San Franciscan Filmmaker Ria Fay-Berquist is visiting Argentina and SeirenFilms. Here’s an extract of our chat with Ria sharing her unique South American experience and dreams about her first feature “The Mothers”.

Why did you decided to come to Argentina?

I had been invited by someone who’s writing process I really jive with. I was very curious about South America too, never having been here. Of course, it also keeps with the tradition of writing in short spurts in the southern hemisphere. The first draft was written in Australia.

How are you enjoying the local lifestyle?

I am going to miss, painfully, mate at 4 o’clock. There is also an abundance of ice cream shops here, which is the sugar addict’s equivalent to living in front of an opium field.

Most exciting event since you landed in South America?

The natural disaster warnings that turned out to be a man selling fish. Definitely.

Tell us a little bit more about the project you’re working on right now and the recent evolution of it.

It’s called The Mothers and it is sort of a meditation on power, but from a low-income perspective. It’s a story that is extrapolated somewhat from my early childhood experiences, but ended up needing a great deal of clinical and legal footwork. I spent the (North American) summer doing research at a residential treatment center for boys near Chicago, and have been to some conferences and done quite a few interviews, including one with an InterPol detective. I was recently invited to submit the script to the Berlinale Talent Campus’s Script Clinic, and have high hopes for that. It is my first feature, and I am hoping that the second, third, fourth, and fifth will be much more strategic. I wrote the first and second drafts and now I am writing the treatment. My mom tells me that when I was a baby I went from sort of scooting around like a sea lion to standing up and walking one day. She had to teach me to crawl after I had already learned to walk. That speaks volumes about the way I work.

What are your plans for the future regarding The Mothers. Plans? Dreams? Expectations?

I have quite a few talented people who have signed on to the project, and some others that I am working on recruiting. I am really excited to see what kind of collaboration that will emerge from this. I am still aiming to shoot next summer. The main plan/dream/expectation is that it will all come together simply and beautifully – it will be a film that we can all be proud of and that I will want to see thrown into the world.

Can you come up with a quote, a line, a story that sums up what you´ve recently learnt in Buenos Aires, regarding your experience as a filmmaker?

I have been reading mythology since I’ve been here, and a book about Psyche and Eros, which was really interesting to me, personally. Now that I think about it — two things. One is Linda Segar’s autograph on the inside of my friend’s book that says, “Enjoy the process.” This writing is such a process. It’s like painting; you prime the canvas, then you do an underpainting, you continue to add layers and details until everything is there. Writing is a little more nebulous since the pictures only exist in your head. The second thing is a quote from Lily Burana’s website: “If you’re not scared, you’re not even in the room.” That’s Pam Houston. Fear is the ultimate creative accelerant. If you explore that fear and use the adrenaline to fuel your writing, you are doing tremendous service to your work-and your readers. That’s Lily Burana.

Final words to SeirenFilms?

Thank you/ Muchisimas gracias.

For more info about Ria´s work, please check out Prize Fight Films