On April 23, the Latino Committee’s meeting featured the panel discussion, On Directing Features and Everything In Between: A Conversation with Patricia Riggen. In a conversation moderated by Director Alejandro Brugués, Riggen discussed her career journey, her experiences directing action and jumping between television and feature work.
During the conversation, Riggen discussed finding her passion for directing accidentally through the research and writing of her undergraduate thesis on female Directors in Mexico. She noted she had often been in positions where she had no authority to share her opinions, but directing presented an opportunity for her to express herself and tell stories her way.
After winning a DGA Student Film Award and a Student Academy Award for her short La Milpa in 2003, Riggen moved to Los Angeles but struggled to find an agent because her film was in Spanish and set in Mexico. She recalled, “I come from a time where not just being a female was hard, but telling a Latina story made it impossible for you to cross into the mainstream world.”
Nevertheless, Riggen encouraged members not to give up on their goals, to keep creating their own work as much as possible, and to keep fighting for what you believe in.
Riggen’s directorial credits include the feature films G20, Girl in Progress, Under the Same Moon, The 33 and Miracles from Heaven; the pilot for the series Proven Innocent; and episodes of Saint X, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Little America, Alaska Daily, Dopesick and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. She was nominated for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs for her 2011 movie for television Lemonade Mouth and won the DGA student film Award for Best Latino Student Filmmaker - East Coast for her 2002 short film La Milpa. Riggen has been a member of the DGA since 2010 and serves on the Western Directors Council.
ABOUT THE COMMITTEE:
The Latino Committee was created as a networking group to advance career and job opportunities for Latino DGA members by improving craft skills, networking, and making Latinos better known to the Hollywood creative community.
