Synopsis
A video call lights up a phone: It’s MOM (60s). AJ (30s) is currently sleeping, so it takes more than one try for him to pick up, and when he does, he is greeted by a surprise – Mom is bloodied and bruised, tied to a chair, and being held hostage. AJ realizes what’s happening and is immediately asked to comply with the kidnappers demands. The demands: AJ has 10 seconds to walk to his window and open his curtains, that’s it. But somehitng is not right, neither him nor his mom want AJ to do it. But as the seconds tick down, AJ has no option but to comply. When he finally reaches the windows as the countdown nears zero, he can barely blurt out ‘I love you’ before opening the curtains. It’s daylight outside and as his body is touched by the light, it burns – he was a vampire. Mom can’t believe she just witnessed the death of her only son, she is in shock still, when, she sees the kidnapper walk towards her window and open her curtains, she is too far for the sun to hit her, but the kidnapper is not, only, he does not burn. He is not a vampire. Mother is shocked, and she lets escape in shock ‘Humans, they’re real.’ before being dragged by the kidnapper into the light and pushed so she too can burn. The kidnapper, satisfied, walks into the light of day, continuing his journey to take the world back from the vampires that have ruled.
Director’s BiographyI love what I do. Truly, absolutely, love it. Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, it was a long road to get here. From leaving my home country as an immigrant to obtaining my two Masters (one from NYFA in film directing and one from USC in the Peter Stark Producing Program), it’s been years since I set-out to make a go of all this and since then, I have wound up doing some cool work with some cool people (if you’re on my site, hopefully you agree).
I’ve collaborated with many agencies across the world, and have done work with brands like Wells Fargo, SONY, Fabletics, Energizer, and many more. My work has amassed more than 19 million views on YouTube (that’s just the SONY stuff), my narrative shorts have screened all over (from Cuba all the way to Japan), and my TV spots have aired not just here in the US, but also throughout South America (shout out to all my Latinos out there).
This film encapsulates a lot of fears and emotions I’ve felt as an immigrant. The whole premise of this came from two very specific things:
1. My family lives in another country, a dangerous country, and my fear has always been to be woken in the middle of the night to discover one of my parents has been kidnapped.
2. As an immigrant, I’ve never felt that I’ve belonged in this country, and more over, I’ve always felt when I speak to people about my journey or hear people speak about my country, I feel that perspectives on who we are or what is happening are skewed because of their own preconceptions.
The combination of these two things plot (1) and theme (2) led me to create this story. I hope that by watching it, people question where their own perspectives had led them in the past. What conclusions have they reached. After all, if the people you think are bad turn out to be like you, and the people you think are good are not, would you still root for them?
