Production Stats:

PROGRAMMING DESCRIPTORS.
FORMS: Narrative, Short (Fiction)
GENRES: Drama, Romance, Erotic, Human Rights, Magical Realism, Surreal, War/Peace, Culture
NICHES: Hispanic, Latino, Third World, Women, Adult/Mature
FOREIGN TITLES.
ENGLISH Madam Marina 

EXACT RUNTIME.
00 hr : 13 min : 30 sec
DATE OF COMPLETION.
June 2005
Shot on 35 MM Film

Director's Statement:

"Madam Marina" was written in January of 2004 and shot in 35MM two months later. The short timeline between writing and shooting resulted from an urgent need for expression after a sudden personal loss. I set the story in my birth country Colombia during the present civil war for greater universal awareness, with respect to the human rights atrocities. Setting, also served to heighten the risk and relationship between Marina the prostitute, and Lucas our young Guerrilla soldier, who are held under house arrest. 

The genre and stylized approach were influenced by some of my favorite writers; Gabriel Garcia Marquez and a Canadian named Charles DeLint. These story tellers share the brilliant use of magical realism and surrealism to tell their short fiction stories. The genre was especially effective for my short film allowing me to portray, in a few minutes, who my characters are. Through magic or fancied reality, (whichever way it is interpreted by the viewer) I was able to introduce secondary characters, revealing to the audience my main characters most intimate thoughts, and further, through action and without flashbacks, how they came to be the way they are.

Director's Notes

Anecdotes:
A Religious Whore 
Madam Marina's Personal Possessions and living quarters.
"The Idea." 
The bedroom should be that of an aged prostitute. Once posh now robbed of its splendor from a savage forty-year civil war, lack of sponsors and the attrition of time. The old woman shows signs of the same devastation, though you know she was once a classical beauty. Create a surreal, stylized quality. Create universality and timeless fluidity.

Antique stores and prop rentals, yard sales and friends contributed to Marina's room. 

"The result."
Her bed and work place. Pink bedspread lined with delicate lace. Above the bed, Jesus on the cross to bless all those who lay with her.

Marina's most prominent artwork. Da Vinci's "Last Supper." Mary of Magdelene and Jesus breaking bread together.

Her dressing screen. From it hangs colorful exotic flowers and colorless under garments. 

The walls, red. Her choice in paintings. Naked women of various hair color, shapes and sizes -- and oils of the Virgin Mary, and the female Saints who have watched over her.

Marina's vanity. Perfumes and jewelry from callers of years passed -- and recently lit prayer candles and fresh white flowers.

Other details.
wood spooled barred windows
hanging white bird cage
photograph of her dead parents
tattered velvet curtains
prayer beads
large standing mirror
large mirror above her vanity
single sized bed
1940s record player
A ballad from the fifties
Candelabra's
candle sconces
a sitting nook
old velvet and beaded pillows