Hola, Femmebots! Welcome back to the Latinas in Tech TV show! I’m Dr. Nutmeg, your hostess, and I hope you clicked on the video above to watch a revamped Femmebot 7.0 pitching a flying car app to Sharky B. It’s a major scene in the short film we’d started producing last fall. We may need to do one more re-take to get the facial expressions right, but hey, after a long hiatus, we’re back on track, thanks to inspiration from the 34th annual Florida Film Festival April 11-20. I was so excited to see all the short films on Saturday, that as I ran from the parking lot to Regal Winter Park Village, I tripped and fell flat on my right knee in front of the valet. He didn’t laugh even though he should have. He was nice, and asked: “Are you OK?”
Popping up immediately and continuing to run while laughing, I yelled, “I’m OK! I’m OK!” Little did I know I was bleeding underneath my un-ripped, thick-skinned yoga pants because all I could think about were the back-to-back short films I would be experiencing for the next four hours. The first batch was my favorite:
Milena Montero’s “Culture War”
XF Serrano’s “Little Haiti, Miami, USA”
Edel Rodriguez’s “Freedom is a Verb”
Hansel Porras Garcia’s “Ana y La Distancia”
Sebastian Brito’s “For the Culture”
Summer Purks’ “Catch and Exterminate”
You’ll notice that last filmmaker is NOT Latin, and for the record, who cares? In fact, she calls herself the “Girl Tim Burton,” which of course sent me into a spinning whirlwind of giddy excitement. A GIRL who is doing stop motion and calls herself a live doll? Ay ya yay! I turned my hand into a fake microphone after the segment, bum-rushed this amazing chic like I was a news reporter, and said, “Summer Purks, where can I get one of your stickers?”
I was SO…I don’t know — like a fan girl when I met her? When she gave me the sticker, I turned into a total child and had no idea what else to say to her. She’s prolly like 22 years old, I could be her mom, but there I was saying stupid things like, “Your animation was amazing, I love that you do all the technical work yourself, which software do you use, I love your earrings, you should totally meet my stepdaughter and my sobrina, you really know how to market yourself, can we take a selfie?” Then I proceeded to click buttons on my phone in search of Instagram, but I couldn’t find it, and before I could, all the Latin filmmakers named above, who Summer went to school with at Florida State University, started approaching to say hi, and then I completely lost my cool, started chattering like an idiot about teaming up to create a sci-fi Orlando film starring my underground FACTory of Femmebots, and, and and…
Ugh. I was the epitome of THIRSTY. Even though I was filming my first doc when these kids were in elementary school, I was acting like they have more power than I do. Gotta start getting more grounded and comfortable with the idea that I am an “older” filmmaker. I don’t have to be young and fresh, just my ideas need to be……..and I really wanna collaborate!
Sooooooo…..if you’re reading this, and you wanna team up on my short, sci-fi Orlando film, Hollllllla!
Share this post