00:00 I know a lot of people, you know, have seen their own experiences and a lot of communities,
00:05 their own experiences really reflected in her art and, you know, we claim her.
00:14 I was one of the probably like millions of people in the world that like got pretty obsessed
00:22 with her at some point in my life.
00:24 It was in college many, many years ago that I discovered the first painting that I saw
00:29 of hers, which is her standing in the middle of the United States and Mexico.
00:36 And I just saw, I was a new immigrant in the States, so I saw kind of like my own experience
00:40 at that time reflected in that painting.
00:43 And I was just like, who is this woman?
00:45 What are her paintings?
00:46 I started reading, I bought her diary, I started reading a lot about her.
00:51 But I also discovered that as I mature as a woman, a lot of my experiences were, you
00:58 know, she continuously like capture a lot of the emotional experiences that I was going
01:03 through.
01:04 So, I felt that I kept getting closer and closer to her art.
01:09 So yeah, that's my personal relationship, but I know a lot of people, you know, have
01:13 seen their own experiences and a lot of communities, their own experiences really reflected in
01:19 her art and, you know, we claim her.
01:22 So what was the process of getting access to all of this once you decided that you wanted
01:26 to do this?
01:27 How did you go about like going through all of the archives and her writings?
01:34 It took a lot of research and it was a lot of, you know, very involved, like diving into
01:40 the archival material.
01:43 My production team incredibly, you know, led by the incredible Katia Maguire, like really
01:48 just kind of jump into it.
01:52 The writings, Frida's writings are really kind of like all over the place.
01:56 There's not one central book that has published all her writings together, but my team kind
02:03 of like follow the academic work that had been done about Frida.
02:08 You know, we looked at every footnote and then we started collecting the original letters
02:13 and the original essays and, you know, from the newspaper.
02:19 So that was, you know, part of the work of like just getting, gathering all of her writings
02:25 and having all of her writings to be able to read.
02:28 And then in terms of, you know, access to the rights of Frida, Frida and Diego, you
02:33 know, in our film we talk about what, you know, they were very, you know, passionate
02:39 communists and they both believe that art belonged to the people.
02:45 So Diego Rivera left, you know, to the people of Mexico, he left all of the art and the
02:51 writings of both his own art and Frida's art.
02:55 So it really belongs to Mexico.
02:58 So we, you know, we went to the government of Mexico to get the rights to be able to
03:04 show her writing and her art.
03:06 I'm curious if you did anything outside of the strict work that related directly to the
03:12 making of the documentary.
03:13 Did you do anything kind of like on a personal level to get to know her or to connect to
03:17 the material that maybe we didn't see come out in the film, but that like informed, like
03:21 did you go, you know, down to Casa Azul and go around or any of that kind of thing?
03:26 Yeah, I mean, we visited Mexico to be able to have, you know, kind of like direct contact
03:32 to the art.
03:33 For example, the two Fridas I hadn't seen in person, which is like her largest piece
03:38 of, you know, piece of art.
03:40 So it was really important for us to like have that experience.
03:44 And we also reach out to people in both Diego's and Frida's families to be able to kind
03:51 of like talk to them.
03:54 We got to sit down with Christina, Christina Carlo, who is a great niece of Frida.
04:01 They look very similar.
04:03 So it was kind of like a really nice experience.
04:06 And she had actually asked the hospital where Frida had a lot of surgeries for, because
04:12 she was a family member, she was able to ask the hospital for the records.
04:16 So you know, so we talked a lot with her about kind of like, you know, there is the academic
04:22 work, but there's also like the family stories and the family understanding of like somebody
04:28 that is part of that family.
04:31 Same with the grandson of Diego Rivera.
04:33 So we got to meet him too.
04:36 And the grandson, Diego Lopez Rivera, actually has like Diego's eyes, which are like really
04:42 big.
04:43 So it was an experience to be able to sit with them and like see, you know, descendants
04:47 and you know, talk to us about these figures in their families.
04:53 And before we run out of time, I'm curious, what surprised you the most, either in learning
05:00 about her or about the way her work connects with people or anything like that?
05:04 What was surprising to you?
05:07 About her, it actually surprised us that she could carry so much of this story.
05:11 We thought at the beginning that maybe we were going to need to lean into other voices
05:17 of people that knew her and that were there during her life.
05:22 But it was just like a wonderful discovery where like she herself kind of guided us through
05:28 her life in a very emotional way.
05:31 So to know that she was going to be able to be so present in our film was like a great
05:36 surprise and also her sense of humor.
05:40 I knew she, you know, she had like, obviously I knew she had a strong personality and she
05:45 had a lot of humor, but I love like just reading the letters and hear her sarcasm and like
05:51 her sharpness.
05:52 She had a sharp tongue and that was just fabulous to learn.
05:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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