Fund Coral's Film on Beauty Standards amongst Latinas

Standing in front of my bathroom mirror at 11 years old with a hot curling iron, I grabbed a chunk of curly hair from my head, placed it into the iron, and straightened it. I loosened my grip as I approached the root, and the metal iron fell onto my forehead. I yelled as I inspected the charcoal-colored scar on my forehead and swore I would not touch the iron again. The following day, I examined my hair and found a piece transforming into its natural curly state. Disgusted with my appearance, I grabbed the curling iron and repeated my ritual.

Insecurities about my hair arose with comments relatives had made about me having "pelo malo." My grandmother insisted I straightened it to enhance my beauty. The absence of diversity in my favorite telenovelas and magazines furthered my hatred for my natural hair. Over a decade later, I am creating work to showcase how I felt as a child and can provide room for reflection and conversation.

My short film "Burned" aims to utilize the ritual of straightening hair between an Afro-Puerto Rican mother and daughter to critique beauty standards upheld within the Latin American community. This film will take the audience into my life to illuminate my experiences of colorism and womanhood, topics not commonly discussed amongst Latine communities and in the media. In doing so, I want to create work that provides representation and nuance about Afro-Latina’s experiences of life revolving around Eurocentric beauty standards.

My name is Coral Ortiz, and I am a Puerto Rican filmmaker focused on sharing honest, nuanced stories about my life. Since graduating from Yale, I have worked on producing several short films and longer-form content. This work has received awards at various film festivals, including, but not limited to, the Orlando Film Festival, the Georgia Shorts Film Festival, and the Blackbird Film Festival. Most recently, she assisted in producing an indie film entitled Midas with a peer from college. This film recently premiered in theaters in late June.

We plan to film this project in early fall. This fund will go directly to a nonprofit fiscal sponsor, who will distribute the funds on our team's behalf.

Lastly, I am attaching a graph with our project cost breakdown below. This budget was created after receiving quotes for the crew, actors, equipment rental, and locations. Our total budget is 21,000. We have raised 14,300 thus far through grants and fiscal sponsorships.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! I appreciate your support.