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>> Ok so welcoming everyone who the conversation away to see as I don't those I wrecked flounce Well it is a pleasure to be with you all today and we'd Cecilia we made a couple of years ago in the city of New our lives we have been talking documentary for a number of years and I'm very excited to have.

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All of today sharing some thoughts about her film Lance well which premiered last year and it's about. Me She drew a shining political heat cool over the past few years. With the crisis in 2017 the passing of Euro King the real and then. Some protest cycles that we had in 2019 that led to the.

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Reach resignation of growing our little physio and eating seem to be a big old. Tragedy and Hope that the film land for weeks trying to do makes sense of all of it so I would like to ban Cecilia for being with us the event is being recorded. And welcome to Celia It was a little bit of a.

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I was the process of the film and and and how the. Film came along and you can still have a little bit about the pre-production process the production process and the post-production for all I was. Just giving you in for a little bit of the spirit of the question I was sharing today with a lot of ways that landfall.

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It is. You know if it looks at events that happened very recently so it has that sense of urgency in bed it into this feel. Good At the same time when one looks at the law to follow. The sense that the film transmitted to a one off a very careful craft.

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A maybe creation of words or you can reality of the ruling that seems to cross taken longer than old take on being agencies that led to this film so if you could social a little bit about how you develop all that and you get are all that successful mix.

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Well 1st of all Thank you Juan Carlos and thank you everyone of Georgia Tech for putting this event together and working so hard to make it happen thank you to everyone who's watching and making time and making space for break this because and I. I think part of what I think you're getting at is this complicated relationship between time and emergencies.

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I think that there's a way in which in our own lives like Emma's there are as I mean everyone you know everyone whose spirits might have experienced that kind of cataclysmic crisis there's this way in which these events these watershed event. Make everything feel urges at the same time really really disrupt our sense of time and.

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There's a sense and I think. This is a song about aftermath this is a so not so much about the emergency itself that well it's a it's a sense about I'm going emergency you can say you know we have a way of thinking of emergency as something that happens quickly and then M's.

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And I think that there is an ongoing this to the situation for the vehicle. That and that also has to do with you know what happens in that sort of. Anxious energy of the of the moment of like having to make quick decisions like the survival moment. Turning to something else and you know what happens when the in the wake of that moment and so I say this in part because the film I never planned to make this film just like nobody planned and personally not enough people planned for her good idea but.

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It was unexpected. In a way that that was beyond what we kind of plan for and. In that sense it was not a typical documentary development process there wasn't you know it was a response I came out of response but at the same time when I from the very beginning when I was making it.

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I I was really really aware and very conscious and concerned about. Making a film that was too urgent and that sounds weird because the situation with the vehicle is terribly urgent is it has been for a long time but what I mean by that is that I was aware that like media around emergency can be so simplistic and superficial and I was the news reporter tosh that was coming out around the hurricane at this time was so.

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Just. Just kind of like people parachuting in and showing these almost you know I mean you know we met in New Orleans we can talk about this in terms of our can get to like there's a way in which our news media are only thinking about the urgent.

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And they're not thinking about what happens next and so I think in so many ways. This is a film that was born out of a trauma and it was born out of. A sense of rambling and feeling like you know I was worried about my family and what was happening I was I sent a hurricane outside of Port the people that many people have asked for but also like many people that I asked for I was thinking I was wondering what was happening with my family and my my grandmother died about 6 months after money and so anyway I'm talking about a lot of different things but what I want to say is that I think so often the films that we that emerge out of these moments of crisis.

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Are only focused on. The drama of that crisis and I wanted to capture so much of what gets left out whether it's the everyday experience the emotional contours what happens when we actually take and hold space for grief and I actually try and listen to that grief and talk about it there are a lot of different things but my hope is that the film in its refusal to be a kind of typical hurricane still.

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Allows for a different sense and this in its fullness and in this and thence. Allowing for poetry and these kinds of things. Yeah it's just trying to make space for everything else. How do you when you were responding to do to the emergency. How did you did you know made a round like.

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Is. It forced to gather some funding for the film how would would that evolved and how how did you develop the team and together the whole you know. The well the production and yeah yeah I mean I can say that again this is a very typical like the element process like I think you know in a you know there's it's hard to talk about a perfect scenario for making documentary film these days because often very very hard to get.

