LIFFY 2022: Sonia Fritz & La planificación en Puerto Rico

In this interview with CLAIS, Mexican-Puerto Rican film director Sonia Fritz spoke about her career path and goals, the challenges she has faced as a woman in the film industry, as well as about some of her works, especially about her most recent documentary La Planificación en Puerto Rico, which is going to premiere at the upcoming Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale (LIFFY) on Wednesday, November 9, at 6 pm (53 Wall Street Auditorium.)

In this documentary, Sonia Fritz presents the biggest challenges currently faced by the island’s inhabitants in terms of planning, like water, energy, housing, food security, global warming and erosion, transportation, conservation, and education; and gathers the testimony from experts on these fields about these problems and possible future directions.

Tell me a bit more about your background – how did you become a film director? What inspired you to tell these stories through films and documentaries?

I studied Communications in the National Autonomous University of Mexico; the Communications department is in the school of Political and Social Sciences, so I had a very solid background in the social struggles of Mexican society, especially women’s struggle. A vital part of the history of my career path was the Collective Cine-Mujer, through which I was able to get at the core meaning of my work. Although I always loved being in the set and working for foreign documentaries and films, I always kept wondering: Where are the stories that I want to tell? Where are the women reflected? My first documentary tells the story of an association of Yalalteca women in the Oaxaca mountain range and their struggles. Since then, I started focusing on telling stories centered around women. The first documentary I directed after moving to Puerto Rico was about the feminist, pro-independence activist and painter Myrna Baez; following that one, I directed a documentary about the social struggles of Dominican women who migrate Puerto Rico. For me, it was so much better to tell these stories with image and sound rather than just words.

What are the biggest challenges you have faced in your career, especially as a migrant and a woman?

As a female director, I think it is harder to get people’s trust, not just in terms of budget, but it is also harder to get the trust of your crew members. Directing documentaries is a bit easier given that the crews are smaller and composed of people who already and unconditionally support the content you’re trying to showcase. I think it’s about credibility: that sponsors would have the trust on the fact that you are an intelligent and thinking individual who needs no paternalism or special consideration for being a woman. The other big challenge for independent filmmakers in general is getting funding. Although in Mexico there is a lot of governmental support, that is not quite the case in Puerto Rico.

Imagine someone watched your documentary La Planificación en Puerto Rico and really liked it; how do you think they would recommend it to someone else?

It gives the audience up-to-date information and shows that although there is planning in the island, there are other things that intervene in its development such as federal funds, corruption, and bad political decisions. This documentary shows that there are prepared, intelligent individuals doing good and necessary work for Puerto Rico’s development. However, there are also other forces in action, and I am specifically talking about corruption here, which fights against that development. La Planificación en Puerto Rico discusses topics that concern every Puerto Rican, as they deal with them everyday: there are always people without water, people without electricity. There are people being threatened by gentrification and lack of infrastructure on a daily basis, people fighting against the privatization of public beaches and parks. This documentary touches upon topics that are being discussed by everyone everyday, and it helps people understand the deeper reality in Puerto Rico, as well as get to know people that are very committed and concerned about the present and future of Puerto Rico.

As a female director, I think it is harder to get people’s trust, not just in terms of budget, but it is also harder to get the trust of your crew members.

What drove you to direct La Planificación en Puerto Rico? What is the impact that you hope this documentary will have?

People interested in talking about these planning issues reached out to me after watching my documentary 15 Faros de Puerto Rico, which is a geographical journey around the island visiting 15 lighthouses as well as a historical journey that gathers anecdotes of the people who lived in these places. After seeing this, they thought I was the right person to take up the job of directing La Planificación en Puerto Rico, and I gladly accepted because it represented a great opportunity to more deeply understand the topics that were always discussed by everyone in the island – family, friends, strangers, and of course, the press. The goal of this documentary is to frame the topic of planning as an urgent need; we especially want this work to reach university-level students and make them aware of and interested in strategic planning, encouraging them to become planners themselves and help build a better country than what Puerto Rico is today.

I assume this is a hard question, but which of your works would you say has given you the most satisfaction?

A really hard question to answer! I think one always falls in love with the most recent production one has been working on, because of how much work one has just put into it. For example, we’ve been working on La Planificación en Puerto Rico for more than a year now. We started in October of last year, working on the research and script up until February and starting filming in March. We finished editing in May/June, but then the coastal erosion became much worse than what our previous images had captured, so we filmed once again to show the up-to-date level of erosion and integrated it into the edited part. I’m also currently working on a documentary of my own which I’m very excited about: it follows the very inspirational story of three sopranos and two tenors from Puerto Rico who sing not only opera but also popular, traditional music and in that way make their Puerto Rican identity known to the world.

I’ve already been to previous instances of LIFFY, and I absolutely love it! I always look forward to exposing work at Yale because of the intellectual level of the students: their questions are always on point, effective, and productive

Lastly, what are your expectations regarding your upcoming participation in the Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale (LIFFY) and your visit to Yale and New Haven?

I’ve already been to previous instances of LIFFY, and I absolutely love it! I always look forward to exposing work at Yale because of the intellectual level of the students: their questions are always on point, effective, and productive – I think I end up learning more from the students than what they learn from me! I’m excited to be in the festival itself and meet up with other colleagues who are also going to be presenting their work – these sorts of things are what really make my work worth it.

By Leda Blaires Ciotti, Student Programming Assistant, leda.blairesciott@yale.edu