Director's Statement

It came to me while I was reading an article from my university newspaper. Like a flash of a random memory—an image, a moment—it suspended itself behind my eyes: a mother and daughter odiously staring each other down. No, wait, a mother and a girl—her son’s school crush—stare at each other. Where? On a bench outside a courtroom. Why? Her son raped the girl and the mother has built a case against her. And the rest unraveled. Two years later I was beginning to think this would be another script I would toss in a drawer to move on to the next idea. I actually renewed my confidence in it after doing just that. Jesús Romero approached me to direct a short for a 24hour film challenge. After it won Best Short at the competition, we looked at each other thinking we should do this again sometime. Enter “Ráfaga”.
I envisioned “Ráfaga” to touch upon a thoroughly-conversed subject in a way that compels the audience to consider a different point of view and exchange varying ideas about the issue. I wanted to make it difficult to take sides and try to present the gray areas that are ignored on the way to the black or white. Is it wrong to pity the boy who raped the girl he liked because he was too drunk to realize what he was doing? Is it right to condemn the girl for flirting with him and giving him every reason to believe she was ready to have sex? What is right or wrong? Everyone has their own fierce opinion over this delicate matter, but the truth is divided between moments that a spectator judging from the outside will never grasp—the moment they first locked eyes; the moment they knew they liked each other; the moment she got into his car; the moment they first kissed; the moment she became frightened; the moment he decided not to stop; the moment her world was torn apart. We can choose to assign the victim and monster labels, but we cannot pretend to know the truth.
Making this film was an incredible, 2-sided learning process for me because of the material and the people I worked with. On one side I learned a lot about myself and my creative process, and on the other I discovered the immense amount of support I have as a young filmmaker. I had the wonderful opportunity of having professionals with decades of experience mold this film into the vision I had for it, and the encouragement is never-ending. I am incredibly fortunate to have people rooting for me and my career and I plan to do them proud, especially my # 1 fans: my parents.