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Screenwriter Josefina Lopez and director Patricia Cardoso. (photo by David Geffner)
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When Patricia Cardoso halted production of her debut HBO feature —
Real Women Have Curves — last year, due to an illness, the Sundance Film Festival was the furthest thing from her mind. Yet only a few months later, Cardoso joined a SRO Park City audience for what would become one of the most memorable screenings of the entire 2002 festival.
After a Q&A session that counted more standing ovations than a Lakers playoff game (Cardoso's Real Women Have Curves won the Sundance Audience Award in the dramatic competition), DGA Magazine caught up with Cardoso and the film's co-screenwriter, Josefina Lopez, at The Eating Establishment in Park City.
You have an interesting background for an indie director — a Fulbright scholar, master's degree in archaeology, raised in Bogotá, Columbia. What attracted you to Josefina's story?
Cardoso: Although I grew up in a different country, in a different financial class, the issues were the same. My mother, even though she was an architect from MIT, was just as controlling as Ana's mother [in the film], I grew up having curves too. I visited dress factories in East Los Angeles and talked to dress designers. They told me that manufacturers complained that the factories should only use a size 4 model and that there would be a curve police to ensure the patterns were cut without curves! It's an issue that is a big part of women's lives, including my own.
This began as a play 12 years ago and Josefina fought, unsuccessfully, to make it into a movie for many years. Once HBO brought Patricia on board, Josefina, what convinced you the original story would be well served?
Lopez: HBO insisted the film be directed by a Latina, which I believed was the right choice. I knew Patricia had dealt with many of the same struggles I had gone through if she was a successful Latina director in the industry, so I left her alone. I trusted her. She knew what she was doing.
Cardoso: I had seen Josefina's first play, Sister Maria, as well as Real Women Have Curves, and I felt the movie should be a blend of both. When I read the script, there were many things that did not work and it was important to sit down and talk with Josefina about her choices. She told me about her life, about working in a dress factory, and I shaped the material along those lines.
Lopez: I can't handle writers who think their words are holy. To me it's about the feelings and ideas in the story, not just the words. Patricia loves to take ideas from everyone — the actors, the crew, the DP — when she's shooting. Some directors talk about collaboration; Patricia really thrives on it.
