Filmmaker Statement

The genesis of this film began after excavating my own identity and looking at myself from an objective lens. This film was inspired by my own coming out story and fueled by images and ideas of pressure that I experienced growing up as a queer Latinx man in an immigrant household who had always fluctuated between masculine and feminine ideas of representation and identity. Prior this film, I worked as a documentary filmmaker. In this experience, I helped chronicle the lives of immigrants from Mexico and the Caribbean who were affected by immigration policy. Claudia’s strength and the nuances of her character were inspired by a young woman who I worked with for two years during these earlier projects. Her experience, along with my own experience growing up as a queer Latinx person, grappling with secrecy and religious conflict, are what pushed me to create this film. I hope that this film can generate discourse about expression, personal identity and queerness in ways that have been suppressed and subverted for generations within the Latinx community. Additionally, in working with our consulting producer and co-star, Sydni Watkins, we aimed to offer a more inclusive and holistic perspective of pole dancing (an artform which has historically been exploited by mainstream media) and offer a realistic depiction of an empowering community that offers support in exploring oneself and their sexuality, regardless of their shape, gender, or background.