Meet the out lesbian bringing passion and a touch of noir to books and movies.
When you tire of the usual Hollywood fare, look to Cuban-American independent filmmaker, self-published author and proud lesbian, Vanessa Libertad Garcia to bring substance, passion and a touch of noir to your movie and book collection.
On Doing It Herself: I love doing everything. A lot of times people don’t like you to have a lot of different labels in the business. They don’t want you to be a writer, director, producer, whatever, but the truth of the matter is that I am. I always say that I write so I can direct and direct so that I can edit. I love film but writing has always been second nature to me. I wrote my first book and then I self published it and did all my own press.
On Loving Her Latina Roots: Being Latina influences and informs my daily life, my identity, the way I feel when I look in the mirror, my culture. I’m very fascinated with the Hispanic culture in general and I love it. I’m a part of it and I also feel like it’s my responsibility to myself to honor my experiences that aren’t well represented in the media by giving them a more accurate and authentic picture of it.
On Her Latest Book: I have a book of poetry coming out called Bloody Fucking Hell. It’s my experiences falling in love with three different straight girls in my life. The poetry is really the emotional aspect of what I went through and the essays are a reflective aspect. And it’s about why I, as an out lesbian, would really put myself through that and what that means about my own internalized homophobia.
On What Inspires Her: The movies have always been the love of my life. When I was 4 my favorite movie in the entire world was The NeverEnding Story and I used to play that movie on repeat. I loved Atreyu. I wanted to be just like Atreyu! I would recommend, if you had to see one movie in your entire life, it would be The NeverEnding Story. It opened my eyes about my own self-awareness and meaning.
On Her Unique Style: Artsy, eccentric, loquita. I love the arts and I love directing according to my emotions. So it’s very fluid and at times very black and at times very colorful. (vanessalibertadgarcia.com)