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Support of matter what but in a perfect scenario you take time to develop an idea and put together your team and search for that finding and I was very lucky that. I had made a short film before that had been a collaboration with field of vision which is of a funder of you know journalistic nonfiction cinema and.

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It was it was founded by so much of our portress. Charlie Cook and a number of other people and it is. You know dedicated to supporting kind of cinematic film about important issues to convey and so they had commissioned me to make a film and a short film and so I had a relationship with them and I when this happens.

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I initially thought the film was really a short film I thought you know I was in like so many people that after I was thinking what could I do there was a side of scrambling of trying to find out what my role was and do my part and and I thought you know I can make films that's one thing I do and so I wrote the field of vision immediately and I said and I want to know something that part of my sense that there needed to be a film made was that I was very dissatisfied with the way the media was talking about the sequel and it wasn't just a sort of fascination with the hurricane but it was this complete inattention to the economic situation and the economic free preexisting conditions you can say the debt crisis in particular and there was an article that I read by.

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Wonderful academic named that in my book Media who teaches that Hunter College now who. Was the person who was the only thing that I read that felt right she wrote an article for The Washington Post that said why would anyone want to hurricanes because someone will get rich that was a headline Why would anyone want to hurricanes because some will get rich.

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And it was the sense that nobody the size this article that I could read was talking about this sense that there was going to be a tremendous opportunity that was already underway and what the few call and that for a very important sector people with influence this was actually going to be it was the perfect storm and certainly so it felt to me that their music be a film about disaster capitalism there needs to be a film that was actually looking at court to actually go in looking at this hurricane in particular as an economic opportunity.

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And so that's what I pitched to feel the vision so I just wrote to them and I said listen I think somebody needs to make a film about this I was looking at the tax laws that had already been enacted I was looking I was I could see the signs of a new wave of people coming and this was just weeks after the hurricane.

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But anyway they they to their credit said Ok we'll give you some development money and you can go and do a test sort of test shoot and that's where and this is yes this is a short film of the time and I came back having shot this 2 key scenes in the film which is this this.

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This time in or always have this farm where with without the who's the farmer. Who's who's trying to rebuild and then also this luxury real estate being. The be no family and so I found those 2 scenes and when we got back we were trying to add it into a short film it helped very black and white it's all very like Rule versus urban very like ranch versus working class kind of you know it didn't it would not come complex enough and I felt the situation parts of it was way more complex and so I really I said I think this is a feature film and to their credit I said I think I'd like to add like to make this a feature film I'd like.

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To support that decision and they did and they came on board of the 2nd producers. Anyway that was a very unusual thing because a lot of the time filmmaker spend time you know without any support financially without any. Kind of you know just you can often spend years trying to develop a film and get it off the ground.

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But it just kind of aligned. And I think that in in a certain way. The urgency that was seen by. The media actually helped sense they were like this is a big story and so there was a sense of this is important doesn't support of that and that from the.

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And how did you know. In your soul or Few know people still we still. Like you have film each we. You know a very kind of intimate look of the world will look very real staging point for the call you of the beach calling it a crawl the whole show how did you did you need she a to negotiate with their breasts.

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I mean if it's a calm it's a complex film it's a film that has a lot of different you know it so it's a lot of little stories right so each one of those. Stories requires identifying those people and you know talking with them and getting them to talk with you and you know agreeing to agreeing to what you some of them so it was in every situation it was a little bit different but you know one thing you you mention Lalan for those that don't know you know I made this film in the cooperation with an activist named named Alan m.r. Buzz's they support the Rico and part of this is that I think it's really important to note that I'm I'm I'm what equal from Bath for us I grew up outside of court as we go I was not raised important because.

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From the very beginning of me starting the Selma was very very conscious almost like you know to the point of paralysis sometimes very conscious of the fact that there was a lot of upwards of ego that I didn't know because that's what they asked for the right is sort of the kind of force forgetting you can say and so.

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I knew I couldn't make this alone and I knew I couldn't make it without significant input from somebody who I could trust and in fact the sequel and so I found actually through every man who wrote that article I was introduced to la la. And. You know was this powerhouse incredible thinker and.

