“Secadora is a film that represents a multitude of marginalised voices in the Latinx community, including the LGBTQ community,” Aquino exclusively told POPSUGAR. “I don’t watch many films that have LGBTQ representation, so for me, that was the first aspect, was having Afro-Latina lesbians being their authentic selves and just being honest, open, and vulnerable. The second, I would say, was including the African diaspora conversation in our community, which is still so taboo . . . People are still scared to talk about it even in terms of that identity within ourselves – that identity struggle. I just feel like it had to be displayed. I wanted to make people uncomfortable, because it is a real conflict that people have, but I also wanted to bring knowledge, too, because there’s a lack of information in our community still regarding slaves existing in the Dominican Republic.”
Video:
Aquino was very intentional about making her lead characters Afro-Dominican lesbians but was also intentional about who she hired behind the camera. She hired , a women-led and POC-owned creative studio based in New York, for audio production. She also hired Isabella Tan, a Malaysian and Taiwanese woman, as her director of photography. The film was shot earlier this year, mostly from a studio in Brooklyn, and Aquino was able to fund it through the she applied for. While shooting during COVID came with its fair share of challenges, Aquino still managed to shoot the entire film in close to four months. She’s already submitted it to quite a few film festivals, including the Inwood Film Festival, and is currently waiting to hear where she might be accepted.
“Secadora is a film that represents a multitude of marginalized voices in the Latinx community, including the LGBTQ community,” Aquino exclusively told POPSUGAR. “I don’t watch many films that have LGBTQ representation, so for me, that was the first aspect, was having Afro-Latina lesbians being their authentic selves and just being honest, open, and vulnerable. The second, I would say, was including the African diaspora conversation in our community, which is still so taboo . . . People are still scared to talk about it even in terms of that identity within ourselves — that identity struggle. I just feel like it had to be displayed. I wanted to make people uncomfortable, because it is a real conflict that people have, but I also wanted to bring knowledge, too, because there’s a lack of information in our community still regarding slaves existing in the Dominican Republic.”
