This special selection of short films from Puerto Rico brings attention to the impact and legacy of Hurricane Maria. Yomaira Figueroa (English) will lead a brief discussion of the films and give a short presentation on Proyecto PalabrasPR before the live performance of RicanStructure.
Friday, Feb. 14, 2020 7:00-8:00pm RCAH Theatre
Genre: Short, Adventure, Drama, Family
Alejandra López/Puerto Rico/2019/5 min
Spanish with English subtitles
In hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, medicine can be hard to come by. A little boy has to grow beyond his limits if he is to help his grandfather.
Alejandra's short film The Blue Cape, which she wrote and directed, has screened at Oscar® qualifying Palm Springs International Short Film Festival, Uppsala International Short Film Festival, International Short Film Festival Berlin and New Orleans Film Festival. She was the grand prize winner of Voces Nuevas – a Cine Sony Short Film Contest, the first annual short film contest for aspiring filmmakers produced by Cine Sony and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. Alejandra was most recently a staff writer on the third season of Sony Crackle's original series Startup. Originally from Puerto Rico, Alejandra is now based in Los Angeles.
Genre: Short, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Ariel Orama/Puerto Rico/2018/8 min
A castaway in his delirium is thrown to the unspeakable to find his nephew, while experiencing the ravages of hurricane Maria immersed among souls in pain. Beside him, Hurricane Maria is transfigured as a woman with a cameraman, who accompany him on his journey. At the same time, he faces his most terrible fears to achieve his liberation: One represents the struggle of masculine and feminine energies, combined with an inescapable dose of religious elements, African archetypes and poetry petals. Ten months after Hurricane Maria, a forceful voice resound for the lost souls.
Ariel Orama Lopez is a Puerto Rican professional NYFA actor, multilaureate director & clinical (media) psychologist. He is a collegiate actor of the Colegio de Actores of Puerto Rico, a certified Executive Coach (specialized in Creative Life Coaching) from TISOC, Barcelona, Spain and a licensed clinical psychologist. He was selected as a finalist of Taller Telemundo: actores, in Miami, directed by the well-known actress nominated for an Oscar in the movie Babel (2006), the distinguished Mexican actress & professor Adriana Barraza. He is an Assistant Professor of Drama and Psychology at University of Puerto Rico – Humacao. He recently received a scholarship for a Seminar about Gender, Sexuality and Film at NYU. Ariel is making his first independent film -from his musical theatre version- YSLA (2019) -direction, production, script, composition and leading role-, with a complete cast of well-known talents and new performers from Puerto Rico.