Third Horizon Film Festival filmmaker spotlight: Natalia Lassalle-Morillo on reimagining "Antigone"

Axios

a day ago

Among the nearly two-dozen films, shorts and documentaries included in the Third Horizon Film Festival programming is " En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy (Part I)," an experimental film by Puerto Rican artist and director Natalia Lassalle-Morillo.
Why it matters: The film, a reimagination of the Greek myth of Antigone through the lens and perspective of the Puerto Rican diaspora living in New York City, is the only Puerto Rican film in this year's festival.
The big picture: The idea for the film began in the midst and aftermath of Hurricane Maria, the 2017 Category 4 hurricane that caused catastrophic damage to the island. Lassalle-Morillo had left just one month prior to study in California.
"It was very strange," she told Axios. "I wasn't living the embodied experience of what it's like to go through this catastrophe in person, but I was still living this different experience."
Between the lines: Lassalle-Morillo was born and raised in Puerto Rico, but lived in New York as a young adult before moving to Miami, where she was "offered a very welcoming community of people and artists who were receptive to the ideas I was bringing that I didn't feel elsewhere."
"I have a very intimate and profound connection to Miami," where she said she came to understand herself as a Caribbean person, not just a Puerto Rican.
Zoom in: In the aftermath of the storm, Lassalle-Morillo began reading Greek mythology and the story of Antigone stuck with her.
The play explored who had control of memory and who had the right to be remembered. It led her to think about what the tragedy would look like in the context of a post-Maria moment.
What they're saying:"I wanted to reimagine this play as a portal to think about memory, about tragedy and moving beyond these cycles of tragedies," she said.
"The impetus was to create a space for Puerto Ricans who have had to migrate, and those who have chosen not to, to come together and think and create together," she added.
How it works: The five-woman cast (which includes Lassalle-Morillo) is made up of non-professional actors who reside in New York City. The women underwent acting classes and training to make the film; the final product is a record of that experience.
"All of them chose a character in the play and rewrote it based on their experiences and desires," Lassalle-Morillo said.
Zoom out: While the film is anchored in the Puerto Rican experience, Lassalle-Morillo says it's a film for "anyone who's had an experience of displacement and migration."
She hopes viewers who aren't from Puerto Rico can still have a deep connection to the ideas and feelings expressed in the film.
What's next: There's a Part II to this film in the works, Lassalle-Morillo said. She's working on developing it through a similar process — this time with four women in Puerto Rico.
Eventually, the two groups will come together to present the play with a live audience.
How to watch: The film is screening Saturday at the Koubek Center at 3:15pm, followed by a Q&A with Lassalle-Morillo.