Julia Solomonoff rocks. She’s cool, serious, candid, and it appears like she glides from one great thing to another great thing. At it for many years, Julia has some really beautiful credits. As director, those include, The Last Summer of la Boyita (produced by Almodovar, winner of over twenty international awards) and Hermanas (participant of Sundance and Berlinale Talent Campus labs and premiered at Toronto). As producer, Alejandro Landes’ Cocalero (Sundance 2007), Julia Murat’s Found Memories (Venecia, Toronto, 2011), Ana Piterbarg’s Everybody Has a Plan starring Viggo Mortensen (Toronto 2012), Lucia Murat’s Memories they told me (FIPRESCI winner Moscow 2013) and Celina Murga’s The Third Bank of the River executive produced by Martin Scorsese (Berlin 2014). And, she was 1st AD to The Motorcycle Diaries director Walter Salles.

She co-wrote and directed the feature film Nobody’s Watching (nadie nos mira), world premiering at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival in the International Narrative Competition with screenings on the 22, 23, 26 and 27 of April.

Spoiler alert: In this episode 43 Julia and I talk film financing, Argentinian women directors, directing from the inside and about Guillermo Pfening, the film’s protagonist and hero. Mr. Pfening (Nico in the film) is a wonderful actor. He delivers a courageous performance that reaches a gamut of difficult emotions with such elegance. It was a pleasure to watch him go at innocence, love, grief, striving, desire, utter destitution and embracing self-reliance. Broke my heart. I’ve seen this story. Nobody’s Watching is a New York story and a world story. After 27-years and counting here in the City, I don’t know of anyone, who has not faced the sun at sunset when all seems lost. But not all is lost. Ja-ja! It ends well... In Spanish we have the verb tenses “ser y estar.” This is the crux of the foundation of the language in its most literal sense, in understanding that distinction of the state of the self. “I am” and “I am” in English is one state. But in Spanish, “ser” (I am) is a permanent state, and “estar” (I am), is transitional. Somewhere in there is the story of us.

Joseph and Gloria La Morte are a special husband-and-wife creative duo. They’ve etched a place for themselves in the creative economy. Combined, Joseph and Gloria have produced films, documentaries, web series, public service announcements, special segments, edited features, written screenplays, and acted; and are parents to Emile. Good people.

For years they’ve been part of my artistic and professional compass. How do they/we do it? When and how does the creative life begin? Make something out of it. And that they have. Joseph says something really true here towards the end. I’m paraphrasing, but it’s something like, yes we have to pay the mortgage, but we find ways to feel at peace with how we earn our money. The crux of the hunt. And it lives with the actions of us/them, the creative work. In their case, Details, Crush, Entre Nos, Free Like the Birds, Get Some, 11 Million Stories, and much more. See JoeynGloria.com.

Their son Emile will know all about producing and filmmaking for sure. I tried editing down to 30 minutes but it was almost impossible because of course, thoughts come in story form as told by creative workers. Also, the sound is not ideal, but I worked it and am proud of the editing to bring balance to the three voices. The talk stands because this conversation is really about making the quotidian matter.

Javier started his career in communications way back when his parents built him a playhouse, that at one point he turned into a studio news station. He wrote scripts and broadcasted the news. I can picture him clearly, little, doing his thing. He read the papers everyday at 8:00 p.m. with his parents. His love for news is a way back thing. Good it is.

A consummate professional in the field of communications, Javier knows government, public affairs, culture, society, political campaigns, and a whole lot more. More like acting and performing. He combines his art and what he considers his civic duty, reporting on local news.

He and I have grown up together, professionally speaking. In this episode 41, we talk about that, the things we do, the new era of news and though he’s straight laced and I the bohemian one, we’re good colleagues, with nothing but mutual respect. Good, it is.

Towards the end of our conversation Daniel Maldonado says that “dealing with rejection is soul crushing and it never ends...it’s about managing expectations."

In this matter, I feel Daniel’s next of kin. What do you say? Doesn’t the match make us usable, strong, and mature if you meet it in the eye? Every down-and-up a swallow. Standing.

