Artist Statement

Growing up in a biracial home I’ve always felt a struggle with my identity. My father was born and raised in Dominican Republic and came to America when he was 18 years old. My mother was born in Italy and came to America when she was just a baby. But while they have both been in America for over 30 years, they still have very close ties with their culture. However, when they decided to have children they also decided that they’d bring us up in a more traditional American home. As I got older, I started to feel confused about who I was or where I belonged. I had pieces of my father’s culture, I had pieces of my mothers’ but not quite enough to actually fit in with the rest of the family or with other people from that country. I was too American, they said. But to Americans, I wasn’t American enough.

When I was a child, I watched the movie “Selena” about the Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla who changed the Mexican and English music industry. In a part of the film, her father talks with her about the struggle of culture and fitting in and how no matter how hard you try, it will never be enough to people and that really resonated with me. And as I got older, I’ve thought more and more about that scene and I wondered, “Why aren’t people talking about this?” I want to make films that talk about this. In the 21^st century there are more and more biracial families and I want to make a film looking into the homes of those families