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But of all activists and voice and it was sort of by their words you know we had this very loose collaboration and went you know lala did archival research and went to the archives and somewhat looking for photos that ended up in the film. Also really was key in helping me identify people to film with many other people to film our lives friends from the from the actual human like the folks just saying that the dinner where you know a lot of the people Liz Ellis.

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You know but also Dolly would find people that you know that I didn't know like I can because for example it was sort of through word of mouth like finding people who knew people who knew people and then. You know identifying with and they show who are these incredibly dynamic and you know what I was like you know part of this like long line of activists and yet at the end of this incredibly sophisticated you know analysis of the situation you can so anyway.

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That it was absolutely central to that whole process and then. Actually ended up you don't have partly sort of by accident because I was so eloquent and that I becoming kind of the voice of the film like we did this interview that was meant to be a test interview because we were going to talk to other people about their memories of the hurricane and you know I don't think either of us could really really understand that like a lot I had not had the opportunity to process the trauma of the hurricane and living through it anyway so we did this kind of experiment of recording me talking with with them and.

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And yeah it's sort of as it up becoming the backbone of the film and in many ways the film is very quietly framed as a conversation between the 2 of us and it's really meant to be more kind of allegorical like at the conference it's a conversation between Or does he go on the Diaspora.

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And so I mean I can say more about that but it was. You know sometimes we were investigative reporters like sneaking into Bitcoin parties and sometimes we were you know finding people we really really love spending time with them and. A you know with them on the beach it was a real mix.

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Of there being any any is. A. Coincidence Well many of the subjects of the film for your characterization of. The I mean will so before we finish the film we we had a screening in San Juan with a lot of the allies of in the film you know a lot of people a dinner activist and cetera.

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And we that was really important to me to spend the make sure that before we finished the film that if there were any objections. But you know the film whether for talking with an antagonist. The antagonists go you know I don't I don't expect of the like the film.

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Or even I don't I don't I have no interest in seeking their approval either. And as far as I know I mean it was weird because earlier shooting the film we definitely had some very creepy incidents with them where you know my email was hacked at a certain point and.

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They just were very shady and. So I haven't heard from them I don't know if they've seen the film but I hope that they do because I think that they should have a sense of how they're coming across to the world. And I think the film you know the full is going to broadcast on p.b.s. this summer and I'm I have a feeling that if they haven't heard about it yet but know how to present.

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Brock Pierce is the main you know antagonist and he's the short guy with the big hat I don't know what it is with you know overcompensation I have that of a hacker that is a little bit he. You know he's very much an active presence of the vehicle and continues to be so.

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And really trying to be a political operator and I we have not heard the last of him and I think that I sincerely hope the people that see the film make life in more difficult very uncomfortable for him especially the well below the. Real estate agents the. They I don't know they've seen the film I think that you know part of what we wanted to do in making it into a feature length is have a bit more nuance because for me like it's less about who they are and more about the absence of they're representing like part of the reason why we shot that that scene the way we shot it where they're you know showing us this empty apartment is because I don't I want you to think about who they're selling to right so you know a lot of ways they're not the villains of the story if there are villains it's really there this is part of what colonialism every colony as people who make their living by facilitating the the colonizers right to make make life more comfortable there's a whole and I think it with the with the with the rise of gentrification the quality of work the vehicle in these tax breaks in particular like you can see a rise of an entire concierge culture import that she got like if you're a wealthy person and you want to live in a completely different reality and I say that I mean have different doctors different schools different drivers different apartments different you can you can have a really comfortable life support the fugal as long as you are you have the means to do so and so for me like what they represent in that scene is that concierge culture right this idea that you can come support the vehicle you know we welcome you and actually we're going to our entire livelihood depends on you.

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You know and there is a whole class of lawyers and real estate agents and you know hotel yards and and then everyone who works for them right this is this is unfortunately part of the survival tactic of what the feel right now is in the absence of an industrial You know eq economy.

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We have to depend on social. Services Unfortunately we have to depend on the service economy. On tourism and things like that so that's what I really hope. That scene kind of brings brings up. But yeah I don't I don't necessarily want want the so I mean I think that I'm interested in seeing and having the some show all these moving parts but to me the real.