Daniel Maldonado is steady like that, like an oak, and owning his journey as a writer, director, and filmmaker. His movie H.O.M.E. is beautiful.

They went rogue. The director, cast, and crew, filming underground NY-MTA...

H.O.M.E. is on tour: Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara (market) - Festival Internacional Cine, Álamos Mágico (screening) - San Diego Latino Film Festival (screening) - North Hollywood CineFest (screening) - Phoenix Film Festival (screening) - Chicago Latino Film Festival (screening) - Bentonville Film Festival (screening).

Home is where the heart is…

Sitting down with Maria Nieto was lovely. I am of her tribe now . She taught herself how to write in formulas, that’s the Hollywood way, and she takes to it. She’s working on a couple of horror and Sci-Fi scripts. Maria has a whole lot of profound and sensible things to say about being, writing, surviving, the politics of the day, and she’s a good listener.

How we got to talking about loss and mourning I’m not sure, but we did, and I thank her for it. The dead live. What a paradox.

Indeed, that this should be the week the U.S. Gov in all its mighty might announced axing the arts from federal funding. They may or may not succeed, but one thing is for sure, art will never die. Art lives.

Keep Calm and Carry On.

Resistance is not futile.

Once, many, many years ago, I had the honor of playing Spider Woman / Spider Grandmother in Murray Mednick’s The Coyote Cycle. The culmination of performing this play meant we did seven acts through the night beginning at dusk and ending at sunrise. The Coyote, the Trickster, the Clown, and Spider Woman. The cycle of life, the story. The four elements. We had an audience. I stood eye-to-eye with an owl. Humbling.

As a native daughter, my sincere heart stands with Native Nations. We have one earth.

Their fight is our fight. Truly. It was an honor to march on Friday in Washington D.C. #WaterIsLife. Without water we don’t survive. None of us. None of this.

This episode is what I heard - their proclamation, their credo, the plea, the warning.

I loved the movie Gladiator. Memory tells me, I went to see the film anywhere from 6 to 8 times on the big screen. I was mesmerized by it. Such a colossal spectacle in every single way – the music, the opening battle sequence, the costumes, the plot, the words, the vengeance, the colosseum battles, and the brilliance of Maximus Decimus Meridius, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Lucilla, Proximo, and Senator Gracchus.

One of the nicest parts of this NFAND learning journey of the past 36 weeks, is to express, sincerely, that special something each person I talk with possess. Seeking the good saves the heart.

So here is Alfonso Díaz, the New York City arts, culture, and entertainment reporter and red carpet correspondent for the Colombian channel NTN24. As publicist he and I have worked in a variety of projects throughout the years. Put succinctly, debonair, in the truest sense of the word.

Earning respect as a serious red carpet reporter is the most challenging part of his job. We talk about that, being out there when the lights are on and things happen that curtail the job - glamour-drinks-and-drama.

To honest work.

In the realm of music and international arts relations, Claudia Norman is a legend. Period. Sweet as pie and as serious as any true diplomat out there Claudia is a risk taker and a champion of culture.

Some of her fierce credits including working with the legendary Sheldon Soffer, serving as Artistic Director of the Latino Cultural Festival at Queens Theater in the Park, Public Programming Producer for Lincoln Center Out of Doors and Midsummer Night Swing festivals, and La Casita, a festival celebrating oral traditions, poetry, hip-hop and global sounds. She’s served on many panels, worked with hundreds of artists from across the Northern and Southern American continent including the late and beloved Chabela Vargas. But goes beyond the region and one can say she has come across artists from all over the world. Her Celebrate Mexico Now Festival will be 17 this fall.

She and I have a lot in common, from dance to artists advocates, in a nutshell.

I appreciate her. I look up to her. Everyone I know in this behind-the-scenes realm has learned from her. We go at it in this episode 35 talking about how she landed, stayed and conquered New York. Ja! You have to listen to the podcast to get this. The skinny is that she stayed in the Big Apple for Love - and I love her for it…

Art funding will be as hard today as it has always been, she says, and she’s optimistic. Me, not so much, at least not today. Notwithstanding, we agree, that art is the way.

SOS.

