Te llaman las olas ("The Waves Call You") is a love letter to my mother's hard work.

She is a brilliant seamstress, and she has made all of my important dresses. She does this for all of the members of my family, and many friends, and friends of friends.

The event industry her work hinges on has been significantly impacted since Hurricane Maria all the way up to the current pandemic. Creatives and artisans in Puerto Rico find themselves in an extremely delicate place both economically and personally. They knows their work is worth more than they are charging for it, but their clients are not often willing to pay the price. This occurs at the same time that the cost of living in Puerto Rico is sky-rocketing due to ongoing gentrification, which makes for the film’s dilemma: what is an artist to do when they can no longer afford to live in the place they have always called home? 

Out of this, the character of Yvonne is born. Rent is due soon and she has $12 to her name. When her daughter, Isabel, gives her a call to check on the money she just sent her, she asks Yvonne if she's thought about moving to the US. The day dreaming begins. The ocean calls for her. She’d rather drown than have to leave the island she has always loved. 

This is a story about a woman yearning for resolve and release. Yvonne feels tension in her daily life but doesn’t have a way of expressing it, so she begins to day dream. The scenes shot in reality are a bit dull, dark, tense. Reality is strained, and it is hot and humid outside. She escapes to the beach, and the daydream sequences are hauntingly ethereal, with soft textures, pinks and blues. The day dreams are where she wants to be, wearing ballgowns on a beach where rent isn’t due.

I’ve seen movies about quinceañeras: a beautiful young girl, a classic coming of age story. This time, I want to turn the camera down to the woman hemming the dress. I want to make a movie about my mother. This project is my way of honoring hard working peoples' desire to live on the island they've always called home. Moving to the U.S. would be, in some ways, to accept defeat.

My highest aspiration as an artist is to create work in which the people in my family, and therefore a wider Black and Latiné community, can see themselves as the beautiful, complicated, and heroic individuals they are, while working alongside them to achieve these narratives.

Cinema has always been made in Puerto Rico. I am not doing anything particularly groundbreaking by shooting a film on the island; I stand on the shoulders of great filmmakers. However, my film is entirely composed of characters who are Puerto Rican women of different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. I am looking forward to showing local and international audiences that Puerto Rican people come in all shades and income brackets.

The goal of this project is to give a meaningful voice to the residential, creative communities of Puerto Rico. The local Puerto Rican population has experienced substantial hardship and loss throughout the last several years due to the devastation of Hurricane Maria, COVID-19, and increasing gentrification.

According to the New York Times, 43 percent of Puerto Ricans live below the federal poverty level, while affluent investors driven by tax incentives, like YouTube influencer Logan Paul and crypto billionaire Brock Pierce, have displaced residents who can no longer afford to live there.

Te llaman las olas examines this issue through a particular point of view, in this case, through the character of Yvonne. However, there is a universality in Yvonne’s experience. She is a symbol of women like my mother, like other seamstresses and artisans in Levittown, and of the greater Puerto Rican community, culture, and way of life. We want this film to have an impact on both American audiences, as a means of awareness and education, as well as Puerto Rican and Latinx audiences, as a means of pride, empowerment, and representation.

I grew up in Puerto Rico making theater. It is where I formed myself as a storyteller. I directed my first play when I was 16 and my first web series when I was 18. I love making work there, it is where I feel most empowered and most inspired.

I want to shoot this film on location in my hometown of Levittown, Puerto Rico because I believe that stories about Puerto Rican characters should employ the largest number of Puerto Rican artists as possible. These are the people to tell this story, so I'm going to go there and work amongst and alongside my community. With this film project, we will work with a film crew that is completely local to the island.

We are also seeking partnerships with Puerto Rican grocery stores, local churches, and more. I want this project to be a community effort.

I feel immensely lucky to have been awarded the WAVE Grant, awarded to first time BIPOC women & non-binary filmmakers. In a way – I feel it is my responsibility to bring those resources back to my hometown, and share it amongst the artists that have helped me become the artist I am today.

We have also partnered with Filmes Casa, an independent film development and production company based in Puerto Rico, focused on producing auteur Puerto Rican cinema for Iberoamerica and the Caribbean. 

For a short film that’s quite literally about the payment of local artistic professionals as a means to survive, it’s paramount that all our collaborators are compensated in a way that supports this principle. Thereby, we seek to create a positive impact not only through the outcome of the film, but also through the process of making it.

About the Project / Specs

Genre / Themes: Drama, Surrealism

Run Time (Expected): 10 min 

Production Company: Filmes Casa

With the Support of: Wavelength Productions

Timeline:

October 2021 – April 2022: Development

May – July 2022: Pre-Production

August 2022: Principal Photography

September – November 2022: Post-Production

December 2022 – 2023: Distribution & Festivals

Our hope is to submit this short film to festivals in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe to elevate the stories of low income Puerto Rican families in these circles. The producers of this film have premiered shorts and features in the U.S. and around the world, most recently at SXSW, LALIFF, Sarasota Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival, and more.

Following the  festival circuit, our goal is to share our film with like-minded institutions and non-profit organizations to offer community screenings for an even wider audience in early 2024, when the film will be publicly released.

All that said, if you don’t want to wait until then, pitch in at the $150 level for a private screener link of the finished film!

While we have $5,000 under our belt through the generous WAVE grant provided by Wavelength Productions, we are responsible for raising the remaining funds of our less than $20k budget. Filming an international short of this scale has required our team to think creatively, strategically, and outside-the-box when it comes to the most effective (and realistic) use of our funds to create the strongest possible short with the most impact.

With your meaningful support, we'll be able to use or donated funds towards:

• Securing authentic locations (& insurance) in Levittown, Puerto Rico to adequately capture and set the stage for Yvonne's world 
  
  
• Providing competitive day rates for our cast and crew, particularly in support of the film's thematic message (paying creative artists appropriately!) 
  
  
• Renting professional-quality techncial equipment, including camera & sound
  
  
• Creating a set of colorful dressing, props, and costumes (quinceañera dresses!) to properly illustrate the vibrancy and artistry of Yvonne's craft as a seamstress 

If you’d like to support this project, but you aren’t in a place to contribute monetarily, no worries! Here are some other ways you can help us out:

• Follow us on Social Media @lasolas.film for updates at every step of the way.
  Share the following on your social media: “Help filmmaker @anamverde by supporting the @thewaves.lasolas on @seedandspark! Join them here: www.seedandspark.com/fund/te-llaman-las-olas”
  
  
• Follow us on Seed&Spark! (It’s free!) Seed&Spark rewards us for building our audience. Once we hit 250 “followers,” regardless of how many people pledge, we'll start unlocking creator discounts, products, services, and festival fee waivers for this and future projects, courtesy of Seed & Spark!
  
  
• Share this page far and wide!
  
  

Have suggestions, ideas, or other services?

Reach out + say hello!

Email Producer, Lauren Lukow ([email protected])