One of the world’s colossal food conglomerates is aiming to raise the profile of Latino filmmakers and a local voice was eager to lend her unique blend of heartfelt comedy to the nationwide search.
Santa Monica local Marissa Díaz is on the cusp of clinching an honor from fast food giant McDonald’s, as she was recently selected as one of three finalists in the restaurant chain’s Spotlight Dorado short film contest. Receiving a $75,000 filmmaking grant by the company, Díaz’s film Fancy Florez’s Summer Staycation is one of three projects currently being voted on, with the winner moving on to shoot a McDonald’s commercial promoting next year’s contest.
The film is inspired by her childhood in the San Antonio area, where she first widened her interest in the movie and television craft, discovering her life calling.
“I think it was part just loving cameras and loving to take photos and loving to take home videos, I thought that was so fun,” Díaz said of her southern Texas upbringing. “Really just making stuff I thought was so exciting … I remember seeing something like Goodfellas or Requiem for a Dream when I was in high school and just thinking it was the most amazing work of art I’d ever seen, I’d never seen anything like it. It’s a world I’ve never experienced, people I’ve never seen before [and] I think [filmmaking] was a way for me to look into the lives of others in places I’ve never been.”
Her journey took her to places like New York City and eventually Los Angeles, interning for the likes of the Bravo television network and film companies including Fox Searchlight and MGM. Díaz’s biggest break of her young career was assisting Lena Dunham on the fifth season of HBO show Girls, eventually staying with Dunham for seven years and moving to Santa Monica to run the Los Angeles office of Dunham’s production company, Good Thing Going. She added that she fell “totally in love” with the city, wishing to stay local for the foreseeable future.
Branching out on her own the past few years; Díaz went on to produce 16 episodes of the HBO Max show Generation as well as the Netflix documentary Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste. Now with considerable experience under her belt, she embraced her independence and willingness to tell important Latina stories with “Staycation.”
“I think so many stories that exist right now within the Latina community are about folks that live in Los Angeles and in New York and while I do live in Los Angeles, I think it’s important to bring a voice to the people that live in the middle of the country,” she said. “I think those stories haven’t been told yet, and I’m excited to be a part of telling those stories.”
While she notes that she “loves” that stories based on the coastal cities exist, she wants to “open up” other Latino existences, since the local community is entrenched “everywhere.” She particularly puts a focus on her Texas roots due to what she deemed “tough opinions” about immigration and the very existence of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the state.
“I think [it’s] a contentious place to grow up, in a place that’s so conservative, and [a lot] of people don’t feel that Mexicans should be welcomed in a land that was once Mexico,” Díaz added. “I think that breeds a certain culture that we don’t see in [Los Angeles].”
Though the area has some rough edges, Staycation keeps things light, focusing on the titular Fancy Florez and her quest for a summer of poolside solitude. She wrote the character of Fancy by channeling what it would be like to “go back in time and be a 10-year-old who has all of the knowledge and confidence” she now possesses.
“The childhood dream, the person I wish that I was when I was 10, I wrote about her,” Díaz said. “A person that is so self-assured, has confidence and also has a heart for other people that are hurting.”
Giving the project a major visibility boost is the narrator of Staycation, actor and television personality Mario Lopez, who took note of Díaz’s skills by reading her teenage comedy Cochinas. The Writers Guild of America strike of last summer prevented the two from forming an official project partnership, but the former Saved by the Bell star acquiesced at Díaz’s request to lend his voice for the McDonald’s contest.
Viewing Fancy Florez’s Summer Staycation and voting in the Spotlight Dorado contest can be done online here, with the voting period ending Sunday at 11:59 p.m. PST. The winner will be announced in March.
thomas@smdp.com