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The real villains are the ones you can't see. I see before we jump into it into a q. and a with the with the all the info I had to more question he kind of. Think about and about the film and and your own profit is. What are some of the lessons about where to recall that being key in in making the film in on their standing the situation being made dating about some.

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Forward for the country no one how the more we who could serve. A purpose of. Of reflection meditation for us a filmmaker the for us someone who owns because we are are you know you're looking at reality looking into the issues what are some of the things that you have to learn and I know that.

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If we if we go back to your. Previous film you you learning the story of your family and your grandpa on your own will now you're looking to Puerto Rico from a different angle perhaps you know Field last Christmas when and what are some of the lessons. I mean it's it's funny because every film I make it personal in some way and even though you know my 1st film memories of parents and heart was was explicitly about my family.

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And it was about my uncle who died of Aids when I was very young so that had a very obvious personal past but this film was in certain ways more personal to me and I think anybody who survives. And I don't want to use that word lightly and you know there are people who genuinely fought for their lives and then you know fight for their lives and like that Madea but there's a sense that we all went through something anybody who has high support the sequel went through something very traumatic and I think that that I made this film out of a very profound emotional response I made I didn't make this film intellectually and hit this film viscerally it was I was incredibly angry at you know effectively how the federal and the Puerto Rican government killed my grandmother you know and I count her it's one of the casualties of this hurricane but also just in terms of lessons I mean there are a couple of things One is that.

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As somebody who grew up in the diaspora there this process I always feel like my making the part of what I love about documentary is that it's I find it's always very transformative for me I learn things about how to be in the world. But in this case I was away if there was a very paradoxical thing in which I learned more about voices equal than I had ever known you know it sort of had to in order I couldn't make this film without.

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Spending a lot of time researching history reading books but that nobody had ever put in front of me before and. And also just you know I went to places I'd never been at cetera however that experience both made me feel more tied to boards of people and also.

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It reminded me of. In a way how little I belong and what I mean by that is the in me me really aware in such a keen way that my day to day lives experience away from work just to go. Prevents me from from really ever knowing what it's like and so that's part of what I mean about how in a way what I what I hope that this film composite for people who are.

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Not living the crisis important Rico that we hold space and listen for that reality this is in the many ways a film that tries to centralize the importance of bearing witness to its having critical but in particular listening and I think there's a there's a sort of ongoing tendency in the diaspora to be like I'm very glad so I know or I'm going to go back and find my roots and I'm going to maybe retire there and have a wonderful life and and maybe there's an ancient enter into that and so anyway I became keenly sons of the acutely sensitive to how complicated the send them excited are but I would also add that.

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Just as importantly I was able to see firsthand and hopefully in the film capture the way in which people for the sequel have been serially dismissed as victims and pity even if if we're ever high paid attention to by the u.s. government for a sort of looked at as like somehow incapable and useless and waiting for a handout and that is so so far from the truth and I think that.

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People put the cigar frankly experts what it means to build community in crisis and there are. Extraordinary lessons for the rest of the world so. I hope that some inverts that kind of very patronizing gaze on people in parts of the goal and. Shows what we're capable of great so I'm well I'm glad I'll open the.

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Lord from questions but while we wait a little bit for the chat of a couple of. A if you would like to yeah both your questions in the show will be great while we wait through the script couple of questions I see them there's a couple of questions Ok.

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I think I just think of them Ok So yes if you have the question I can yeah the so there's a question here about black eyes matter how they say I see a black man's mattered to 7 stations the summer could not have happened without the disruption of the pandemic do you think the demonstrations against the gov could have happened without the hurricane and I'd be curious to know you think about this one.

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Because I think that in many ways for me the protests again. Against your. They were I think of them as a sort of belated catharsis like there was a sense I think for the 2 years after the hurricane before the protests because a part of the game had in September 27 teams almost 2 years later in July of nightly 19 protests.

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There was a kind of Neary feeling that that that's not enough. Outrage has been expressed and if you would sort of be taking to the streets in the receive moments of outward for the most part. I think that you know certainly when I would talk a lot a lot I would talk about how frustrated they were about how little activity there seems to be and so in a lot of ways I see this as a kind of.

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All of not just anger but but grief and this kind of outburst of you know I think it's really important to such a centralized how it wasn't just. The the pro the origin of the purpose of the catalyst of the protest was was outrage and it wasn't there were so many indignities in.

