Something I really appreciate about the Austin Film Festival is how many different types of movies one can encounter while attending. This year, there were a ton of great short films on display, but perhaps none affected me more than Andrea Calao’s incredible effort, Magdalena, Te Amo. Following a young exotic dancer struggling to balance the demands of her job with other relationships in her life, it’s a gorgeously shot character exploration that sheds light on one of society’s most ignored and stigmatized classes of people. Shortly after the film showed at AFF, I got to speak with Andrea about the filming process, what this film means to her and more. I hope you enjoy the conversation!
It was impressive to learn you spent four years doing field research for this. How did that process shape the final product of the film?
I began researching in a very academic framework when I was still in Colombia, trying to understand this notion of transactional sexuality. It was so integrated in the way we are socialized as women to perform our femininity. As I was studying that and forms of migration, specifically for brown Colombian women, I began fantasizing about this whole story. It was from an outsider’s perspective, so there were a lot of stereotypes in the first iterations. The initial draft was used for my NYU application, and as my own migration process began to take place I gained a more personal relationship-based understanding of this issue that’s way more engaged. What we were trying to say became clearer and clearer. It got even more refined as we went through the post-production process. It was a journey of hubris, putting in the work and engaging, listening a lot, then hopefully doing something different.
I’m really taken by your location shooting. Can you talk about finding these locations and gaining access to them?
I found HQ because one of my friends worked there. This was before I thought of where I was going to shoot the movie. But as my friend was telling me about her journey, how this club was so different from others, I got very interested and was able to create a relationship with management, dancers and even some customers. So, when the decision of where to shoot my thesis came up, I was like ‘there’s no other place we should shoot this other than the place I learned so much from.’
75% of the cast is actively involved in this industry. A lot of crew members as well. Is that something that was important to you from the start?
It was crucial. Our story needed to bridge these two worlds, and as we were developing the film I found it important to communicate in every way possible how this bridging of worlds actually happens. As I began to know the club and girls, I found a lot of overlap between sex work and creative professionals. It’s so common, and I was trying to find a way to use all the skills of this community in service to this story. As we were creating this film, I kept seeing how the choices that felt most authentic to the crew and cast were the ones powered by sex workers or people who’ve had experiences adjacent to that. There are some experiences that were very much brought from real life. So, it was important to create an environment where the people whose experiences were being put in the forefront felt safe. Talking about sex work can be very difficult, especially if you have an environment that feels a little hostile. We created an environment that cared and was careful. When you have a space where the consensus is ‘we are family, we are friends, nobody’s judging anything,’ it just makes it better.
The visual language is very strong. Was that present when you were writing, or was it developed with your DP?
Both. When I was writing, something that was very clear to me was the attempt of representing how this club can be a liberating space as opposed to the constriction of the real world. Even the style of the script, and how it’s translated into visuals, is so tied with that feeling. So, when I communicated that feeling with all the departments, it was very easy to find the visuals and make it a sensorial experience.
You were the producer, writer-director and star of this film. Did those roles influence each other?
It was interesting because it felt like I was doing the same thing in each role but with different skills and tasks. I felt like regardless of the role, my job was to preserve and chase truth in terms of the visual and sonic universe we were creating, the story, the resources we were using, and in terms of my performance. Having to analyze what truth meant in those four different channels made me very aware of the different shades it could have. I was very cognizant of what each of my collaborators in each of those realms had to say so the notion of truth we were following felt most robust. It was a very tough but amazing experience.
You mentioned soundscapes, and the mix is really interesting. How did you come up with the sound design?
That was a collaboration between our sound designer, composer and me. It began with the script; I knew we were following her experience. We wanted to replicate what it means to be in her head. When it came to designing the sonic experience, we were able to see how different motifs came together. Stuff in the sound design would happen because the composer remembered something I said in a meeting. It was a flourishing of different repeating elements being iterated by another department. It felt so magical and cohesive.
Independent filmmaking comes with so many surprises. Can you speak to anything that happened and how you navigated those events?
The entire film is a miracle, and each of the steps we conquered to get closer to a final product felt surprising. If I were to choose a couple, the first would be how willing my friends from the club were to help and devote their skills to this. As we expanded the notion of what collaboration could mean, we kept finding people that could support us in different ways. We also love to talk about how, for the rooftop scene, we lost the location the day of. It was crazy because that was the only day we had to shoot. We’d flown in actors and didn’t have resources to fly them in again. But seeing how fast the team was in response, the producers quickly finding another location, the art team taking all the dressing stuff and moving it to another location when there was no time, was awesome. Shout out to my team.
As an actress and a director, how do you stay focused in moments like that?
I was very blessed with an amazing team, so a lot of the stress was able to be delegated to them. I was working with an amazing performance director, and the work we’d done acting-wise was so strong I could pop in and out of it when we were supposed to shoot. I knew I could trust my team to take care of everything while I was in-camera. If it wasn’t for that reassurance, I wouldn’t have been able to be in the moment.
It’s an amazing film, and I can’t wait to see what you do next!
Thank you so much!
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