Rita

In this conversation, Ariel speaks with Jayro Bustamante, the director of RITA, now streaming on SHUDDER, and which was just named Guatemala’s entry into the Academy Awards. The film creates fantasia from gritty reality, calling to mind films like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devil’s Backbone, while also raising awareness about systems of abuse.

Transcript

0:01

Hi, Jairo.

0:01

Hi.

0:02

So wonderful to meet you. I've been a huge fan of yours since La Corona, which was just absolutely breathtaking. And I'm delighted to see Rita having so much success already on the festival circuit. I'm delighted to welcome you to Ride the Omnibus podcast. I'm Ariel Baska.

0:23

I'm a horror and documentary filmmaker, as well as podcaster and festival director. And I'm so happy to talk to you about this film.

0:34

Thank you. We are very happy as a team watching how Rita is growing up in the international audience. But at first we were so, so thankful and happy when we released the film in Guatemala, because in a way, our local audience was our goal, you know, like that.

1:00

The film is based in a real case that happened in Guatemala in 2017 in an institution called Garceguro. And from that date until now, there is a process and the process continues and there is not justice behind. And so the first audience that we showed the film were

1:24

the survivors of the dramatic events and the family of the girls who are not anymore with us. And we were so touched because for them it was so important to have a film because they wanted to amplify their voices and continue looking for justice. But in a way, they really wanted to make a kind of a

1:56

a red flag to say stopping that because there are other girls who will suffer the same thing. So to me, it was so nice to understand that people who suffered so much have that empathy to don't think only on them, but think about other girls and, you know, society, humanity.

2:25

and society's responsibility toward children. I love that you specifically talk about how children are characterized as criminals, in spite of the fact that they're obviously just children placed in dire circumstances. And the constant, I mean, we see this in the United States too, the constant emphasis on the criminality of the child that, you know.

2:57

That's the departure point. Because when I decided to make a film about that topic, it was very difficult to invite the audience to see children suffering.

3:12

Mm-hmm.

3:15

I started a research in different institutions in Guatemala and after that I go out of the borders and I made my research in one of the Central American countries and even Mexico. And I discovered that There is a common point in the girls. It's not happening with boys every time, but with girls,

3:43

the moment they say stop and they call for help and they made a revolution, because they don't want to believe it anymore. And in that moment, adults start saying, that's not girls, that they're dangerous people, that delinquents. And they start stigmatizing them. And so the films became...

4:11

that other storytelling, you know, saying that for sure they are not girls. They are more than that. They are fantastic human beings that we are missing.

4:22

And I love that realm of the mythical fantastical that comes into this film. you know, obviously, like a lot of people, I think, are thinking of Pan's Labyrinth when they watch this movie, but I do feel very strongly that you have kind of your own interesting way of working with this enormous cast of girls and folks who,

4:48

you know, you have a lot of representation from queer and disabled communities I identify as both queer and disabled so I deeply appreciated that but I also read somewhere that you had collaborated a lot with these kids to come up with kind of their backstories and

5:11

who they were and construct their personas I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that

5:17

Yeah, that's one of my preferred parts of the job because when I started making movies in Guatemala, we built a company with my mother and with my sister and we remarked that we we didn't have movie actors. So we built a school for actors. And that was in 2012.

5:48

And until there, we are forming actors in the country. And when we started Rita, we make a call in the whole country and more than 5,000 girls came to the casting. We keep 300 of them and they were part of the school. And the 80% of the time in the school,

6:11

they were just there becoming actors and they didn't know how role they would play in the film. And after that, when we, and they were helping me to build the universes, you know, the universe, the fairy tales, the angels. And when they came at the beginning,

6:38

they wanted to be actresses and they wanted to be famous because they were kids and teenagers. But when they understand the importance of the theme, they change, they transform their individual goals and they build a kind of social goal. They want part of the solution of a problem and they want it to be,

7:04

they wanted to give a voice to the girls. And I think we can feel it. We can feel their unit and their participation and their collaboration in the film. That made me feel very proud. And they became my teachers during that process.

7:25

Wow. And it's so wonderful to have, you know, almost like a participatory process like that. I think is so incredibly important, especially when you're doing work that is so deeply personal and requires, you know, characters to be going through so much trauma too at the time.

7:48

I think, you know, I think having a deeply collaborative process is wonderful there. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about how you tried to protect the girls and folks in your movie.

8:03

It was a very hard process because they were at school, we were in pandemic time. And so we had to balance their work time, their emotional implication in the films. So we had a team of psychologists, people who were helping us. But in a moment it wasn't enough because

8:34

Because as an actor, we are all the time looking for being more vulnerable. And they really understood it. So they wanted to go in that moment. But they discovered how to help themselves as a group too. And that was very nice. And they became...

9:01

You know, it served as a filter to it because a lot of them wanted to be an actress. After that, they just discovered that maybe movies interest them for other reasons, not just the fact to be an actress. And there is others. And for example, in the five main characters,

9:21

They're one of already shoot another film and we are the agent. We are pushing them to continue their career. Two of them are working in my foundation who calls East Canules Foundation and they are helping us to make all the social impact in the country through the movies.

9:41

And so we are so happy and for sure we are so happy with their performance because they are terrific.

9:50

They really are. It's an incredible movie. Thank you so much for your time. I deeply appreciate it. And please know that your work is making a huge difference.

10:02

Thank you so much.

10:02

In all the ways. Really, truly.

10:05

Thank you so much.

10:07

Thank you. Bye. Thank you, Brett.

10:12

Absolutely. Thank you, Ariel.