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The chats that were released that the you know the governor was was exchanging with his team the things he was saying about people but the fickle were awful but I think one of the the major catalyst was this outrage of making a mockery of the dad from idea and so I think that there were I'll just give one example there was a young man in the protests who we interviewed he says a certain point this was a hurricane we had in our chest in voiceover and that man lost his father after Madea they found him 3 weeks after the hurricane in his bathtub I believe he died of diabetes related complications and he this young activist took a father's ashes to the protests and he walked up to the front line of the police and he said Tell your governor that this is what he caused and he had his father's ashes in front of him so anyway I think that there's a lot of reasons why those protests happened but I also think that you know.

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This outrage was coming before I get I think it's really important that I can't we cannot exceptional as our King the hurricane was another layer on many many many many layers of exploitation the go all the way back to pursue performance. So that our agents been brewing for some time and I think that people do talk about if anything my you know was maybe the like.

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The final point of like Ok we really know how this is really working we understand you know. We have or still we don't mean to the you know the u.s. government. But I think I think 111 of the elements that bring into into the into the drama all the suffering all of that particular on sticks that in a way expands the the time frame of all the struggles we have seen in Puerto Rico is definitely the story will be a case I think it will switch of great things to have to invest documentary because it is something that film sounds good.

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To over Lou it doesn't really get into words over the if there really is that off and I think that context while the station bringing be a case of part of these people we should overburden see but also they they learned today were the you know the. The i'm alone a stunning that that some of the challenges of being seen the I will be against this is very powerful looks well well and I think that I said that's a lot of them from the very beginning so we have to include the ecosphere because it's you know because it's an encapsulation of so many of the things that are you know wrong with.

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The gun you know there are many moments in the film that we're trying to gesture. Or it's history. And so that's one of them but it's I think we wanted to at every turn insist that this is not a new story this is a these are many layers of social experimentation and they're just sometimes they're just changing the experiment but it's really all the same thing and.

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I think you can see the questions come in but I can ask there's like 3 more questions something. Like so they're asked and said I often notice in documentaries or just film in general how music this dictates what emotion is supposed the what audience what emotions the audience is supposed to or what the director intended to feel during a scene are how did you decide what music to use in the film and how do you think it accomplishes what you want to do well I'd love to know what people think about the music what they think what they experience you know during with the music but for me.

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So I I worked with this incredible composer and he kind of got on who is in my mind one of the best. Living artists in the world to see actually the music for my 1st feature film as well that she's sees the body quick composer. Who is really really so extraordinarily talented and you know most documentaries tend to as you say as you as a question notes really use music as a way of kind of like a to wring emotions of the idea is all we need a little bit of a mood here and so we're going to try to get a feel certain way and for me.

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And often or I think we often people often compose to the adage. You know fine the film is largely edited and then you fine music to sort of paper things. Not only my case. The. The the worry. But so of yes of them so in this case you know because I wasn't having a before and I knew what an incredible artist and it is I.

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I really made you know I wanted to give her free reign and I'm so glad because and the fun just you all know the soundtrack is available on i Tunes and Spotify and all those things and all that Apple music you can download it but the point is that I'm happy that so I'll just use an example there's a scene in the film with these lobsters on a boat and that's probably the most intense.

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And that scene we actually edited to the music so that music I'm excited composed many years before and never really as a student and had never actually really done anything with it so we actually really recorded we recorded the entire soundtrack and someone with with amazing what he called musician.

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And he also I mean and how does extremely firm and so we use a lot of like traditional instruments like a deep layer which you don't hear as much but as a traditional Puerto Rican instrument and we just she did all kinds of weird distortions and experiments to make things sound like birds and you know anyway.

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So I can't say enough about how wonderful it can be to work with a composer and actually allow the the film itself to be transformed by the music. Through and that's my hope is that actually. This is a man away from interjecting we have the public and it has a question to ask his question live so I think.

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He's going to question Ok. Thank you all that this is a little. Well you think that I didn't plan to make this documentary but I I start it was very well of thought out very well made very well put together the editing the photography. Everything but most importantly I thought it was full of very powerful messages I mean every line.

