So They Say
Chile & United States, 18 mins
In a small Chilean town where abortion is deemed illegal, a fetus is found floating on a lake. A single mother and saleswoman’s values and morals are put to test when she discovers the culprit to be one of her young female clients.
Writer/Director: Natalia Luque
Producer: Donovan Tolledo, Cecilia Otero
Director of Photography: Matías Illanes
Editor: Sylvana Squicciarini
Composer: Carlos Aznárez
Cast: Paulia Zúniga, Valentina Uribe, Amalia Kassai
Contact: Natalia Luque, nal2158@columbia.edu
Program C
Saturday, May 13th at 3pm ET
About the Writer/Director
Natalia Luque is a Chilean writer/director. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and is part of BAFTA's Newcomers Program. Her fiction short films “On My Own” (2019) and “The Virgin, The Old Lady, The Journey” (2020) have screened in over 50 International Film Festivals including Torino FF, Palm Springs Shortfest, and Brussels Short FF. “On My Own" was awarded the Jury Prize Award at the DGA Student Film Competition in 2020. She is currently developing her first feature film "Decorous Woman", which presented in several markets and labs in the Ibero-American Region, such as Guadalajara Film Market (Mexico) and a writing residence in Madrid. She is also distributing her thesis short film "So They Say" (2023), winner of two production grants.
About the Producers
Donovan Tolledo is a writer and producer born in Saudi Arabia and raised in Manila and Chicago. He recently received his MFA in creative producing. His work at Columbia won multiple grants and screened at Newfest and Outfest Fusion Film Festival. His thesis short, Fat Lip, received support from Panavision New Filmmakers Program and was a CUFF Jury Selects recipient. The feature-length script for Fat Lip landed him the 2022 Outfest Screenwriting Lab Fellowship and CUFF Faculty Honors. He is also a 2023 Film Independent Project Involve Producing Fellow.
Cecilia is a New York-based producer born in Cuba and raised in Chile. The first movie she produced, Piola, won the Best First Feature Prize at FICG 35 in México, and was acquired by Netflix in 2021. She’s part BAFTA’s Newcomers Program and Film Independent Producing Fellow. In 2021 Cecilia was awarded the Sloan Producing Fellowship for her project Upstreamers.