Who are you and what is your education?
This is my sign.
And my name is Alexandra.
I was born in Colombia, and I came here after
studying theatre professionally for five years
in my homeland,
It was hard work,
because I was the only deaf person
and there was no adaptation...
...it was me who, with patience, had to adapt.
Then, I discovered gestural theatre,
and that's why I came to Spain, to study it.
I was also interested
in Social Education,
a degree I'm now finishing; all that's left is my internship.
To further my education,
seeing the existence of deaf cinema,
and since I have actor training, I'm enrolled
in scriptwriting, production and film editing studies.
I love art and believe it should be studied well, with patience.
Let's talk a bit about your artistic journey.
In my artistic career,
I've worked in theatre, as well as film,
and now, as I'll explain later, I'm connected to deaf art.
In Colombia, I had a theatre group
in which I started acting
after I'd graduated,
but there were no deaf people.
So I started
a theatre group with deaf people.
But I needed more training.
So I specialised in gestural expression.
It was good.
Then I started working
on an artistic project involving both deaf people and interpreters,
"Alma Silenciosa", which was staged in the Almazen Theatre
with great success; I acted there frequently.
Then I continued with a similar project: "Gest Viu", in L'Hospitalet
But over time, I stopped and invested the little time I had
in researching deaf film.
And now, I'm more focused on studying it,
to improve the quality.
I have participated in 10 or 12 competitions
and have won some awards,
but what pleases me the most
is being selected and being able to showcase my style,
not so sign-oriented,
but more gestural.
And, as I was saying,
I am a teacher of deaf art
in Colombia, in an online education programme,
connecting via streaming.
You teach at the El Bosque University, right?
I lecture in corporal expression
and deaf art: theatre, film, drawing and literature.
I love researching in this field.
How was the process of creating "Remember"?
It was a lot of work and very good.
I already had a script,
but when the foundations
announced the sequence shot,
I thought I could shoot
on skates.
I looked for locations,
I had the actors,
but just as I was about to start,
an actor went to Madrid.
He was essential because he did acrobatics
and without him, I couldn't do what I had planned.
Discouraged, I continued thinking about alternatives
and focused on the script.
I wrote and rewrote different scripts,
showed them to David, my partner,
and thanks to his comments
I managed to create one
that seemed interesting.
Someone suggested to me
that forgetfulness is not necessarily due to Alzheimer's,
but can happen to young people in a hurry,
who can't get to everything and become overwhelmed.
And I started shooting.
Of course, since it is a continuous shot,
you can't cut out mistakes,
and you have to repeat it
until everything is perfect.
We had to shoot from different angles
and perspectives,
and also, since I am deaf
David couldn't warn me
when I had to turn...
...I had to count the seconds,
and act as if I didn't remember things,
but follow the script,
and signal to my son when he had to appear...
I repeated it about 8 or 10 times.
Also, the prosthetics were coming off...
but in the end, we did it!
It was very satisfying.
What does it feel like to win the VicMovies Award?
Honestly, I didn't expect to win.
Maybe for best script.
I'm very meticulous, I know I'm good at it,
and I also study scriptwriting,
so I thought I might win best script.
When I saw that the award went to
another script, I relaxed.
Suddenly they told me
that I'd won the award for best short film.
It was totally unexpected. I started trembling and went blank...
I was happy,
I felt my career and past work had been recognised.
And that has encouraged me to continue improving,
to keep training and let ideas rest,
to take it easy and act with knowledge.
And I'm very happy.
I think a lot of people have the ability to create,
but I'd advise them not to trivialise it and rush things.
You have to work calmly. Art is beautiful, but it requires patience.