The local film industry in no longer foreign for the west siders as it is gaining more popularity and exposure. Here at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez we are fortunate enough to count with a program on film- where many talents come to be.
One of the talents that came though the film certificate was the hard-working team of Las Lágrimas Negras. The group of friends is intricately involved in film, making projects come to life on a regular basis. So when the muse struck Edward Andrés and Francheska Alexandra they rapidly began to work. The short follows “a lonely doctor who takes a wounded vagrant to his house only for the man to experience the manifestations of the doctors dark past.”
The writers desired to extrapolate a darker turn of the feeling of regret, lost and neglect felt by parents as their children grow up and leave.
Moises Orengo, former UPRM professor, was the lead character supported by Emmanuel Colón. Edward Andres directed the short film and helped his wife, Francheska Alexandra, to write the story as well. Behind the lens was Fran Casillas and Efraín Muñiz was on sound. The editing mastermind was Alejandro Orengo, the makeup artist was Joyce Almodovar along with Fernando Correa the assistant editor and Daniel Diaz the script supervisor.
These fellow colegiales, have worked hard on this project- improving it every chance they could. Their hard work paid off last April, when Las Lágrimas Negras was accepted into the Rincon International Film Festival repertoire. Not to mention all of the awards received on August 20 in the first edition of Cine Campus in Caguas. Edward took home the coveted gold in the Best Director’s category, as did Fran Casillas on Best Cinematography. Meanwhile, Alejandro Orengo snatched the silver award on the Best Editing category, as did Efraín Muñiz in the Best Sound Category. However the most pleasant surprise was when Moises Orengo (yes, the recently named Director of UPR-Carolina) was awarded with bronze in the Best Male Acting Category.
The crew was very happy on the turn out of the short- it embodied perfectly all of their hard work and collaboration as a team of artists. Fran Casillas shared that he loved the challenge that the project portrayed since he had never worked in something quite like it. Director Edward Andres says that his and Francheska Alexandra’s biggest take away from this project was experiencing the connection between the audiences while watching the short film.
Pictured above is Edward Andres, the director and co writer of the short film.
The project, which did not count with a budget, is set to screen on the Trinidad+ Tobago Film Festival 2014. The crew is looking to screen it on other film festivals but they have already started working on their next project. To keep updated on anything related on this project be sure to like their page on Facebook.
The photos were taken from their Facebook page and Fran Casillas also provided a few.