A pair of filmmaking brothers from the Coachella Valley want to do more than just make movies.
Holy Grail Cinema Club is the project of Tyler and Hunter La Salle. In previous years, they released a pair of productions, Landmark and Shiprock, 1952. On top of creating and producing movies, the La Salles are dedicated to engaging fans of film across the desert and beyond.
Their most recent release is Stormchasers, a fantasy adventure flick that has received attention in Austin and New York City. To watch and to support the La Salle brothers, visit holygrailcinemaclub.gumroad.com.
During a recent Zoom interview, the brothers discussed how they ventured into the world of moviemaking.
“We’ve been creating movies together and creating art together ever since we were kids,” Tyler said. “We grew up making home-video projects and fake documentary and comedy things, and then we started getting into more short-film work when Hunter was probably 15 or 16, which would have made me around 18 or 19.”
Hunter and friends, after making their first short film, Where to Find Me, began volunteering at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
“Then Tyler became involved, and we kind of discovered our love for it, because we remembered how we used to make movies with our Flip video camera back in the day, and then it just grew from there,” Hunter said.
Shiprock, 1952 was the first short-film project from the brothers to make a splash on the festival circuit.
“While I was living in New Mexico, and Hunter was living in West Virginia, he came out to visit me in October 2023, and that’s where we created our first time-travel short film called Shiprock, 1952,” Tyler said. “It got accepted into the Golden State Film Festival and premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in February of last year. That was our first big exposure moment, and we really loved that film. Hunter had also made a couple of shorts prior to that, which led into the style and tone and mood that Shiprock had.”
The La Salle brothers soon began the Holy Grail Cinema Club. It’s meant to be both a hub for them to create their films, and a resource for appreciators of indie film.
“I was working on this movie in which these two brothers searched for their parents who went missing searching for the Holy Grail,” Hunter said. “Tyler, at the time, was working on a podcast all about the Holy Grail, so we got together and collaborated through that. It sort of became this bigger thing where we’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s what the production company is going to be called.’ We came up with this mission statement of bringing back movies in a way that they aren’t made today.”
Added Tyler: “It’s evoking classic cinema and this adventurous spirit. The third Indiana Jones movie, The Last Crusade, features them going on an adventure to find the Holy Grail. We’re evoking that adventurous spirit of classic cinema.”
Hunter’s time spent volunteering at the PSIFF helped him realize how movies can create community.
“What I learned from volunteering was that it was all about community and collaboration,” Hunter said. “No matter where you were volunteering for that festival, it made you feel like you were a part of the movies that were being shown there. Even the people who are making the popcorn at the theater are part of the movies.”
While Tyler never volunteered for PSIFF, he learned a similar lesson with Shiprock, 1952.
“The collaboration that resulted from that was incredible,” Tyler said. “We met so many of our current peers and friends who we now have in our filmmaking community, and we brought on a few people to work on our next film that we’re currently doing … Stormchasers. The cinematographer who worked on that film, we met at the TCL Chinese Theatre, and he had a movie that was in the film festival. That essence of community that Hunter is talking about, and the spirit of collaboration, is incredible, and it’s tangible.”
“How movies used to be seen was at the theater, and then it would get a VHS or DVD release—a home release that you could take with you. That’s sort of lost now that everything goes to streaming. We find streaming less real—like, it feels like a fake movie.”
Hunter La Salle
Stormchasers proved to be a challenge for the indie, self-taught directors.
“Stormchasers was this enormous project that we undertook following that film festival,” Tyler said. “The logistics were incredible in scope and difficulty, and there were all sorts of problems that arose. … Hunter and I call it our ‘film school project,’ because both of us are self-taught.
“We obtained a film permit to shoot at White Sands National Park and had to figure out the logistics of coordinating travel for the cast and crew, bringing in people from Los Angeles and New York, and then coordinating travel within the state of New Mexico. We were all over the map during that production process, and managing a crew of 11 to 12 people—it was an incredible process.”
The La Salles’ release strategy for Stormchasers illustrates how the club aims to support and revitalize indie film.
“How movies used to be seen was at the theater, and then it would get a VHS or DVD release—a home release that you could take with you,” Hunter said. “That’s sort of lost now that everything goes to streaming. We find streaming less real—like, it feels like a fake movie—so that’s when we came up with a VHS release. We can have the movie in our hands, and it’s real now, and it’ll always be real. If a streamer decides to take a movie off of streaming sites, (on VHS or DVD), it can live forever.
“If you have an Amazon Prime account and a Netflix account and a Hulu account, you’re paying monthly rent on the movies and the media that you’re able to consume, but you don’t actually own any of that content or movies. In the past, people used to have VHS collections or DVD collections, and you can look over on your shelf at home and see the movies that you owned.”
They hope embracing physical releases will ultimately empower other indie filmmakers—and intrigue fans of older media.
“So much of it came off of the anti-climatic nature of just posting your short film or your project on YouTube or Vimeo,” Hunter said. “You can send that link out, but at the end of the day, (if you have) a rollout where people receive the movie in the mail, they have it forever. It’s bringing the movies back.”
The La Salle brothers explained how they want the Holy Grail Cinema Club to have an impact on a local scale.
“The Shiprock, 1952 rollout included a showing at Gré Records and Coffee in downtown Palm Springs, and following that, Hunter and I had all sorts of ideas about Holy Grail Cinema Club film festivals that we can do where we highlight independent cinema,” Tyler said. “We also had thoughts and ideas about a brick and mortar … Holy Grail Cinema Club movie theater/VHS store, too, and doing our own rental services, and also doing distribution for independent film, as far as VHS tapes go.”
Said Hunter: “Palm Springs has the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and the Palm Springs ShortFest, but Tyler and I have talked about how there’s not a whole lot of stuff that can showcase, or is willing to showcase, local filmmakers. We owe a lot to the Coachella Valley, so being able to give back artistically and lead in that space is a box we definitely would love to check off at some point.”
Learn more at www.holygrailcinemaclub.com.