Arnaldo J. López is brilliant. Brilliant. His capacity to synthesize the underpinnings of almost any topic you present to him is uncanny. Now, all this brilliance I talk about would never-ever-ever be spilled on you as condescension, which is what sets Arnaldo apart. Truly. Anyone that knows him will tell you that it’s so. And, one of the reasons I simply love him. He is dear to my heart for that and more...

I can bounce ideas off him and he takes them in. He listens. He makes sense of them and helps you navigate towards a conversation that is filled with depth and substance. And, those who know me well know I love deep and intense. Can’t help it.

This episode 34 is about art, culture, artists, the structures that bind, build, and help the field stay afloat. We go deep and broad but it’s specific to the field and the reality that is creation, presentation, scale, access, identity and going at it in an ever-changing financial and cultural landscape and now, a bellicose political climate.

One last thing. On Friday, Paul Krugman wrote, When The Fire Comes, and it will, in some form or another, brace yourselves to fight even harder. The hyperlink, links to the article and my published comment included here as quote: Say! Say! Say! Mr. Krugman! Forty-five is a very dangerous provocateur. The white nationalist/supremacist WH is playing a grotesque game with the world order and putting everyone in danger. Everyone, not just the U.S.A. And you say, right sir, someone will lash back or something will crack and this is the battle for humanity. For the sake of Mercy! Keep them coming Mr. Krugman. We need you.

The truth is we need everyone with a sense of decency to stand and resist. Find your way and your voice and stand.

Live long and prosper / Resistance is not futile

The age of Jesus. The silent language of art should save us. Tis’ the end of times it feels like. Oil over people. Water for profit. Meat for destruction. Lies over truth. Who does the talking? Whose story? And for what purpose?  

Beatríz Ramos and Judy Mam rolled-out DADA for the digital age with DADA (dot) NYC. The original DADA movement, galloped onto the scene in the early 20th Century, to among other things, protest war and strife. Fancy that. DADA is the stuff of myth for modern art history. Plenty has been studied, philosophized, and written about it.

But this is not that. It is and it isn’t. DADA (dot) NYC, is a platform where people can go draw and paint. What people draw is up to them. Beartíz imagined it as a collaborative rather than a competitive space. It is sort of like creating a Mandala. You put the time to create it, only, in the end, the symbol, the art does not get erased. Chances are someone else will come to your board and add on to it and the painting gets built together in a language without words.

We talk a lot in this episode 33, for an episode on invisible but palpable communication. But, no one is perfect...

DADA (dot) NYC is for everyone. Open up your heart. Draw. Resist.

Sol

Powerful, determined, stand-up, a woman of her word, an award-winning filmmaker, actress, and director, Paola blows people away. She does, she’s got that something…I met her back when I was with my Falco Ink family as a film publicity and got the chance to do P.R. for her film Entre Nos.

I know her story very well. I wrote this piece for her book, The Ones Who Don’t Stay (Los Que No Se Quedan), for the Huffington Post. Her track record has enough substance for several episodes, from refugee camps in Kenya to immigration detention centers, Paola does not relent when it comes to immigrant rights. I also wrote this piece for the Huffington Post about her andthe fabulous Gloria LaMorte, one of Paola’s creative and life sisters.  In this episode, we talk about the Women’s March. I asked her where her sense of duty comes from for the sake of those who don’t know her. Listen to her words. Hopefully, she’ll inspire you to stay the course and stand on simple but essential principles of humanity.

I, like her, and as stated in the Women’s March website in the Artists’ Table section, believe artists hold the power to humanize the most difficult of issues.

The work she and the women responsible for the Women’s March, have given us, the people of the world who believe that a better society is possible, a reason to stand against those trafficking with hate and demagoguery. Strength in numbers...

I for one, even in the darkest hour, hold to Anne Frank’s own words: Despite everything, I believe people are really good at heart.

 Below Michael Skolnik's letter. He said to share. I say read on. Act. Resist.

Sol

Good day fair people, This episode is just me. A little brief on yesterday's D.C. Women's March.

Though I was a proud Brick x Brick brigade member (more on that in the short episode), I loved this poster below. Simple, but I felt like they nailed it for me (wink).

