Director Gabriella A. Moses:<\/strong> It was, and unfortunately, I couldn\u2019t come in person and they (the NYLFF) played both SIN RA\u00cdCES and BOCA CHICA, but I heard they were very well received. SIN RA\u00cdCES was actually developed through the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, and I know both of those festivals (NY and LA Latino Film Festivals) are such hubs for Latina creators and audiences in the States.<\/p>\n Director Gabriella A. Moses. Picture, Courtesy Tribeca Film Institute<\/p><\/div>\n It\u2019s really incredible to be able to be in partnership with festivals that support similar voices. Obviously, there\u2019s different demographics and films that come out of the two, but I had not yet been able to screen at the New York Latino Film Festival, so I was very thrilled to have two works showcase this year.<\/p>\n Perez: You have been in a lot of other film festivals, though. How did your experience with both the New York and the LA Latino Film Festivals compare to Sundance or Tribeca?<\/strong><\/p>\n Director Gabriella A. Moses: <\/strong>So at Sundance, I received a lot of support on the institute side and as a production designer, I\u2019ve had films I\u2019ve collaborated on screen there, but have not screened my own work at Sundance. So the (Sundance) festival is a great experience in that it feels like a filmmaking retreat. It\u2019s so snowy, and in January, it takes a bit of investment to get out there.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve also navigated Tribeca (film festivals) through their programs, I was an alumnus. Tribeca has this incredible program called \u201cThrough Her Lens\u201d that partners with Chanel as a sponsor, and you pitch for $80K for a short. I think the last two grand jury prize winners at Sundance were alumni of that program, A.V Rockwell and Nikyatu Jusu. It\u2019s incredible that being part of the Tribeca Film Festival seems to be a steppingstone to Sundance.<\/p>\n The LA Latino International Film Festival, and New York Latino Film Festival are incredible because it\u2019s put on by and for our community. The Latina community is not a monolith. It\u2019s nice to see so much representation. The two coasts have different demographics of who\u2019s present, but the festivals do a really great job at representing people across the spectrum, including international-outside the states – creatives.<\/p>\n I\u2019m always out of town for the New York Latino Film Festival unfortunately, but I know that there\u2019s been some incredible partnerships like Mar\u00eda Akay who is a programmer at the NYLFF. I\u2019ve talked on panels at other film festivals that she\u2019s a part of.<\/p>\n I know that both festivals always have really great premiering and closing nights. Those events then go on to really represent what Latino culture but also what Latinos as a buying power can do. We really go out and see films in theaters and things of that nature. There\u2019s a great mix of domestic and international at both of those festivals.<\/p>\n A New York Latino Film Festival Red Carpet<\/p><\/div>\n Perez: You wrote about starting out at the Tribeca Film Festival taking tickets, and now to be able to premiere there, it seems like it has been an incredible journey. You have a lot of connections within the NY film industry, you\u2019ve been living in New York while filming many of your projects, but you have not lived in LA, where SIN RA\u00cdCES was filmed. Is that correct?<\/strong><\/p>\n Director Gabriella A. Moses:<\/strong> Yes.<\/p>\n Perez: What was it like filming SIN RA\u00cdCES in a place you\u2019ve never lived?<\/strong><\/p>\n Director Gabriella A. Moses:<\/strong> So I had three shorts and one short experimental piece (filmed in NY. \u201cLas Ma\u00f1anitas\u201d was my thesis film about this young girl who sees the Virgin Mary in a piece of queso fresco right before her quince\u00f1era, and thinks it\u2019s a sign she\u2019s supposed to not lose her virginity, which she was grappling with. It\u2019s very whimsical.<\/p>\n Perez: There was a lot of humor in that film.<\/strong><\/p>\n Director Gabriella A. Moses: <\/strong>Yeah! So, the premise alone is funny because I do gravitate towards drama, though I think drama always needs elements of comedy because that\u2019s life and comedy alleviates everything.