5Q's w/Donna Wheeler "Fuego" Director
#1: Can you describe your movie and why somebody should see it in less than 140 characters?
FUEGO is an experimental exploration of Love and connection, using intertwining love stories that center around a red scarf.
#2: What do you want the Borrego Springs Film Festival audience to know about your film that isn’t obvious from its title?
There is little if any dialogue in FUEGO because as part of its experimental nature, we wanted it to play in any language, the language of love, human bonding and connection we all have with each other. During this pandemic, we each have found how valuable, important, and very dear those connections are. The connections can be wordless and based on strong sensory experiences, feelings, and memories. We also include inevitable pain and loss in FUEGO. It was inspired by my symbolic and cultural connections with my extended Hispanic family. And I chose an article of clothing as the centerpiece "character" because my Mom was a clothing designer, as was her mother before her. My parents' love story is also touched on, the way they met by chance, coming from different parts of the world and deciding to become a family in the US.
#3: What is your movie making background? Tell us about yourself.
I went to graduate film school for directing and writing, and also studied editing and post production. Prior to that, I was studying neurosurgery in undergrad. I had planned to become a brain surgeon. I switched majors halfway through college, realizing that telling stories using moving images and sound was more my jam. I also have a theatre writing and directing background that I remain active in, here in Los Angeles. As a child growing up, I was writing short stories, comic strips and making films and videos. It feels natural to me to continue into adulthood as a storyteller working with actors and other talented craftspeople.
#4: What was the biggest lesson learned in getting your film made?
I learned that there are not enough Hispanic and Latinx stories out there, even experimental ones like FUEGO. And it was beyond joyful for me and our Team to create something like this that centers on what I know to be the implicit, unspoken and unbroken personal bonds between family, friends and loved ones -- bonds that outlast even someone's mortal life.
#5: What does the future hold for your film and you?
I've been wanting to do an expanded, longer version of FUEGO using voice over, dialogue, found film footage, and actual love letters archived from my parents history with each other. That, and I'm also developing my next feature film, and a TV series. And am looking to direct in television as well.