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In every thing interview and every scene has a very powerful message and I thought of all those things the most powerful was the one that you mentioned when these guys from the cryptocurrency movement you know come to speak and the young woman confronts them and tells them you know every time we listen to people like you our people die I thought that was such such a powerful message because it shows that there's a very rich history of struggle and resistance in Puerto Rico all over Puerto Rico throughout history against all the empires that have tried to impose their will on Puerto Rico and of course in the eighty's you know as you mention one of the best examples because I mean these guys are you know in Argentina we call them then they will not write they try to sell smokes anything you know that they will try to sell you yeah.

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And now box whatever the. These guys of course exist all over the world but in the context of Puerto Rico I thought it was very volatile because there isn't much information about what or even the rest of Latin America and I think that there's a general idea that you know.

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In general people in Puerto Rico upset the colonial that is and they're very happy and they are having to trade with the u.s. dollar and all of these you know fantasies that are not really sure and. You know came up came out particularly after my idea to do particularly with all the demonstrations against.

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The government right. Particularly after the or the food that was imposed by the federal government and the prices and everything which is very similar to what happens in other parts of the Left in America right unfavorable and all the things you know the rush of all these things so my question is did you see every interview every scene or did you for example just run into these guys these.

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Coverage 2 guys who were there or did you know enough that they were going to be there how did you put it together I mean. Yes it was I thought it was magnificent but. How did you put it together well I had a magnificent editor so I have to give credit to her her name is terribly long and she's actually a Canadian who doesn't speak a word of Spanish but has an amazing sensibility and and really political analysis and also poetic analysis is just since really I can't say enough incredible things about her skills.

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That being said I think that the film devil was made with a combination of planning and serendipity and what I mean by that is that there are moments a lot of moments in the film that came by accident. And in certain ways this was one of them but what would what I will say is with the with the cryptocurrency storyline I knew about them and I knew about them because there was a New York Times article that was written a few months after my there was a big kind of splashy profile brought Pierce and his band of merry men in for the recall and I was like What does that mean that was like This is exactly what I'm talking about and.

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I was already working on the film and I said I have to I have to look into this and then they mention that they were having a conference in that march it was I think the article came out the February after the hurricane and then the conference is like a month later and the conference was it appears in the film and soon it was held at the Vanderbilt Hotel which is for those that don't know is like one of the fanciest hotels I think it's not the fanciest it's all in all for the recall and so they had this incredibly expensive conference and I tried to get access to the press person and I tried to get journalistic access and they I couldn't get them to reply to me and so I finally bought a I bought a pass to the conference and it was over a $1100.00 but I just said you know **** it.

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And basically crashed this conference and that's how and you know snuck into their parties and I'm just I just talk to them and the thing about you know I think narcissist is that they actually really want to be talked to and so if you talk to them in the right way and you sound like you're really really interested and cryptocurrency they will you know like you know tell you more about the so yes that's how I met Quince The guy with the beard.

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And and but it was also very shady there was and I think this is the really important thing to say you say you know when there was a thing a great phrase I think in the u.s. you might say snake oil salesman or. Think about what these guys are peddling is is they're peddling recovery and they're peddling you know a plan for port the vehicle and that plan is technology that plan and privatization that plan is cryptocurrency etc.

[00:42:09]
And so I think it's I was very aware that there was a kind of double speak everything that they you know they would think there were superseding about they would say yeah we're having an event that event that showed up on screen that you know the complications that was the supposedly open to the public it was a community listening sessions but it.

[00:42:28]
Impossible to figure out where it was like we had to be all kinds of stuff to do when they were really trying to organise trade it was all p.r. and they actually have you had this big p.r. company that he had very expensive p.r. company that he had contracted and they were all these events were there and there's a question actually about.

[00:42:44]
The event and that university of my ways and Loki it meant when my us and. You know that was another one of their events in the series they had this this hackathon and there Lino it was all the you know and we really need to talk more about celebrity as part of this strategy it's it's all about buying goodwill it's all about you know I call these young these young Puerto Ricans that are that are sort of Pro technology that are seeking you know that want to be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs I call them the human shields because then in a certain way I could see in real time how these From took currency evangelists were recruiting young technology focus but what who really just want to pay important recall and make work difficult better and they're saying my God this is this is the way I can do this this is my future.

