Second Class to Award Winner
Christina was referred to us by our friend Akiva and we are thrilled to have Christina here at the cafe. As you'll read from her feature, you'll see that Christina has vast experience in both photography and filmmaking. If you are unable to see Christina's short film at the Berkeley film festival then click on the link above and watch it in our screening theater. The images above are photos taken by Christina. ________________________________________________________________
I was born and raised in a tenement apartment on the upper Westside in Manhattan. My father Cuban, my mother Puerto-Rican. We were the poorest of our family but everyone who lived a middle class life with houses and cars in the suburbs, always came over to visit us, since my mother was an excellent cook. My summers were spent visiting the rest of my family in Puerto Rico which was composed of dentists and an engineer. Even though both parents spoke english, as Latinos, they traditionally considered me the female although the oldest child, second class to my brothers. Photography has always been in my life, and can be traced back to my teenage years where I can remember documenting my family with a camera.
The turning point in my life was being hired to work as a script supervisor on the feature film, Nueba Yol, the Spanish language blockbuster, released theatrically worldwide in 1995. The highest grossing film in Santo Domingo. I was flown to Dominican Republic and was the only female hired from N.Y.. A day before flying to the D.R., I had just flown back from the Chicago Latino Film Festival, with my film, Torn Loyalties. When I came back from the film shoot , I quit my job as an Interpreter for the Bronx District Attorney's Office in the Grand Jury to pursue a career in film. I worked on the star stellar film, El Deseo. In 1997, I worked on the feature film, Buscando Un Sueno, the first ever Spanish language S.A.G. feature film to be shot in the U.S, which was released theatrically in 1997. I've been blessed to have worked on successful Latino films with talented directors.
With a husband who is a lawyer and two young sons, I took a leap of faith and have never looked back. After taking trips to Cuba in 1997 and 1998, I started exhibiting my Cuban images which were well received for exhibitions. Although I won awards for my images, I still had the dream to make my feature film as I watched my scripts collect dust, year after year. This year, I finished my feature film, Muneca and also, a short film, Perros Sin Amor, which is being screened at the Women Of Color Film Festival, Berkeley, California on Saturday, March 10th.
Throughout this time my husband who no longer practices law and is now a middle school social studies teacher and both of my sons who are now adults and in the art world themselves, have always supported me as an artist.
For information on where you can see Christina's short film visit http://wocff.berkeley.edu/
02/07