<\/p>\n But \u201cLas Ma\u00f1anitas\u201d was my first true short film, and it was definitely a labor of love. I was born in New York City but raised in Virginia. My mother moved to New York when she was 12 from the Dominican Republic, and then my parents met in NYC. My father\u2019s Guyanese, I have a very Caribbean background. We were able to shoot at my mother\u2019s cousin\u2019s restaurant in Staten Island for that film, my abuelos apartment, and then the church that my parents got married in, also the church I was baptized in, on 106th and Amsterdam.<\/p>\n We filmed the confessional scene in that church, which was really important to me, I was like, \u201cOh, this is my first film,I know how beautiful that church is\u201d so I thought, \u201cOkay, if we could get it that would be great.\u201d – And we did. We shot on 35 millimeter for free through the school – \u201cLas Ma\u00f1anitas\u201d was filmed with a lot of favors and having that New York connection was really important.<\/p>\n Director Gabriella A. Moses<\/p><\/div>\n SIN RA\u00cdCES was part of a larger story, and I thought that the grant I received was aligned with. I actually had applied for another grant they had that year. I didn\u2019t get it, but I received a message from one of the heads who encouraged me to apply again. That experience is a way for me to be transparent about the grant process. For anyone who\u2019s ever applied for a grant or program and found it wasn\u2019t for them -always try again. SIN RA\u00cdCES had been an idea for a series, actually, and it centered around a celebrity adopting a young girl.<\/p>\n The root of the film for me is somebody who is the daughter of immigrants, maybe second or third generation, giving up family for fame. She\u2019s realizing the American dream in a certain way, then realizes she wants family. What would that look like for a woman higher up in her career ala, Rihanna, or Jlo? The woman then adopts a young girl who\u2019s potentially been uprooted and has maybe lost her family. Now this child is being thrown into the spotlight of fame-I wanted to navigate that journey through these two women. I focus on coming-of-age stories about young girls of color, so I wanted to tell the film from the child\u2019s perspective more than anything outlying the film.<\/p>\n Viktoria Divine as Alma, 8 years old in scene from SIN RA\u00cdCES<\/p><\/div>\n It was also a good challenge for me as a filmmaker and creative. The pilot shot in L.A, and I had never shot there, but I had support systems in terms of other filmmakers I went to school with that were in L.A. I thought, \u201cLet me give this a go\u201d and I learned a lot. L.A has a lot of red tape because the industry runs everything. So, it was not as easy, I would say, as shooting with kids in New York or in the D.R, or acquiring locations. There were a lot of different costs and scheduling things that I became more aware of, but that only makes me stronger as a filmmaker. Overall, shooting in L.A was a pleasant experience I was happy to be able to navigate and learn from.<\/p>\n Perez: The location that you chose for SIN RA\u00cdCES was beautiful. Without even knowing that it was in L.A when I was watching it, I was like, ‘This feels like L.A’ from the very first shot.<\/strong><\/p>\n Director Gabriella A. Moses: <\/strong>It\u2019s funny because the original script for SIN RA\u00cdCES had more exteriors, but it was still a very limited budget, even with the grant. We were going to show a little bit more of the outside. There were talks when I was struggling with budget in the beginning of filming, of moving the shoot into a big home in New York, but I knew it wouldn\u2019t be the same feel. I feel like the home we shot in is very specific and we got really lucky because a lot of houses were very much out of our budget. Then that home came to us at the last hour.<\/p>\n I had done another deep dive on locations and found it. It was right out of the jurisdiction where we would\u2019ve had to pay insane location and permit fees, but it just really worked out for us. I wanted this very clean, absent of personality, transitional space, almost clinical but elevated, for this pop star to live in and then put this little girl in it. It felt like a space they belonged in.<\/p>\n Perez: I wanted to ask about something that I have noticed in all of your films I\u2019ve viewed. There seems to be a use of tension that as a viewer feels unique. I\u2019ve noticed all of your films are shown with a lot of compassion. Characters are never portrayed to be clearly \u201cthe good guy\u201d or the \u201cbad guy\u201d- at least from my perspective which then takes away my ability to know where the story is going to go. That created a lot of tension for me. What are your intentions or thoughts on depicting your characters and pulling that tension through your films?