The smart, retro-homage film from the Philippines went all the way to Sundance, winning one of the big awards. Film-maker Martika Ramirez Escobar talks about her inspirational grandparents, selling her car to fund her film and what it’s like to be a ‘hot young director’
Martika Ramirez Escobar makes no bones about her expectations when she submitted her debut feature, Leonor Will Never Die, to Sundance. After a year of rejections, the entry fee felt like money down the drain. She was flat broke – had sold possessions to finish the film, even her car. But then an email landed in her inbox advertising earlybird entry. “I couldn’t afford the normal price, but this was cheaper.” Half-reluctantly she paid and clicked send: “Then I forgot about it. I didn’t even tell our producer.”
How much was the fee? “Sixty dollars. Expensive!” Her idea of success by this point was watching her film in a cinema, any cinema. “That was the dream. Just one theatre with more than 10 people in the audience,” she says with a big smile.
