Collaboration During My Spring Break

            My spring break was last week and I had an amazing time visiting my family and friends back in the border cities of El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico. While I was there, I decided to call an old friend from middle school to collaborate on a photo shoot. Cassandra Arredondo, also known as Cachis by her friends, is a visionary who is working her craft in many different forms of fashion and art. She launched her own make-up services line (instagram @rebelblush), she is in the process of developing a fashion magazine to promote local boutiques, and is hungry to gain knowledge in other fields such as photography and design.

            Our session took place on a slightly windy afternoon at golden hour on Friday, April the fifth. We shot in a parking lot at Sunland Park Mall and at a park near her neighborhood. The parking lot proved to be a great location. A beautiful sunset that only El Paso can provide, served as our source of lighting, and we were even lucky to get the Asarco towers as you’ll see in one of the pictures.

            For those of you who don’t know, the Asarco towers were demolished yesterday (April thirteenth). It was a bittersweet morning for many El Pasoans since it served as a monument for the city; however, it was not being used, and back when it was in business, it was known for heavily polluting the Sun City.

            Anyway, I hope you like this collection, which I had to narrow from 500+ pictures down to five. All pictures were shot with a Nikon D3100, have a focal length of 55mm, and an F-stop of 5.6. You can check out these and more pictures on my Facebook page.

            Have a great week, and I will leave you with a quote from the film I Am Number Four, which kind of defines my spring break back home: “A place is only as good as the people you know.” Keep them close to you!

            

Another Reason To Give Thanks on Thanksgiving

             Two weeks ago I published a blog post in which I briefly explain the journey of Vicissitude on all three stages of production. On this one, I simply want to share what a great experience it was to finally screen the documentary to a group of people. The members of Club Rotario Juarez Ejecutivo were the lucky ones to see it for the first time. This Rotary Club branch from Ciudad Juarez gave me the opportunity to present my project the Friday after Thanksgiving at their weekly meeting. We met at Campestre Country Club where we had lunch together and listened to another presenter before they introduced me and played the documentary.

Community Service, Sierra Tarahumara

           After the screening, I conducted a Q&A session to answer some of the questions they had regarding the making of the project. I was also given feedback and constructive criticism, and there were nothing but positive comments. I heard things from how well the story was structured and edited, to how relevant the music sounded, to how properly the interviews were conducted. Some were curious about the overall budget, others wondered what inspired me to do it, and where I planned to take it next.

With Manuel Papadakis (Kickstarter Donor)

With Gilberto Nevarez (Club President) and Dr. Ramos (Executive Producer)

            After the screening, my editor made a couple of minimal changes as soon as I came back to Orlando from my trip to the border, and now we’re ready to start submitting it to different film festivals. I submitted for the first time to the Florida Film Festival a couple of days ago and I can’t wait to find out if we’ll be able to represent our crew and Ciudad Juarez at this prestigious festival. Also, I just finished a list with other potential festivals for me to submit the documentary to and start getting the story out there. It’s important for me that this documentary gets seen by as many people as possible because that is the main reason why I decided to take this challenge.

            I will keep posting updates on the progress and whenever I submit to other festivals or screen somewhere else. In the meantime, don’t forget to “Like Us” on Facebook and keep up on Twitter typing #vicissitudedocumentary. Once again, thanks to all of our donors, supporters, and anyone who was a part of this project.

The Journey of "Vicissitude"

           Vicissitude is an independent documentary that takes the viewer on a journey with several people who have been innocent victims of the drug-related violence in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico Whether they were carjacked, had to shut down a business, or had a relative killed, the feature-length movie pays homage to the thousands of people who have lost their lives since 2008 by portraying a more personal side to the story.

           The purpose of the documentary is to show what people never really got to see on the news, and to give a voice to those who had to go through this experience of radical change. It also shows a progress, which is slow but certain, and the hopes that the city and its people have to once again be free of war.

           It is a project close to my heart since I’ve personally been a victim in one way or another and I lived in Ciudad Juarez for 16 years. The idea came to mind a couple of months after starting film school back in the summer of 2010. I had to write a short story for one of my classes and I thought, “Why not do something based on a case from the situation in Juarez?”

           As the months passed by, I put the script aside but the thought of doing a story about the violence would bother me every night. I knew I had to tell it some way. 

           In the summer of 2011, my best friend told me while having a conversation that she would love to visit Juarez. We had a break for Memorial Day coming up, so we planned a little trip to my hometown. An idea struck me that same night. I realized this could be the perfect opportunity to shoot a documentary. I had just taken two documentary classes, and the instructor, who is an Emmy award winner, had been a true inspiration. After giving it careful thought, I asked her if she wouldn’t mind to change our trip into a business trip. She was all for it.

           I did pre-production for approximately two months. This process consisted of crewing up, contacting potential interviewees, setting up a Kickstarter account to raise funds for the project, getting a hold of equipment, and many other things. I successfully raised a little over a thousand dollars, which I used to pay part of the plane tickets of the three people who came with me plus some other miscellaneous expenses.

           We shot the documentary during the four-day trip and it was nothing but a great learning experience as an aspiring filmmaker and as a person. Our biggest challenges had to do with time, but we managed to get things done.

           We came back with about 150 hours of footage from interviews, and that’s not counting B-Roll. The editing process was probably the most difficult but most rewarding. Having to balance school, work, and extracurricular activities, made it difficult for my first editor and me to get together. Luckily, I was blessed to bump into Mauricio Martinez one day at school, the guy who ended up becoming my editor and who is now a close friend. I happened to be wearing a soccer jersey from Mexico and he asked me where I was from. We had a short conversation before I needed to head back to class from break but we exchanged our contact information. We then took it online. It was here when I realized he speaks Spanish, is familiar with the subject, and one of his fortes is editing. As a result, he ended up editing the project and receiving a producer credit due to his contribution to the structure of the story and for recommending me an amazing recording arts student to compose the soundtrack.

           We finally finished the lengthy process on November 21^st, a day before Thanksgiving. I am aware that this is only the beginning, since now I have to figure out ways to get people to watch it, submit it to different film festivals, and screen it wherever I can. My top priority right now is the Florida Film Festival, we have a deadline coming up soon.

           This experience has taught me managing skills more than anything, and it has broaden my network. I hope something good will come out of this story and I can’t thank enough the people who contributed to this project by either working on it, investing, participating, or sending the good vibes.