Gloria La Morte,

Co-Director/Co-Writer/Editor

As I begin to formulate my thoughts on the project and the process thus far, I can hear the clock on my wall ticking away. It dawns on me that it's past 1:00 AM and I have an early call for our first tech scout and maybe I should finish this tomorrow evening. But that would only put me where I was last night, making script changes for Yori (AD) at 2:30AM, when the next morning Paola and I had an early meeting with Brad (DP) to work on our shot list.

It seems that since Paola and I put fingers to keyboards the clock has not stopped ticking. The excitement of completing our first draft quickly lead us to entering our screenplay into film markets and festivals. Those amazing experiences gave us the confidence to whole heartedly move toward production... and here we are two weeks out from production.

To date, we have become honorary residents of Jackson Heights! I think we were the only Colombians who didn't know we could reach our homeland just off the #7 train... That by the end of one week of scouting we could have eaten dozens of empanadas between the two of us (and one whole cup of hot sauce). But most amazing off all, we have been welcomed beyond what we could have imagined by this community of hard-working people that are proud and supportive of the work we are fortunate enough to bring forth.

As I take my cue from my clock to wrap it up, I would like to acknowledge the hundreds of children we met in search of our two, young lead actors. They selflessly brought us to tears and gave us endless joy with their heartfelt stories. If, along with the amazing crew that has come on board, we get to tell our story as honestly and richly as they did, we will have fulfilled our sincerest wishes for entre nos.