This grandma and granddaughter and I hugged hard (tears of joy).

This poster also got to me. Something. Well, in a sense, this is what is all about (profound stuff).

More pictures and videos on my Instagram feed, soldanelarivera

Live long and proper

Resist

Repent

and

Save your souls...

With Love,

Soldanela

In this episode 30, I speak with the profoundly creative Sarah Sandman. My heart simply opened up to her as soon as I met her back in 2011 at Hostos Community College. She works with big concepts. She creates experiences, through games and special assignments, for collectives, where human capital is built and valued by doing the work.

Sarah was selected a 2015 TED Fellow and is Co-Director of Public Displays of Affection, a Brooklyn-based agency engaged in works that ignite social and environmental causes through experiential design.

She found a serendipitous partner in award-winning costume designer Andrea Lauer, and together they developed the creative and political protest experience, brickxbrick. Two other partners came on board for Sarah and Andrea, TED Fellow, singer-songwriter, Kyra Gaunt; and TED Fellow and creative producer, Joey Foster Ellis.

Project description

Brick x Brick is a public art performance that builds human “walls” against misogyny. During the wall performances, participants wear brick-patterned jumpsuits adorned with colorful brick patches bearing statements of misogynistic violence made by President Elect Trump and his Administration. Placing divisive words on the jumpsuits is a symbol of our resistance and determination to maintain control over our bodies. Linking hands to form community walls of individuals further blocks and subverts the harmful messages that subjugate women. When standing in wall formation, we hold silent space that amplifies our message and builds unity through passive participation with the audience.

The Brick x Brick group, now over 120+ people, will march next Saturday, January 21, 2017, in Washington D.C. at The Women’s March.

Brick x Brick's mission for the march

Brick x Brick marches with the Women’s March on Washington to protest misogyny. We resist patriarchal, heteronormative, discriminatory and oppressive systems and structures of power. We stand in solidarity with an intersection of voices from all socio-economic, geographic, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including indigenous communities, people of color, people with disabilities and LGBTQIA communities. We acknowledge the strides women have made historically; we are continuing the work of those who have stood in resistance before us.

I’m marching with the Brick x Brick brigade next week at The Women’s March and looking forward to it.

Art will save us.

Stand up to climate change.

#womensmarch #brickxbrick #womenrightsarehumanrights #women #cliamtechange #blacklivesmatter #brownlivesmatter #alllivesmatter #wallagainstmisogyny #lovetrumpshate #resistneofascism #artssaveslives

Sol

Public Displays of Affection

www.makingitpublic.com

Brick x Brick

www.brickxbrick.org

One of my favorite projects ever is Cinema Tropical.  Equally a favorite of mine, is Carlos Gutiérrez, its co-founder and executive director. In this episode 29, I welcome him with sincere gusto. I admire him tremendously and love him with a bit of teenage innocence. We talk about life, fluid identity, film, and how and why Cinema Tropical champions Latin American cinema.

Cinema Tropical has matured holistically, fueled by Carlos’ admiration for filmmakers, using cinema as a tool to interpret the world, and his respect for the artistic, cultural, and civic voice of Latin America.

Carlos Aguilar of IndieWire published (December 26, 2016) “20 Latin Americans Making a Difference for American Independent Film Today, Meet the unsung heroes keeping Latin American film alive in the United States.” Great piece and Carlos is there, top left in the title image composite.

Next Friday, January 13, 2017, the 7th Cinema Tropical Awards. Visit the page for a full slate. Captivated by “Embrace of the Serpent” and “The Man Who Saw Too Much.”

Welcome to 2017 fair people...Here’s to your wish list and the tasks that will give your life meaning.

