Peñascal

Hi! My name is Camila Vidal. I’m a Peruvian Writer Director currently living in Los Angeles, California.

I am asking for your support in order to shoot my thesis film for the MFA in film directing that I'm pursuing at CalArts. I'm graduating this spring 2024 and this film means not only the end of an era before starting to work on my debut feature film, but the more mature and honest version of my work.

Shot in Lima, Perú, Peñascal is a psychological drama that explores grief and reunion of a dysfunctional family through the unexpected death of a big wave surfer.

I believe in the transformative power of storytelling and in the screen's capacity to translate unconventional languages ​​into emotions!

I want to share with you that applying for a MFA was a risk financially, professionally and emotionally. During the last 2 years I’ve been living in uncertainty following the literally "American dream". Being an immigrant in Hollywood is not easy, every day is a battle won, every day I loose part of my identity by speaking a language that is not mine, every day is another day of missing precious time with my family. I'll be honest, my dream of making movies has taken a lot from me, has disappointed me many times and distances me from those who I love. In some way, it has delayed dreams I have of being a mother and starting a family. But life it's about the decisions we made. And when I think about this path that I took, it fills me with a feeling that I cannot explain by words. It's ethereal. Dedicating my life to cinema feels like the portal to feel alive in the present. It transcends.

Art helps me to be aware of the stimulus around me, to be able to listen, to be able to calm down, to be able to find a room to breathe and surrender. My goal is to be able to inspire other people from my country, to give back the voice to those who have taken it away.

Lately, I’ve been learning to use my homesickness as inspiration, exercising my imagination every time that I travel to those places that I miss so much, and when I visit in my memories those people that I admire. Remembering allows me to create and shape images in the present inspired by those memories from the past. Filmmaking captures humanity, our passage through the earth, it's alive and timeless, it's intimate, honest, dreamy. It's everything that is close to my heart.

My goal has always been come back to Peru after having a better understanding of my form as a storyteller and be capable to assume a film that can talk for my people.

You can find more information about the film here:

English version

Logline

The unexpected death of a big wave surfer brings together a dysfunctional family led by women at a beach town in southern Lima. The house whose inheritance is disputed must be sold due to an outstanding debt.

Synopsis

A big wave surfer has died unexpectedly at the wave of Peñascal, a surfing town located in the San Bartolo district, south of Lima. The story follows women from a dysfunctional family grieving the loss in different ways. Alba (30) is the daughter who has just arrived from another country and Sofía (40) is the new wife who lived with the deceased and her dog, Lima (8), for the last few years. Sofia just had a daughter with him a year ago, Maria (1). After a beautiful paddle out memorial at the sea, a collective ceremony that represents the way the ocean brings surfers together, the closest family and friends gather at the beach house. Here arrives his sister Soledad (50), single mother of a teenager, Ian (15).

It is revealed that the house whose inheritance is disputed by these women, must be sold due to an outstanding debt that only Sofia knows the truth. She asks Alba for her consent to sell the house, but Alba refuses because for her, that house represents her dad. Alba accepts upon finding out that Sofia needs the money to be free. And everything seems to indicate that the potential buyer will be Soledad.

Alba, in a stage of denial, goes surfing and experiences a wallow in the sea that connects her with his pain. Meanwhile, Sofia expresses his grief at getting drunk, dancing and singing the creole music that he used to love.

Spanish version

Logline

La inesperada muerte de un surfista de ola grande une a una familia disfuncional liderada por mujeres en un pueblo costero del sur de Lima. La casa cuya herencia se disputa debe venderse debido a una deuda pendiente.

Sinopsis

Un surfista de ola grande ha muerto inesperadamente en la ola de Peñascal, localidad surfera ubicada en el distrito de San Bartolo, al sur de Lima. La historia sigue a mujeres de una familia disfuncional que lloran la pérdida de diferentes maneras. Alba (30) es la hija recién llegada de otro país y Sofía (40) es la nueva esposa que convivió con el fallecido y su perro, Lima (8), durante los últimos años. Sofía acaba de tener una hija con él hace un año, María (1). Después de una hermosa ceremonia de “Paddle Out” en el mar, conmemoración colectiva que representa la forma en que el océano une a los surfistas, los familiares y amigos más cercanos se reúnen en la casa de playa. Aquí llega su hermana Soledad (50), madre soltera de un adolescente, Ian (15).

