We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Eliana Cordova a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Eliana, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
Definitely shooting my first short film: One Minute of Unconsciousness. It’s been the most ambitious project I’ve done until now, and it was the first time I directed, produced and wrote something that I knew I wanted to distribute worldwide. Long story short, I started this project in 2023. I wrote a script about two young adults who moved to LA, met, became best friends and shared their journey dealing with adversity, uncertainty and personal struggle while supporting each other. But I got scammed and I lost almost everything we shot. But that didn’t stop me, so months later, I realized that what I really wanted to talk about from the beginning was immigration and mental health. So I decided to rewrite the script with my brother Sebastian (@cordova41) and started a crowdfunding campaign to be able to shoot this new story from zero. Fortunately, we received a lot of support and we shot it at the beginning of 2024 with a crew and cast almost full of Latin American immigrants. This whole new script was born from the need to materialize an experience that was happening to me and also to many people close to me. I think immigration is a universal experience, but I feel that there is a lack of more stories made by Latinxs for Latinxs, and OMOU is one of them. At the same time, immigration experience has many layers, and it was important for me to talk specifically about mental health and identity from the point of view of a Latina woman in dialogue with other immigrants’ experiences. I think, at the end of the day, I genuinely wanted to create this short film to make other immigrants like me feel less alone in their journeys because it’s a huge and daily challenge but we all know it’s worth it.
We started our festival journey in September and we have been receiving many awards and nominations worldwide, so we’re happy about it. Our goal is to share this story as much as we can, so if you want to support our festival journey, we have an open GoFundMe link (https://www.gofundme.com/f/one-minute-of-unconsciousness) and if you want to follow our journey, you can follow us on Instagram: @omou.shortfilm.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m a Peruvian multidisciplinary artist. I have a BA in Theater from the best university in my country and I graduated last year from The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in LA. I’ve been working on different projects as an actress in theater, film and TV; but lately the project I’m most excited about is my first short film called One Minute of Unconsciousness. It’s a project that I directed and acted in; and co produced and wrote with my brother. It’s a bilingual short film shooted in Los Angeles, where the technical and artistic team is composed mainly of young Latin American immigrants. It’s a story about identity and migration that portrays the struggle of a young Peruvian woman against alienation, racism, job uncertainty, economic difficulties, and the mental and physical health consequences that migrating entails. And at the same time, it seeks to empower Latin American artists to explore and carry out audiovisual projects that make social realities visible in an authentic way.
Besides all of this, there are some other projects coming up that I still can’t give details about, but I’m very excited about them. At the same time, I keep developing my career as a filmmaker, too, so I got a scholarship to study Directing & Screenwriting in the U.S, while I’m starting the pre-production of my second short film where the main topic is mental health. Also, I’m always looking to collaborate with any project as a director, actress or producer. I think being an actress gives me a huge background for directing and a different vision and approach. Also, when I have the opportunity, I teach different workshops of acting and improv.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
From my point of view, the possibility to explore humanity and having a better understanding of the people who surround us. Usually, you work with different casts and crews, different stories and visions; and that’s a gift because people inspire you and vice versa. Also, having the possibility of constantly creating new ideas, exploring different ways to do those ideas and challenging your comfort zone. Finally, being an artist is a constant self discovery and all of that is always gonna be new resources to create in the most authentic way.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Definitely I have my goals clear and I’m working hard to accomplish them. However, something that guides my creative journey is to challenge myself constantly, to be the best version of myself in my work at any position. If I’m acting, directing, etc; I’m always gonna give my 200% in order to tell the story the best way possible and always in collaboration with all the people involved. Also, creating stories of representation, that give voice and that have a powerful message that can transform people in any way. I know this industry has a lot of challenges, ups and downs, and uncertainty; but I think the biggest challenge is to be truthful to yourself in any job you have. Authenticity is our most powerful tool as artists and we should take care of it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/elianarcr
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elianacordova/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliana-cordova-232522201/
- Other: Short film “One Minute of Unconsciousness”: https://linktr.ee/omoushortfilm
Image Credits
I’m sending the credits by email.