A Latina’s Lens

Less than 10 percent of film directors are women.

Xochitl Dorsey is one of them.

Although saddened by the statistic, her passion for filmmaking
is fueled by the hope that more women and Latinos will pursue the
career in years to come.

“There always just seemed to be this gap with films that
dealt with experiences that I could relate to, which was very
Latino-specific,” said the graduate student in the UCLA
School of Theater, Film and Television.

As Dorsey strives to fill part of that gap, she is off to a
successful start with her two-minute short film, “Tears and
Tortillas,” which won first place in the student filmmaker
category of the Mercury Latino Lens Short Film Challenge in
November.

The contest, a red-carpet event, awarded the six most promising
Latino students and emerging filmmakers in the country.
Dorsey’s overt appreciation for her cast and professors
emphasizes her humble and down-to-earth demeanor.

Before coming to UCLA, and before her passion for filmmaking was
fully realized, Dorsey attended New York University, where she
received a master’s degree in Latin American studies and
museum studies.

It was Dorsey’s internship at the Museum of Contemporary
Art in New York, where she was assigned to work on an art event,
which first sparked her interest in filmmaking.

“After that, just kind of understanding film and art just
completely changed my whole world and my whole passion for art …
because it was so much more accessible,” she said.

She also worked in film marketing and acquisitions as marketing
manager at the nonprofit media arts organization Women Make Movies,
which produces, distributes and promotes independent films and
videos by and about women.

“It was a very empowering experience to know that there
was a history of women filmmakers,” Dorsey said. “I met
so many of them working there that it made the possibility of me
becoming a filmmaker all the more real, and not impossible or
implausible.”

Dorsey had always worked in support of other filmmakers in New
York but never found the time to produce a film of her own. But
while in New York, an independent and documentary filmmaker gave
Dorsey a paramount piece of advice.

“”˜Right now, you’re at a place where you have
to go to film school,’ he said. “˜You have to find your
own voice. Build up your reel and take that next
step,'” Dorsey said.

So Dorsey took the next step.

She moved back to Los Angeles to attend the UCLA School of
Theater, Film and Television, where she is now working toward
earning a master of fine arts degree in film directing and
production.

“Part of the reason I came to Los Angeles,” said
Dorsey, “is that every story that I was writing, every story
that I was coming up with, always came back to stories from my
childhood here or my experiences here in Los Angeles.”

Dorsey was raised in Monterey Park and around East Los Angeles,
a community to which she attributes her inspiration for story
ideas. She was raised in a bicultural family: her mother an
immigrant from Mexico and her father a U.S. citizen.

“Being anxious to tell those stories and knowing that
there was a need for it motivated me to look within … because I
have so many colorful people in my family and colorful people in my
community,” Dorsey said. “We grew up with such a
strange sense of humor, my sisters and I. There was just so much
there to be inspired by.”

This “strange sense of humor” proves to be extremely
intriguing in “Tears and Tortillas,” in which a woman
cooks a tortilla that bears the portrait of her dead husband in
burn marks.

Having chosen UCLA over other film schools, Dorsey is
continuously impressed by the commitment of her professors and the
intelligence and boldness of her peers.

“It takes so much guts and talent to put (a film) out
there, and UCLA attracts those kinds of people that have that
risk-taking factor,” she said.

As for life after film school, Dorsey is open-minded.

“I am right now just trying to exercise all the muscles
that I can as a filmmaker,” she said.

But it is also Dorsey’s hope that her filmmaking may
encourage other women, specifically Latinas, to do the same.

“I am hoping that there are more (Latina filmmakers) after
me … that can see that this is a viable opportunity,”
Dorsey said. “The only thing standing in people’s way
is just getting out there and doing it.”