Casting was probably the most important part of making "Immersion". The search to find Moises and his classmates took several months. Director
Richard Levien visited the twelve elementary schools in Oakland and San Francisco with the highest Latino enrollment. These are also schools where the vast majority of students are poor enough to qualify for free lunches. He spoke in every 4th and 5th grade classroom. He encouraged the kids to make their own films, using the child filmmaking exploits of Levien's countryman
Peter Jackson as an example. "Who's seen Lord of the Rings?" and "Guess how old the filmmaker was when he made his first film?" (correct answer: 8 years old) turned out to be good conversation-starters. Of course, the kids were also encouraged to participate in "Immersion". Auditions were held either at the school, or at a nearby public library that the kids were familiar with.
Levien was able to talk to over one thousand kids this way, and on average more than one child from each class visited showed up for auditions. Most had never acted before, and very few had ever been to an audition. Because so many children were needed for the classroom and playground scenes, kids who did not get principal roles were still able to participate in the film if they wanted to.
Throughout the process, the filmmakers wanted the experience to be an empowering one for all the kids involved. They were very happy to be bring two of those kids,
Luis Bautista (Moises) and Gerardo Acevedo (Gerardo) to attend the film's premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival in January 2009.
