Projects
In addition to my administrative work in film festivals and post-secondary institutions, I have developed and collaborated on a variety of creative projects.
Continue reading to find out what I’m working on now!
Community Engagement
The Happy Listening Project (2023)
The Happy Listening Project is a field recording journal created and produced by sound artist Millie Wissar. I joined Millie as a co-producer and project manager in September 2023.
Each podcast episode features a 10-20 minute recording of a natural soundscape, including waves crashing at the beach, rainfalls, winds blowing through the trees on the mountains, and birds singing in luscious rainforests. Each season is set in a different country, from Peru to Canada to Thailand.
Join us on this sonic adventure and discover the perfect sounds to improve your mood and well-being. Enhance your listening experience with noise-cancelling headphones and enjoy the unique benefits of natural soundscapes throughout your day.
To learn more about Millie and the events that urged her to create this project, listen to the season finale interview!
Curatorial Projects
Andean Horror Film Fest (2015)
The Andean Horror Film Fest is a curatorial project that celebrates the historical and cultural relevance of horror films produced in the Andean cities of Peru between 2000-2010. The films are modern adaptations of traditional Andean stories, featuring fantastical creatures like the Jarjacha (a part man-part llama demon), the Pishtaco (a foreign assassin who kills Indigenous people for profit), and the Kharisiri (an evil shaman).
Produced at the wake of the Peruvian Internal Armed Conflict (1980-2000), these films rely on the rich symbolisms of traditional Andean stories and horror genre conventions as a vehicle to explore collective and individual political trauma.
The Andean Horror Film Fest featured a selection of three feature-length horror films and one documentary short:
- Pishtaco, directed by José Antonio Martínez Gamboa
- The Curse of Jarjacha (La maldición de los jarjachas), directed by Palito Ortega Matute.
- The Mystery of the Kharisiri (El misterio del Kharisiri), directed by Henry Vallejo.
- The Other Cinema (El otro cine), directed by Sofía Velasquez and Javier Becerra Heraud.
The project ran October 16, 17, 23, and 24, 2015, at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, Vancouver, BC. The last day included the panel discussion, “Horror in the Andes: A discussion on genre films, folklore and social justice”, featuring Ana Carrizales (Peruvian-Canadian director, producer, screenwriter and actor) and Rachel Fox (Programmer at the RIO Theatre).
For more information, visit: www.facebook.com/andeanhorrorfilmfest
Queer Pix short film program (2018-2020)
Queer Pix is a short film program that I co-developed with Kathleen Mullen. Queer Pix celebrates and amplifies Latinx 2SLGBTQIA+ voices, stories and representation. I co-curated the program in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
LGBTQIA+ rights remains a contested issue in many Latin American countries, making this community vulnerable to severe forms of discrimination and abuse. With this in mind, it was important that we approached the curation process diligently, considering the films’ relevance in relation to historical and current social, cultural and political contexts. Our goal was to acknowledge the struggles and celebrate love, authenticity, creativity, connection, courage, and resistance.
The program screened at The Cinematheque as part of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival.
Podcast Interview
The UFSA Podcast: VLAFF 2019: Queer Pix with Maria Cecilia Saba and Kathleen Mullen (Link)
Photography
Reflections of Vancouver (2017 – Present)
There are many ways in which Vancouver is dramatically different from my hometown, Lima. While Lima is the second largest city located in a desert region (after Cairo, Egypt), Vancouver is one of the cities with the most rainfall. When I arrived in 2014, I was fascinated with Vancouver’s rain. I loved the sound of it at night, the fresh smell of wet soil, the intense luscious green of plants after a good shower. I also grew specially fond of puddles on the streets and how brightly they reflected the world around them. In 2017, I began a street photography series documenting the views within the puddles during my commutes to work or weekend strolls. Through the series, I aim to capture the beauty of these ephemeral portals, revealing alternate universes where the ground meets the sky.
Octubre Milagroso (2010)
The Señor de los Milagros, also known as “Christ of Miracles,” is an image of Jesus Christ that has become an important religious symbol in Peru. The image originated from a mural painted in the 17th century by Pedro Dalcon, an African who was brought to Peru as a slave from present-day Angola. The veneration of the image started in the 17th and 18th centuries after several earthquakes devastated most of the city, except for the mural. The survival of the painting was seen as a miraculous event and triggered a national religious celebration.
Every October, hundreds of thousands of people from different backgrounds participate in religious processions through the streets of downtown Lima to honour the image. The tradition is one of the oldest Catholic practices in Peru and one of the largest religious processions in the world.
October is known as the purple month because of the traditional purple habits worn by the devotees. The procession route circles downtown Lima and takes around 20 hours to complete. The streets fill up with thousands of people, from faithful pilgrims to hustlers selling various religious items to enhance the power of prayers, including candles, stamps, prints, medals, amulets, bracelets, and protection pins.