<\/strong><\/p>\n Director Gabriella A. Moses:<\/strong> Yeah, I really appreciate you saying that because – that is our humanity. As a director, certainly when I take off my writer\u2019s cap, I never see anything as black and white. There is a very prescriptive Hollywood way to go about things where you have your antagonist, and you have these very clear conflicts but I\u2019ve always liked the nuance and the gray areas. I was just listening to a screenwriting podcast.<\/p>\n They were talking about how there are always gray areas that make everything more resonant when the good guy isn\u2019t just a hero and is deeply flawed. It allows you to feel some empathy. It\u2019s interesting that you talk about the tension that exists because of that.<\/p>\n I also love sitting with my protagonists’ reactions, and because, at least up to this point, so many of my films are coming of age stories, {sitting with reactions is} really important when it comes to working with young talent, too. Kids are obviously very innocent, still finding their own voice, and perspective, their identities in the world, we are through adulthood too. That creates a space of observation.<\/p>\n A lot of the stories I tell, even with the very visual, world building techniques, and lighting, and production design that I\u2019m implementing and controlling, are stories rooted in a reality. In the real world there is so much nuance and gray areas to all these issues of adoption, sex tourism, abuse in families, like in BOCA CHICA and even LAS MA\u00d1ANITAS.<\/p>\n Scene from BOCA CHICA<\/p><\/div>\n There\u2019s more of a comic take on things, but there\u2019s still difficult topics like, losing your virginity, religion, exploration and guilt. Each of my antagonists and protagonists have parts of me in them that I can relate to and understand. It\u2019s great if that creates tension because tension and also tenderness, are the most important things for me in films as a viewer. So I hope to achieve that in the stories that I tell. It\u2019s great.<\/p>\n Perez: Tenderness and tension do come through, and the result is really surprising. I didn\u2019t know what to expect when I sat down to watch your films, and I always ended up in a completely different place than where I thought I was going to go. We\u2019re coming to the end of the interview. Thank you so much for all your really thoughtful answers. <\/strong>Is there anything else that you want to add? Anything that you\u2019re currently working on?<\/strong><\/p>\n Director Gabriella A. Moses:<\/strong> Since BOCA CHICA’s premiere, I hope to be going out with my project that went through all the labs. That\u2019s my beacon into the industry as a writer director in the development of a feature called \u201cLeche,\u201d which is a Latina folk lore film. I have the short film \u201cLeche,\u201d that\u2019s a bit of a character study to the protagonist, but the actual feature has developed a lot over the last several years and is centered around Santer\u00eda<\/a> and a young girl dealing with grief and moving to the states. I\u2019m continuing to try and elevate female perspectives, Women of Color, and return to my roots in the Caribbean. I want to continue to tell stories in those spaces as well. That\u2019s just very important to me as a first-generation artist.<\/p>\n It was an incredible gift to be brought BOCA CHICA when I was developing projects that felt very aligned and adjacent by Sterlyn Ramirez, who\u2019s my producer on BOCA CHICA, I\u2019m looking forward to continuing to carry this torch and support other female Latina creatives and Women of Color on our journeys because it is definitely a marathon and a constant struggle to get these films and stories out there. So thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time and watching the work.<\/p>\n Perez: Thank you. I really look forward to watching \u201cLeche” when it comes out. Enjoy your time outside of the States.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n J. Perez can be reached at z3phouseestablishment@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a9 Copyright J. Perez All Rights Reserved Perez: I watched all the shorts of yours that I could get my hands on after I watched your film SIN RA\u00cdCES at the New York Latina Film Festival. Was that your…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/director-gabriella.jpg\")
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>{Gabriella A. Moses Portfolio}<\/a><\/h3>\n