No Guns Pictures has signed directors Hernan Jabes and Mario Bazzi. The signings come on the heels of a number of changes for the international production house, most notably partnerships with US-based Stoney Road Productions and Spanish house Group Films.

Jabes (profiled in the June 2000 issue of Boards) is a Venezuelan director who works through Caracas-based Soda Films in his home country. His style ranges from performance-driven dialog and comedy spots to beautiful imagery and sports sequences. He has shot ads for Movilnet, HBO, CANTV, 7 UP and Pepsi.

Bazzi is a Chilean and works through Santiago-based Taxi in his native land and Uruguay. His work includes purposefully absurd comedy such as Devorame.com "Oreja" in which a crippled man loses his legs, then arms, then entire body save one ear in the pursuit of fun and more importantly, music. In Sky "Peliculas," Bazzi uses a slide show-like effect to show what ifs like movie rental violence and prison assaults that could happen if one ventures into the cruel outside world instead of staying at home with Sky TV services. Another spot for Lanchile shows a man who feels very Mexican after a family trip to Puerto Vallarta.

Other directors repped by the company are Fernando Vallejo, Carlos "Hari Kari" Sama, Alan Batievsky, Alejendro Toledo and Jorge Salinas. No Guns has offices in Los Angeles, Santiago Chile, and via Group Films, Madrid and Barcelona. In terms of affiliations, No Guns is linked with Flenher Films in Argentina, Focus in Mexico, Canal Uno in Peru, Story Films in Venezuela and Mojo Films in Uruguay.

As for the new ownership, Michael Romersa, owner of Stoney Road Productions, says he is now one-third partner in No Guns, along with the company founder Vallejo and Laura Allende of Group Films. The new arrangement commenced at the beginning of 2001, and has also seen Donna DiStefano take up the reigns as executive producer for the company. Katya Meyer is now international production manager for No Guns and the company's rep is Itzie Molini.

"Stoney Road had started a Latin American division called Bandolero and we became familiar with No Guns during that period," explains Romersa. "We were struggling, they were doing well and had good directors. We were on the outside looking in with Bandolero, just as it is difficult for a foreign production company to come and work in the US."

Romersa says Allende first pitched him on the idea of working with No Guns. The arrangement should prove useful for all the members of the Stoney Road group (MPH, M-80, Bedford Falls, post facility Chrome and Reactor Films) in terms of locations.

"Since offshore production seems to be all the rage, we intend to use our contacts to be more competitive and global with our general market companies," explains Romersa.

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