Tropicalia
Dominican Republic, 21 mins, Digital
An aging hermit frees herself from the caretaking of her ailing mother when a strange and wounded dog appears in her home, demanding all of her attention.
Director/Writer: Rodney Llaverías
Producer: Fernando Iriarte, Lauren López de Victoria, Dani Fernandez
Director of Photography: Jorge Luis Linares
Editor: Mauricio Rivera Hoffman
Production Designer: Pedro Guerra
Composer: Benjamin Louis Brody
Cast: Marlene De La Cruz, Elvira Grullón, Darko, Irina Pérez
Contact: Rodney Llaverías, rl2789@columbia.edu
Program E
Film Screenings:
May 6th at 7pm ET
May 13th at 7pm ET
About the Writer/Director
Rodney Llaverías is a Dominican-American filmmaker with a graduate degree in Screenwriting and Directing from Columbia University. His shorts have screened at Rotterdam, New Orleans Film Festival, Miami Film Festival, Max Ophüls Preis Film Festival, Outfest, and the Guadalajara International Film Festival. He is the co-writer of the short film Darling, which won the Orizzonti Award for Best Short at the Venice International Film Festival in 2019, Special Mention at SXSW, and an official selection at TIFF. In 2021, he also participated in Berlinale Talents. Rodney received the Katharina Otto-Bernstein production grant for his short film Tropicalía. Tropicalía is based on his project La Canícula which will be his feature directorial debut.
About the Producer
Lauren López de Victoria is a Puerto Rican producer with an MFA from Columbia University. She was a recipient of the PGA Debra Hill grant and a Film Independent Project Involve Producing Fellow. Lauren previously worked at UTA as an agent trainee in the Independent Film Group, focused on financing and selling films, and is currently a coordinator at Borderless Pictures, a company with television and film deals at Amazon Studios. Finally, Lauren is a 2021 Sundance Producing fellow, having participated in the inaugural Sundance Producing Intensive this past year.
About the Producer
Fernando Iriarte is a Colombian filmmaker. He has a graduate degree in Film from Columbia University. Currently, Fernando is in development of his next short film titled Delirio, produced by Paola Andrea Pérez Nieto of Inercia Películas. The short was also backed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul who is an executive producer of the project. Fernando is also working on the feature version of Delirio and his other Columbia lauded screenplay: Mountain Sorrow. Fernando was one of the lead producers of Tropicalía and has been working as staff writer for the production company Fidelio Films since October 2020, where he has developed projects for Netflix, HBO, Gaumont, and Amazon Prime.