Actress Rosie Perez is front and center in the new documentary "You Soy Boricua, Pa'que tu lo Sepas!" (I'm Boricua, Just So You Know!), which will have its New York premiere tonight at the Tribeca Film Festival. But while the film marks her debut as a documentary director, she insists that originally she had no intention of appearing in it.
"I didn't want myself in it, absolutely not," Perez says. Instead, it was Rory Kennedy -- whose credits as a docu producer and director range from 1999's "American Hollow" to 2003's "Pandemic: Facing AIDS" -- who convinced the actress that she should serve as the film's onscreen tour guide. The movie traces the history of Puerto Rican culture from its beginnings -- it was the Taino Indians who initially dubbed the island "Borinquen" -- to its colonization by the Spanish in the 16th century and its invasion by the U.S. in the 19th century.
As Perez recounts the project's development, "We were sitting in the office and having a creative discussion, and I was having a problem articulating the theme of the piece. I was crying, and I'm not a crier -- I hate celebrities who cry. And Rory asked if she could put the camera on me -- she said she was just using it for narration. And I just started spilling my guts.
"I wanted to do the film because of my aunt, who had to work three jobs," she says. "I just wanted her to get the dignity she deserved. And as Rory and Liz Garbus (who produced the film along with Kennedy and also served as its co-director) listened to me, they said you and your sister and your cousin Sixto have to have a part in the film. So I decided to put ego and personal fear aside. I decided if I want to be a true filmmaker than I have to go with it."
In retrospect, though, it probably would have been impossible for Perez not to step forward because the film grew out of her long-standing interest in her heritage. Growing up in Bushwick, Brooklyn, she attended a predominantly white school and peppered her aunt with questions about their heritage. Once she established herself as an actress, she says, "it was always my intention to do a movie about the Puerto Rican people."
At first, she pitched whoever would listen to her ideas for a narrative feature about Puerto Rican women but met with no takers. Then a couple of years ago, while New York's annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade was taking place, she had what she describes as "a light-bulb moment" as she realized that footage of the parade could be the jumping off point for a documentary.
Perez found a receptive sponsor in the Independent Film Channel, the indie-flavored cable channel that had begun to ramp up its own docu production, and which will air the film in June.
As "Yo Soy Boricua" developed, it became a series of personal testimonies, interwoven with historical and documentary footage, illustrating such subjects as Pedro Campos, who championed Puerto Rican independence in the 1930s and '40s, and the Young Lords, the Latino activists of the '60s. Among other things, Perez's documentary almost is a primer for stories that could well be mined further in other films.
"I hope other filmmakers get inspired and see possibilities for other stories," Perez says. Although she could well use the docu as a her own springboard for a narrative feature. When "Boricua" premiered last month at the Miami International Film Festival, Jimmy Smits, the film's narrator, encouraged her. "This is your opportunity. Jump on it now," he said. And, Perez says with her infectious laugh, "It gave me that funny tingle. Not about fear, but about the possibility."
Gregg Kilday writes for The Hollywood Reporter.
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