Roselyn Sánchez makes her directorial debut with her feature film ‘Diario, mujer y café’, a very personal project with which she wants to promote Latino, Caribbean and Spanish-language stories in the United States to show that they are not second-rate films, she said in an interview with EFE.
“I think the Latino audience is hungry for content that we can identify with, and to show that we are a population with purchasing power and that we consume good stories – our stories!” says the Puerto Rican director about her debut feature.
The film, shot in Puerto Rico, tells the story of four close friends – the Tiki Tikis – who embark on a road trip around the island to celebrate the strength of friendship, heal their wounds and reaffirm their courage.
Sanchez, who also wrote the screenplay and produces the film, explains that his goal was always to shoot with 100% Latino talent both in front of and behind the cameras.
Starring Angelica Vale, Marisé Álvarez, Karla Monroig and Angelique ‘Burbu’ Burgos, the cast represents the great diversity of Latin women, says the director, who has managed to consolidate her career as an actress in Hollywood with films such as ‘Fantasy Island’, ‘Rush Hour 2’, ‘The Game Plan’ and ‘Devious Maids’.
Roselyn Sánchez: Opening spaces
For Sanchez, ‘Diario, mujer y café’ has become a work that summarizes most of her struggles, including making space for Latino stories and the value of women in this community.
“The biggest problem we have is that in the U.S. entertainment industry there is a lot of content, but very little that speaks to us (Latinos),” says the director, who stresses that Hispanics are the largest minority in the country with more than 60 million people, with a good part of them speaking Spanish as their first language.
His bet is also to shine a light on the stories shot in the Caribbean, which in his opinion have very little exposure.
“We see that the public, even the Anglo-Saxon public, accepts and enjoys Spanish and Argentinean stories, but very few or almost none of the Caribbean films are promoted,” he says.
In that sense, the director and producer wants to educate the public about the richness of the stories and scenarios of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory often forgotten, and other stories of the Caribbean.
“There are more than 16 million Caribbean people in the United States, they also deserve to be represented on screen,” he emphasizes.
Sánchez, who as a producer invested her own resources, along with other Puerto Rican women, and a contribution from a public fund on the island, has faced a titanic struggle to exhibit her film.
“If it were in English, ‘Diario, mujer y café’ would have been able to find a distribution or a platform that wanted to buy it for its value, but since it is in Spanish the offer is very little and doesn’t cover even a tenth of the investment,” he delves.
For this reason, she decided to invest a little more and exhibit the film on her own. Starting this Saturday 24th and for one week, the film will be shown in Chicago, where she and part of the cast will be talking to the public.
The film has already been presented in Kissimmee, Florida, where one of the largest concentrations of Puerto Ricans outside the island is located.
“We’ve had a wonderful response from the Puerto Rican community, but now I’m looking for support from all Hispanics, because the only way for exhibitors and platforms to take us into account as an audience in the U.S. is for us to make box office for our films,” he says.
The film will be shown in Los Angeles in early November. The artist hopes that after this circuit of presentations she will be able to find a distributor that will release the film in national theaters.
“That would be my dream, but we need the public to lend us a hand, together we can do it, especially in these tense times when Hispanics and Spanish are being targeted,” he said, reported Agencia EFE.
Find out more at ‘QueOnnda.com’.
