Upon receiving the award Reyes noted,
“I am very happy to be receiving the support of a grant that is not expecting [me] to make token films that just cater to the left or to the right, but to explore what it means to be Latino and what that experience is like.”
Cruz won the grant in the Narrative category to make La Raya, her first feature film, which tells the story of an Indian community in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca and whose life changes when a refrigerator arrives for the community’s children.
With the disappearance of regional Latino film festivals, the Tribeca Film Institute believes its mission is an urgent one. “With the loss of the New York Latino Film Festival the need to support Latino filmmakers is more crucial and important than ever,” said a representative.
“All too often the stereotypes of what Latino culture and identity look like continue to be propogated by the media that we see to the point where audiences fail to see what the truth really is. The VOCES grant allows filmmakers to speak out and give true content to their shared history.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.