Trapped

"Trapped" is a film about female liberation. All women, regardless of race, age, class, color, or occupation, are empowering themselves now more than ever. This film embodies how women take control and release themselves from situations that have tied them down. One thing I learned about embarking on this project was that I want to continue making films about women witnessing their evolution into personal power.

Throughout history, women have worn an invisible “habit,” binding parts of their passion, instincts, voices, decisions, dreams, circumstances, and desires beneath the weight of societal norms. Locked between duty and freedom, their true selves often remained unseen.Today, the almighty woman stands on a new horizon. Our roles have transformed. With power and privilege in our hands, choice and voice become limitless. The future is ours! This cinematic short is dedicated to the women of the world. Let us continue to empower one another.

"Trapped" is an eternally profound, emotionally driven story that delves into the repressed desires of a nun. I've always been intrigued by the private lives of nuns. For many, the "nun" is considered the unknown female. Who is this female? How does she identify herself with our culture? There will never be a single answer; this is where the mystery lives for most of us. In our opening shot, we begin with the feeling of uncertainty with a tilted angle shot of a church. Welcome to the enigma of our holy nun.

The story of my grandmother inspires this film. As a desperate plea to live, my dying grandmother wore a religious habit for months before her death as a piety to God, hoping her life might be salvaged from the dark fate that awaited her and the eight little children she would leave behind. Months after my grandmother's death, my mother, who was seven years old at the time, along with her cousin (same age), were carrying pails of water in Costa Rica when out of nowhere, they saw my grandmother staring at them and wearing the religious habit in which she was buried: Otherworldly but a true story. My interest in the "female in the habit" began here. My interpretation is unique, and my fascination is ongoing. The "nun," the mystical woman, the silenced woman, the unknown woman, the trapped woman. Who is this woman encompassed inside the habit? What is she hiding from? Who is she hiding from? All these questions have been circulating in my subconscious for years, starting from my earlier days as a Catholic schoolgirl and even now as a forward-thinking feminist woman. My goal was to peel the internal layers of the mystic "nun," examining societal pressures through her point of view and eventually freeing the "nun." - hence freeing the woman.

"Trapped" was shot on both 16mm film and digital - I began experimenting with some André Bazin film techniques of the long shot.

Historical St. Mary's Church, Yonkers Oldest Catholic Church, is in jeopardy of closing (2024). Hearing the bells of St. Mary's softly chiming through my home window is a sacred part of my day. I'm so thankful to have captured my childhood parish and beloved refuge on film.