Bird's Eye View

Festival Gem: Entre Nos

Paola Mendoza, pictured above, plays adoring mother Mariana in the film

Entre Nos is based on real life events and follows Mariana and her two children who, having been abandoned by their husband/father,  are thrown out onto the hot Summer streets of Queens, NY.  What follows is the story of one family’s struggle to survive in a dangerous and foreign world.

BEV are privileged to have the UK Premiere of award winning Entre Nos. We caught up with Directors Paola Mendoza and Gloria La Morte

You were very successful in managing to create a film that wasn’t too dark or depressing. How did you go about achieving this?
From the onset we identified this woman’s journey as a journey led with dignity, so no mater the depths of her downward spiral we had a responsibility to her humanity. That simple concept shaped the tone of our story in the writing room, on set and in the edit room. We never allowed tragedy to exist for tragedy sake, instead we relied on the simplicity that lives in truthfulness.

The film is based on your mother’s story and your father’s abandonment, how close were the two stories?
The film is  insipired by Paola’s mother’s story. Paola’s mother was abandoned by her husband when she immigrated to the USA with two young children. The events of the film are true to life. Is every aspect of the film factual? No of course not, there are moments that we decided/needed to take dramatic license in order for the story to work as a film but we always say the foundation of the story is as it happened in real life.

How much of your mother is in Mariana’s character? Did that come into your decision to play Mariana?

When Gloria and I were writing the script in my minds eye Mariana was always my mother. When I read the script I saw my mom, when I read the scenes out loud I always heard my moms voice but yet I was always aware that we were writing a film that was inspired by my mother. Meaning that sometime I had to let go of reality and make decisions that were not true to life in order to make certain aspects of the film work. I was always fine with those decisions because while they might not have been based in “reality” they were always based in truth which was more important that the facts of the story.

As for playing Mariana, my mother made that decision for me. When the script was done and we were raising money I was talking to my mom about possible actresses for the role of Mariana and my mom said to me that was not part of the deal. I wasn’t sure what she was talking about and she said,” You can make my story into a movie but you can only do so if YOU play me. I won’t let it happen any other way.” So with that Gloria and I agreed that I would play my mother. I have played many characters, done many movies but never did I imagine that I would have the honor to put my mother on screen for the world to see. It has been the greatest joy of my career.

How did your mother feel after she saw the film?

My mother didn’t want to see the film until it was done. Once it was finished I asked her if she would like to see it in private first and she said that she wanted to see it with an audience. So at our world premiere my mother sat with 500 people and watched the movie for the first time. When the film was done we brought her to the front of the theater and she was given a standing ovation. That was my proudest moment. I felt like my mother was finally getting the respect she deserved. She was the star of the night and I loved seeing her bask in her glory. After the screening I asked her how she felt and she said that before the movie she was feeling nervous because she was afraid that all of her “dirty laundry” was going to be hanging out for everyone to see but after watching the film, she felt just the opposite, she felt very proud. Since our world premiere she has traveled to a few film festivals with us and where ever she goes she leaves many many fans!

The child actors who played Andrea and Gabriel had a very natural and believable charm on screen. Were the characters difficult to cast?

Yes. Although we knew exactly what we needed, it didn’t make it any easier finding them. The children are the lifeline of the film. The audience had to feel and fear for them if they were going to invest emotionally in their mother as well. What we knew is that we were going to have to find children that had probably never performed in front of a camera before, they had to speak Spanish fluently (with a Colombian accent), look like everyone was related, and most importantly have a maturity level to comprehend and carry such heavy subject matter while still being children. We auditioned over 300 kids at open calls before we found Laura Montana Cortez (Andrea). Her honesty and innocence was exactly what we needed and she conveyed it very clearly upon meeting her. Finding Sebastial Villada Lopez (Gabriel) forced us out of any kind of traditional casting and made us literally hit the streets… in this case Paola and I attended the largest Colombian outdoor event in the US where thousands of families gather to celebrate Colombia’s Independence day. We literally approached as many families as possible with boys in his age range and gave our best independent film sales pitch… We found him sitting on the lawn with his grandmother having a picnic!

From reading about your research for Entre Nos you seemed to have spent a lot of time getting to know the local Queens community, this is reflected in the film. How much do you think this contributed to the film’s ambiance?

Colombian-born director/actress Paola Mendoza plays Mariana

The community of Jackson Heights in Queens went beyond contributing to the ambiance of the film, it had a hand in the making of the film. With our limited budget we knew that to make the film happen the residents and hard working members of the community had come on board in any way they could… and they did. But before anything happened we had to win their hearts and minds… that’s where our story and script came in. Paola and I were both born in Colombia and have always kept very close ties to our homeland and culture, so we knew the sensibilities of the community. We were welcomed with open arms when they knew the story was not riddled with violence, drugs or profanity… that it was a story about a hard working mother that is looking for a better life. We used their restaurants to hold auditions, their homes as locations and their support to spread the word about the film.

Aside from the focus of immigration, family and poverty, the film considers a woman who is finding and establishing herself outside of a relationship with a man. This is a very powerful theme. As a feminist issue was it something you specifically wanted to incorporate?

Yes, absolutely it’s a key element for the film to work. We have always described Entre Nos as a coming of age story for both a mother and her son. Mariana’s journey in the film is to finally see her self worth outside of a man. Her journey is not an easy one but when she finally does arrive the audience breathes a sigh of “thank god!”. While this journey is crucial for the film to work it was one of the most difficult aspects to write. I have only known my mother to be a strong, independent woman and she instilled those characteristics in me, which I hold dear to my heart. So writing my mother as the opposite of what I know her to be was a challenge but forcing myself to see my mother in a new light gave me a newfound respect for her. I was able to see the woman she was well as the woman that she turned out to be…it has been an amazing gift!

Entre Nos is screened as part of BEV Festival at the ICA on Friday 5th and Saturday 6th  March at 8.30pm.  For tickets, click here