By Natalia Rodriguez
Filmmaker Eugenia Renteria, founder of Inspira Studios in Watsonville, accompanied eight Pajaro Valley students taking El Sistema music classes to present a workshop at the prestigious International Society of Music Education 2024 conference in Helsinki, Finland.
Aptos Times interviewed Eugenia Renteria about the trip and the documentary she is planning.
What is the history of Inspira Studios?
Inspira Studios was founded almost eight years ago. At the time, I didn’t fully understand what I wanted to achieve or what potential this new adventure had. I just knew that I wanted to make films.
Little by little I began to move on to more complex productions.
What was the inspiration for bilingual storytelling? Was it to compensate for a lack of representation?
We wanted to ensure that our stories were resonant and accessible to Watsonville’s diverse community, which has a large Hispanic population.
Since my whole family speaks Spanish as their first language, this choice made perfect sense. Plus, I haven’t seen many bilingual production companies on site.
Who from Inspira Studios has traveled to Finland?
I was there with the cameraman Carlos Campos.
How did Inspira Studios start this journey with El Sistema to Finland?
We have been working with El Sistema for several years and were approached by Isabelle Tuncer and Camilo Ortiz about this opportunity.
Our documentary begins when El Sistema’s music director, Camilo Ortiz, tells the students that they are going to Finland.
From then on, we continued with the documentation while they had several rehearsals and made all the travel arrangements.
It was inspiring to see the students preparing for the trip of a lifetime. Their excitement and nervousness add so much to this story as for some of them it was their first time leaving the country.
How long did the trip to Finland take? How was the trip?
The trip to Finland lasted eight days. From a production perspective, the trip to Finland was an interesting experience.
We had to take a lot of film equipment with us and deal with customs in both countries, which was a first for us.
But it was also quite magical to capture the experiences of some students on their first flight.
Are there any words from the children or families?
The children were overjoyed and their performance was incredible. I wonder how this experience will shape their future in the years to come.
Were there any highlights, new experiences or interesting stories from the trip?
It was great to learn about the happiest country in the world and see the excellent transport links and the cleanest tap water in the world. It has raised the bar for what we deserve as a society. I am sure the students will be great advocates for better transport links and access to clean water in the future.
Was the workshop in English or was it translated?
The workshop was mainly in English, but we often heard Spanish and Finnish, since most of El Sistema’s students are Latinos and the students they work with in Finland are Finnish.
When will the documentary about El Sistema be released?
We expect the documentary to be finished by the end of the year. After that, we will start our festival tour and have a few local screenings planned as well.
Is Inspira Studios currently working on other projects?
The Community Health Trust of Pajaro Valley presents a free film screening by Carlos Campos, Isabel Contreras and Eugenia Renteria about the disparities in access to health care in the Pajaro Valley and how to solve them. The screening will take place on Wednesday, August 28th at 6:30 p.m. at CineLux Green Valley in Watsonville. Reservations required.
Would you like to add something else?
I am very honored to be able to bring this story to the screen and would like to thank El Sistema, the students and their families for entrusting me with this film.
•••
The photos show Watsonville filmmaker Eugenia Renteria documenting Pajaro Valley music students at El Sistema who were invited to give a workshop in Finland.
(Visited 11 times, 11 visits today)
