it would be like, no ego, if I ever wanted to grab the camera and operate something. There would just be my producer asking, “Uh, why are you grabbing the camera?” But I did grab the camera every now and then for rehearsal and there are a few shots that I did that are in the film. But it’s always a collaboration, and I couldn’t have done it without Adrian. I’m not the cinematographer on this one.

What were the restrictions you faced in making this film?

The film takes place from Honduras to Texas, and there’s no way we could afford going everywhere on location. We only had 6 weeks to shoot the film, so we had to figure out how in Mexico City to make some locations double for the United States. There’s a scene in the film that’s supposed to be a strip mall in Texas, we shot that in Mexico City. I was surprised to find out there’s Sears and Staples and Wal-Marts and Sam’s Clubs also in Mexico City. Time was also a restriction in the sense that my main actor, Edgar Flores, who plays Casper, had never been in a film before. A lot of my time was spent with him and getting him emotionally in the right place for a scene.

Having done such extensive research, actually riding on top of the train, you must have gotten a strong feeling for your characters. With that, and this being your first time directing, what was your goal for your actors’ performances?

The goal was to be as natural as possible. Not a heightened form of realism but try to be as natural and subdued as possible and almost under emote in some scenes. Part of that was style, and part of it was also knowing what Edgar could do as an actor was much more contained. I wanted the other actors to be in the same film with him and not him in the same film with them. So it was taking a lot of the Telenovella school of acting, which is a soap-operatic-style of acting, out of the actors and bringing them down to a less emotive style of acting. The father was really emotional. In a scene where he’s supposed to be sad, his face is just this big sad face. And I had to tell him, “You know, that was good, but can you just try to show less that you’re sad? Just keep it inside more.” He was indicating his sadness, and he wasn’t really feeling it. So I told him to take a step back, then he would come back and give me a different performance. I was actually working a lot with the more established actors to kind of take out their standard performances that they had from their other projects.

You joked about this being your thesis film. Are you still in school?

Not really. I haven’t been to classes in years-I just didn’t graduate.

The film is very immersive in that the audience quickly succumbs to following the lives of the main characters. Is there a larger message or a goal you have beyond this drama?

There isn’t really a message per se. The trailer kind of creates more of a message than there really is. We got, “the voice” [laughs]. In the film, similar to the short film, I just wanted the audience to feel like they were on the journey. And I wanted-I still want the audience to, basically if I can get them-especially some conservative woman who wants to shoot immigrants crossing the border. If I can get her to feel empathy for Casper, then I’ve accomplished something.

So you weren’t trying to tell the definitive immigration story?

There are a million stories to be told. This is just one.

How did you come to write a film in Spanish?

I am fluent in Spanish, but the hard part was getting all the specific dialects down. If we were using an actor from Mexico who was playing a character from Honduras, they would sometimes forget and use the wrong pronouns. Then we would have to fix that in post with dubbing. I got material for the movie when I would go down in the train yard and listen to the people there tell these amazing stories. And I talked with ex-gang members and got their stories. And after I wrote a scene, I would show it to them to make sure it was authentic, and you might not realize it, but gang members are amazing copy editors. [Laughs].

Do you have any good stories from the production?

Well the crew we used had worked together for eight months on Apocalpyto, which is an insanely long time. So they had set up a soccer league. And there were these rivalries like lighting verses props. So we carried on that tradition, and on the weekends the crew would have shots of tequila and play soccer.

What’s your next project?

I’m trying to figure that out now, so I’m not sure yet. There are a lot of options. There’s a moment of opportunity to probably make another film really quickly, but I don’t want to just make anything. I also don’t want to wait another five years before I make another film so I’m being careful but open at the same time.