We were lucky to catch up with Rosemary Rodriguez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rosemary thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you have an agent or someone (or a team) that helps you secure opportunities and compensation for your creative work? How did you meet you, why did you decide to work with them, why do you think they decided to work with you?

When my first feature Acts of Worship was in The Sundance Film Festival, an agent came to a screening and talked with me afterward. I decided to work with him because he saw me as an artist and filmmaker that he could help. I was a new filmmaker, and I think he saw my talent as a writer/director.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I”m a film and television writer/director.
I always loved movies and wanted to make them. I had no idea how to become a director or make any movies! I come from NH, and was very much an outsider to Hollywood. After graduating from Brandeis University, I moved to NYC where I took a Filmmaking course at NYU for 2 semesters. I got a job very quickly in a store that sold film and film supplies. I started shooting music videos and various independent projects.
I had a boyfriend in a band, was in love, and following him everywhere with my camera, shooting every show. I was in heaven, and having a blast.
Then, I started having too much fun — and found myself partying way too much and not able to work anymore. My life was falling apart. My relationship got violent. I couldn’t pay my bills. My friends stayed away from me. I was now in a living hell The only work I could do was wait tables, until I couldn’t do that anymore. I became homeless and hopeless. For three long painful years. I was dirty, lost contact with my family and hustled the streets and people best I could to survive. Then I became suicidal.
I finally ended up in the emergency room, and had an awakening: I didn’t want to die. That’s when things shifted for me. I asked for help, received it, and got my life in order. Through a lot of hard work, and a lot of forgiveness of the. people I hurt, I wanted to get back to my dream of directing.
It took my 8 long years of saving money, to finally get enough together to finance my own feature film, Acts of Worship. I went to Sundance Film Festival ! It was a miracle!
Then, the reality of being a female director, and how little opportunity there was to access financing (sadly, STILL!), I applied for a fellowship for women and minorities to direct TV through John Wells Productions. At the time JWP had West WIng, Third Watch and ER in production. I shadowed directors and was eventually hired to direct two episodes of Third Watch (in NYC).
I had my start at making a living as a director and health insurance! I was thrilled. After several years of directing TV, I still had my dream of making movies stagnant. Access to money was impossible SO, I had to save money and again finance my own second feature — Silver Skies — which went on to much festival success and great reviews.
Yet, even with all my success, access to financing seems far out of reach.
I recently completed my third feature Hail Mary, that is in process of distribution. I was hired to direct it, so finally I didn’t have to finance my own film. And I continue to direct TV — shows I’ve directed include: The Good Wife, The Walking Dead, Your Honor, Elsbeth, Peacemaker and many others.
The main thing I want people to know is that tenacity and perseverance are the two qualities that count the most for success — talent helps of course — but talent isn’t what sustains me through all the ups and downs and continuing rejection that comes with my business. Belief in my gift is what drives my tenacity and helps me keep pushing forward, no matter what.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

While women thrive in the music industry, they are not allowed currently to thrive in the film and TV industry. Hollywood is very closed to women having access to money for their projects — even though women actually started the business as writers and directors and producers in early film. Once the guys saw that people were interested in what these pioneering women were doing, they pushed them aside and the men took control of the business. No one barely knows the women like Alice Guy Blanche and Lois Weber who started the film industry and told stories about social change and made personal human dramas.

I’d love to see women (yes, like myself) have access to capital to make movies and tv shows AND to create film funds for women to make movies and TV. While diversity seems to have shifted in a great way towards more opportunity, women seem to again get left behind.

We need access to bigger budgets to compete with men in our very successful, worldwide business. In 2023, the industry had a market size of $100.38. Yet, only 12% were directed by women. Hardly equitable financially or creatively.

With such a big industry, we need to demand that women directors get financing. We deserve a bigger piece of the industry.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

The greatest resource I wish I had known about, or at least gave proper importance to is my own voice! As a female, I wasted too much time concerned about other people’s opinions of me, of my work, of what opportunities I should have. If I have learned one thing directing for 20 years in a male-dominated profession, it’s that the only voice that counts is mine!
Trusting and listening to my biggest asset — my own instincts — that come out as my voice is the key to my creativiity and my success. I had to practice for years how to speak up for myself when others steamrolled me. My emotions would take over, I would get hurt and disappointed — sometimes deeply! — and was not able to express myself.
Eventually, I learned to professionally express myself, and often was still not heard, ignored, or disregarded because a big ego would squash my ideas. That left me again with big emotions that felt overwhelming and painful.
FInally, I put a post-it on my fridge that said “Don’t take anything personally.” That phrase became my mantra. And eventually I spoke up loudly and clearly and learned to either a) let go when it wasn’t heard, or b) speak louder and push harder to make sure I was heard. I have to learn to pick and choose my battles in order to stay sane.
So far, so good.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rosemaryrodriguez.com
• Instagram: @rosemarydirects
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@rosemarydirector