[00:43:41]
So that was a big part of why that scene is there too it's like trying to show that there's a there's a whole apparatus of recruitment. So yeah thank you for the the the question I think. But you know I just want to say the thing about serendipity in that there are a lot of moments in the film that are deliberately there because we didn't plan them and that put that not planning was intentional what we wandered around for that we go looking for sore points we're going to surprise us on it because it always does and so you know there's there's moments like young people sitting in the class of talking about debt and private and privatization and all these things that they were just doing that you know we just were walking around filming something else and they were having this conversation we film them so there is a lot of surprise as well but that was intentional.

[00:44:32]
We have some questions will fulfill. The sale of thank you Basel and thank Him it and we also think of a question by Michael to. You Mary the one from Francis Yeah there's a film brings to light so many different layers in there and a contemporary what we'll call nicer in action being one example of several Do you find yourself prioritizing whenever the other guy this is the question again for the editor how the different layers I feel like I'm always trying to make multi-layered films that are not either or but both and and finding ways that and I want to say this is also relates to audience this is a film that really is trying to make space for different audiences to engage in different ways so rather than making a film that that that works at the same level for everybody regardless of whether you're Puerto Rican or not or regardless of whether you have any background in court this week or you've never been there.

[00:45:32]
Is a film that tries to make the situation for the fickle understandable inaccessible to anyone but of the same time there's a lot of ways in which the film is. Is built differently depending on where you if you have if you know point the sickle intimately you have a different experience watching this film though rather than so that's the just to speak to the layered ness of it.

[00:45:55]
It was also very hard some to add it and again this is what I wish there were here because she could tell you about. All the ways in which we really tried to build it so it's a it's a really interesting tapestry you can say and. Everything that's in there is intentional and there are you know there are ways in which and what I really wanted more than anything was this for the viewer to see how things are connected right we very rarely get to talk about how something like climate change is tied to something like justification for example so how is it that a hurricane becomes the perfect opportunity to displace people that then you can you know have a have a real estate boom for example anyway there are a lot of ways in which we tried to do that and make sure that there was room for.

[00:46:47]
I'm always going to try and get too much of the film than the not enough if that makes sense so. Ok We have also a Michaels question well if you want or need it yeah this is a question about project because it says how do you been able to do any work this week Ok screenings and what have you learned from from Puerto Rican viewers and so she would like to mentor and I love this question because that's and I were just talking about this before the the q. and a we basically because of the pandemic of course you know the film was supposed to premiere and in April.

[00:47:21]
Right is what happened it was starting to basically So of course I drop everything on line we had big plans to take the fall the 4th of the summer of last year. And that has obviously not happened but we've been able to make the film a vailable online in different ways I think fully but surely the film is making its way to port that we go which we.

[00:47:42]
Try to tell people when they can see it but we are actually planning to take the film to court this week when person in the summer and we're planning a socially distance outdoor screening tour for the Hugo because in Puerto Rico because I think it's really important that we screen the film.

[00:48:02]
With communities you know it's a film that I will see so I can't wait until people can experience it collectively because a fellow the collective power and I think it's a very different thing when you're home alone you know watching it on your computer your laptop or whatever.

[00:48:17]
But I will say that for me one of the things that I found to be most. Kind of she and I and I I feel like I I need to warn people sometimes that I think people who I think Puerto Ricans have the thing I have heard the most is how hard the film to be to watch.

[00:48:38]
I've heard from people that it's incredibly it can be incredibly painful I've had some people say they haven't been able to finish some people say I had to try and watch it 4 times. And it's been a challenge I think it's a different you know this is a film like I said about trauma and people are traumatized and so I think that that's something that.

[00:49:01]
I really try and I hope that the film and in the long run as a film that that it's hard but it's not it's it's meant to be healing as well meant to be kind of capture that catharsis of the protests for example that there can be a place to let it all out.

[00:49:19]
And so yeah I think that that would be the biggest thing but to me the most important thing at every turn has been I really wanted to make sure that I was making a film that was not made at the expense of people but that's the goal and what I mean by that it that wasn't catering to the Diaspora that wasn't catering to those of you that are not directly tied to but there we go to many films to do that.