Se revela que la casa cuya herencia se disputan estas mujeres, debe ser vendida debido a una deuda pendiente que sólo Sofía sabe la verdad. Ella le pide a Alba su consentimiento para vender la casa, pero Alba se niega porque para ella esa casa representa a su papá. Alba acepta la venta, al enterarse de que Sofía necesita el dinero para ser libre. Y todo parece indicar que la potencial compradora será Soledad.

Alba, en una etapa de negación, se va a surfear y experimenta una revolcada en el mar que la conecta con el dolor de su papá. Mientras tanto, Sofía expresa su pena emborrachándose, bailando y cantando la música criolla que a él le encantaba.

Visual references:

Why this film now:

Peñascal happens in a small surf town in southern Lima. It’s the name of the district but also is a fairly exposed point break that has a big wave to surf. Peñascal for me means an ocean metaphor that reveals an ocean’s dichotomy. From my dad, a eternal soul surfer, I learned that life and death at the sea are one and that I have always to respect it. We can’t separate the salt from the sea, in the same way as we can’t get away of some issues, traumas, memories. All of them will never leave our bones. Wim Wenders said in Alice in the Cities (1974): "It's a nice picture. It's so empty”. In the same way, Peñascal encapsulates the duality of a film: the beauty and loneliness that coexist in the characters' experience. The sea is so strong and dark that it can reopen wounds, but at the same time, its waves are so perfect and beautiful that they revive childhood fantasies and feelings of love around it. Sometimes the darkness can be so bright that it reveals what is hidden in the shadows. In this story surfing kills, as much as it gives life.

Today, people suffering any kind of pain get into surfing to heal. The rush of adrenaline from catching a wave allows surfers to let go of problems and focus on the present moment. Feelings of loss can create emotional wounds that manifest as low self-esteem, self-doubt, and a lack of trust in others. The sea at the beginning of the film means pain. At the end it represents the connection with harmony, that life is all the emotions together that regulate ourselves, that connect with continuing to move forward. This means transcendent. When we leave we want our memory to live on in the person who stays.

The film explores family dynamics and expectations, the idea of ​​dealing with relatives who are not blood, claiming the dysfunction of a family, the idea of the unpredictable, the strength of the ocean to bring people together, feelings of frustration, isolation, the wound as memory and past.

Director’s approach:

My work examines the possibilities of the medium and reflects what I am currently learning, yearning for, exploring and processing in my life. Why are some memories so difficult for me to understand? And ironically they are related to one of the most beautiful phenomena I’ve ever experienced, the ocean. How can we build ourselves as individuals with so much pain? How to talk about Lima, the city that I know but I don’t know, how to find the drive of freedom of my character who has lived in a society where non visible violence has been real. Everything came from everywhere but at the same time from nowhere. Life has been a secret. Noise has been silent.

For me, surrendering to the sea is the representation of surrendering to cinema, surrendering to something that is not your own, it is entering another dimension. Peñascal is an opportunity to reflect on pain that neither I know the truth.

How the funds will be used:

BUDGET TOTAL: $20,000

CURRENT FUNDING: $10,000

TOTAL NEEDED: $10,000

What your contributions will fund:

5 shoot dates: January. 8-12, 2024

$1,500: Locations - Scouting, permits, safety.

$700: Production design - Wardrobe, set dressing, props.

$900: Transportation - Gas reimbursement to cast and crew for travel to San Bartolo, located 51 km south of Lima.

$2000: Catering & Crafty - Meals by local vendors for cast and crew; craft services table.

$1000: Equipment - Camera, lights, grip, gear, film rolls, walkie talkies, tent for base camp, expendables for sound.

$10000: Contracted Work - paid shoot dates to cast and crew.

$900: Contingency - Unexpected expenses and last minute hiccups.

$3000: Hard drives and Post production - Editing, Color grading, Sound mixing

Para los peruanos, tambien pueden donar a nuestras cuentas del BCP:

Dólares:

número de cuenta BCP Dólares 19420799550144.

número de cuenta interbancaria es 00219412079955014492

Soles:

número de cuenta BCP Soles 19494507728049.

número de cuenta interbancaria 00219419450772804998.

GRACIAS DE TODO CORAZON!