Sometimes I think ghosts are real. I believe I’ve seen ghosts twice in my life. The first time, about 10 years ago, in the hallway in the building I live in, uptown in Kingsbridge the Bronx.  What I saw was this transparent image of a woman but I only saw her black and old lady shoes, her legs and part of a skirt. Then she disappeared into one of the apartments. I walked into mine quiet and in disbelief, but also certain of what I had seen. I sat down andstared and thought about the other side. The other ghost I saw was in Berlin about four years ago. This ghost was upset. It, she was also a woman. I could sense her walking up the entrance stairs outside the bedroom, and I woke up because she was in front of me. She was dressed in black, and her mouth was open as if yelling in horror. It felt as if she was trying to scream. The moment distraught me. After that, I moved about in the apartment with a bit of trepidation. I thought about her and wondered why she was so upset. I had theories but I concluded that ghosts can be real and they make things happen…

It’s that something, that thing with no proof, that is at the core of the impetusand need to carry on with Notes From A Native Daughter. It feels like a whisper from a ghost. A presence urging me on.

So here is week 28. Hardly perfect the whole thing, but to my credit, honestand real and very much me, as I said back in the beginning. Thirty-weeks ago, back in the summer, a ghost or something of which I have no proof of whispered in my ear to start, and so I did.

Starting was a gut need to give my life purpose. The commitment was to carry on weekly come what may, hey, hey, hey…and now I'm in love with this whole thing. A few awesome gigs have come about because of this weekly podcast. More on those in the coming year.

Thank you to all the amazing guests. Your spirits are true and I stand in admiration:

Marlène Ramírez-Cancio

José García

Noemí Segarra

Desmar Guevarra

Leticia Peguero

Roberto Busó-García

Balún

Harry Nadal

Paola Lázaro

Tony Chiroldes

Zaida Adriana Goveo Balmaseda

Rosal Colón

Ivonne Coll

Gaston Solnicki

Eduardo Alegría

Patricia Zárate

Caridad de la Luz and Emilio Montilla

123 Andrés

Kisha Tikina Burgos

Melissa Montero

Inés Mongil

Elba Cabrera

Trina Bardusco

Louis Perego Moreno

Danny Rivera and Bebe López

NFAND CODA Letter to President Barack Obama stands relevant.

All these conversations are available via the audioboom Notes From A Native Daughter channel who distributes far-and-wide in the web. More amazing people to come in 2017. 

Women’s March on January 21, 2017 in Washington D.C.

Resistance is not futile.

Resist neo-fascism.

With love and purpose,

Sol

This is a Spanish podcast with an English intro - I lost my joie de vivre for Christmas a few years back. I’m not a scrooge. Is rather an indifference kind of feeling about it all. However, overall, I don’t limit myself to wishing and praying for people I love to Christmas time at all. I think about humanity and world events and I want a better life for all of us, every day. Truly.

But, this year the spirit of Christmas came knocking at my door and I acknowledge it. This episode 27, is my mom, pops and I sitting around mom’s dining table a few days ago.

Here dad and I talk about one of my theories on why I’ve lost my “joie” for holidays in general, his love for Christmas, his Pido Paz album, childhood and Christmas in Puerto Rico in the 1950s, a song for Sister Isolina Ferré, and all the while Bebe, my mother, throwing her wisdom of historical references. She didn’t “want to be” interviewed but she spoke anyway. ‘Tis her style to let her voice be heard. I owe her so much I can’t even, I’ll save her for Mother’s Day. Dad is incredible. At 71 his voice is solid, mature, profound and uncracked. A beast. He’ll get more episodes, I mean he’s a series onto itself.

Later today, I’m spending Christmas with my parents for the first time in over 35 years.

Amazing and beautiful. I’m verklempt and grateful. Here’s to wishing you all a Merry season and a prosperous and bountiful year 2017.

And, resist neo-fascism.

Sol

Good day fair people,

Here in New York City Louis Perego Moreno, also known - far-and-wide - as Tio Louie, is a staple character of the hustle and bustle Latino arts and entertainment scene. He supports and champions filmmakers, actors, and musicians, but really all the arts. He’s hell-bent on arguing his point on how Latinos are not at the table at almost every turn. And, while I do agree with Louis on several points, I favor other equally and arguably more important points, regarding Latinos “at the table,” mostly that, I think we can do a better job of telling and presenting our stories. It’s a big one and a conversation that Louie and I and others can continue to have and expand. Don’t expect a cat fight here, we’re civil, loving, and listen to our conversation...episode 26.

Live,

Sol