[00:49:42]
Too many you know and tie the thing it was most most concerned about was making sure that this is a film that people import the vehicle would not feel violated by or not feel had had it wrong and so far overwhelmingly I think people have said that that we were that that we didn't do that and that the film was sensitive and accurate so that's that means everything to me if you could you tell us a little bit about the reception of the film a few of being a.

[00:50:14]
Gating a couple of people and how people are reacting to the feel I mean it's funny because you know in many ways this is a pandemic film like I said are experiencing a rollout has been great so it's it's a very strange feeling like you're in this bubble and having this getting the full out there like I like literally I can't see I mean I'm so glad I publish it up to so it's a safe like my experience with the summit is like this I'm in a room and I'm on a screen the maybes and I see the person I'm talking to and then and I kind of hear from people but I don't so.

[00:50:49]
It's it's didn't challenge in that regard but. I have been very very gratified that when it has reached people it has. I have gotten the response that I was hoping I would get and the film has really you know all things considered I'm glad I work in a medium that you can at least show your work like you know I'm not a musician or a dancer or somebody who's.

[00:51:16]
Really the pandemic is made impossible to make your art. So in that regard it's been nice because we've been able to be in festivals and we won you know quite a few awards. Gotten some really nice. Critical acclaim and process and things like that that you know make us feel like Ok.

[00:51:35]
You know people are paying attention you know little by little so but I'm I'm really looking forward to the day when I can see it in the cinema with people. Like you and I think we have an older question. Up. Yeah this is a follow up but just to set I think this is the 2nd fall to the 1st question just said did you find yourself pretty partisan one or the other and she said or do you did you seek to give these issues an equal place in the film to make a point of some sort.

[00:52:09]
Yeah I think I kind of answered the question already Ok yeah I think that that sort of questions are and. Any more questions so any future plans I'll have a couple of minutes before. Rather some of them out like I said is going to broadcast the. P.b.s. the summer and that means the film will be available across all of the United States.

[00:52:41]
For free extra for important because and that is because the late bad air which is you know public public television station has been shut down because of pro because of budget cuts. So Karen Ok ironically a film of merit easy is not going to be shown in court this big all because of austerity you know so we are really trying to find an alternative and trying to find another channel and we're going to go like a broadcast phone but anyway I least as of right now it's going to air everywhere in the u.s. except for the sequel which feels very telling.

[00:53:21]
But. In the sooner than that in April and May we are it currently in the process of planning a 6 part series. On line around the film which for those of you that are interested in the deeper issues around the film. We are working on. This is a film that always tried to highlight the work that preexists what I mean by that is that there are extraordinary activists community organizers and projects that are have been doing extraordinary things before landfall came along by the way we're having the 6 part series.

[00:54:02]
That tries to not only highlight the themes of the film but also uplift the work of many of these organizations so it's a kind of intersectional series it's about. Some of the sessions of our focus on that after I'm going to recall some of them are focused on things like that disaster capitalism climate change and when some Frenchie we have a whole week on clearance transforming us utopias it's a lot of different points that we touch on but really trying to show that parts of the cause a handbook for our time so for those of you that are interested in following us we're on Facebook and Instagram and things like that you can follow us on social media and find out when those are going to be.

[00:54:49]
Because it's very much a word of mouth kind of kind of thing with some you know it's an independent documentary and. So anyway if you if you want to be part of that conversation but also we will be making the film available as a kind of sneak preview during that time doing that serious stuff there are people who missed that at this particular screening at Georgia Tech and you want to tell others that's a great way to spread the word of them that's the series that's coming up though.

[00:55:17]
So we would like to thank you again Cecilia to. Have a very great conversation and really appreciate if you have taken the time that we we've all and I think we will continue. Chatting about the film and slammed the book together for. A piece an article or maybe a book chop your own b.s. and super excited.

[00:55:44]
That piece you know. Representing our story and trying to build bridges between the you know we're presenting the ironic thing the of us and I think it's a it's going to be a. It leaves a very strong legacy so I really want to spend Q 4 for the film and it's a beautiful photo grocery I want to ask of a little bit of all she was overseeing a lot but I think we will have more opportunities thank you again and we will see each other soon Ok I think you know a good thing or thank you so much for everyone think you were kind of your mother your.

[00:56:28]
Kids you're a well I'll feel even a kid we won by.