‘Nymph’ Director Maria de Mar Rosario on the vulnerability of being a transient and a woman

Nymph follows a newly arrived immigrant in New York who’s pressured by her economic situation to enter a world of embellished sex work.

juliemango.tv chats with director Maria del Mar Rosario about how her transient heroine Angelica navigates the pressure and precariousness of her new situation. She tells us the importance of showing real-life characters on screen with actors to deliver her work from an informed experience.

Nymph was screened virtually at the 2021 Third Horizon Film Festival.

Read the conversation

Welcome to juliemango.tv. I'm Robynn Bourne and I'm here with Maria del Mar Rosario, the director of short film nets. The film is about a newly arrived immigrant in New York, who is pressured by her economic situation to enter a world of embellished sex work. Thanks so much for joining me, Maria. I hop right into it. So to start, could you tell us a little bit about your Caribbean heritage?

Mario del Mar Rosario 0:36

Um, well, I'm from Puerto Rico, I grew up in, in looking at the horizon. And right now, I've been like, part of the Puerto Rican diaspora. As a resident of New York City, for a while now, I studied in New York, and I studied in Cuba.

And when I went to study as a director, I started seeing because I had come from, from studying in film in the United States, and then like, I'm in the Caribbean, and I'm like, wow, I can look horizontal you know. Like, I'm placed in Puerto Rico and certainly, we were always looking north.

And it's so much better to not so much better, but it's so rich to look like I felt in Cuba, almost like it was part of we were part of the same country. There was like, it was like a strange, strong connection I had with Cuba, almost like, I felt like it was another town of my country.

Robynn Bourne 1:53

So it's like, the culture is very similar. And you felt that strong connection to Cuba?

Mario del Mar Rosario 2:00

Yeah. Like it's inevitable that we are. So much of who we are is informed by the environment, by nature, and the air. And also like the Afro-Caribbean descendants, the music, like the sounds we hear, everything influences who we are. And I felt being in Cuba, I was getting all the same information to be who I am. I could express that Puerto Rican part of me in Cuba. I had the channel in there.

Robynn Bourne 2:48

I like that you mentioned we always look north, so I'm Caribbean, too. And a lot of people – we look towards the States or to Canada when there's so much in the Caribbean already.

Mario del Mar Rosario 3:01

I think honestly, sometimes I'm like, wow, you know? It's not because I'm patriotic, although, like, I have that connection, sometimes it's like, ‘Wow, it's crazy, we are from this place’. Like, people move to Puerto Rico, because they want to live in that environment. There are so many Americans actually moving now to Puerto Rico.

That's another subject. But sometimes, like, wow, you know, I'm from here, and when I think I'm from here, it's also like, the artists that influenced me from here. Or like, the music that people that look into my eyes, you know, like, the when, when I walk in the Caribbean, whether it's in Cuba, or Puerto Rico or something. Yeah. Like, I'm like, wow, I am from here. I'm so proud.

Robynn Bourne 3:59

I know the feeling. I know the feeling. It's definitely great to feel that way, especially in the Caribbean. I want to even explore more of the Caribbean too because it's definitely rich with that culture. Like you said.

Mario del Mar Rosario 4:12

Yeah. And then sorry, I feel like other countries relate with nationalism comes with like, often, like, for example, if you look at a football game, and your country wins, okay, that's, that's some sort of nationalism, but like nationalism can come in, in different ways.

And at the same time, your identity is so entangled to it, you know, like, I'm talking from the perspective of our colonized country, you know. Like in my identity, in terms of how nationalism is affected, and that's what I'm saying like, perhaps, in my case, being from the Caribbean It's not that kind of nationalism of like, ‘my country is the best’, or ‘we rule’.

Robynn Bourne 5:19

I know exactly what you mean. Thank you so much. So jumping into your work a little bit so your work explores themes at the intersection of gender and colonialism. Why is that important to you?

Mario del Mar Rosario 5:32

Um, well, I feel like it's, it's intertwined. Um, and I'm talking about some things that I feel sometimes as a woman that comes from, from colonialism. And I mean, in general, to give you a quick answer: I understand that I live in a patriarchy, and that same system that colonized my country, at the same time, I feel it in my body.

Robynn Bourne 6:11

That was a deep one, actually, it's still it does still really run. It's there. So although we see quite a bit of sex in them, the film is really a story of survival. Can you talk a bit about what it is that Angelica really wants?

Mario del Mar Rosario 6:31

I feel like for Angelica, when I was writing Nymph, I was thinking of I was thinking more like, have a moment, not necessarily like I was talking to friends about the script. Somebody is like, but you need to have some but something that she wants, with our purpose, and she needs to, like, have a struggle.

But I was like, I had this feeling of, of a moment when sometimes like, we go through an experience and you feel like you get punched in the face by life. And I think Angelica is in a process of transitioning because she just moved to another country. And she's starting to learn the dynamics of it.

And in that, in that transition, she becomes a token of something that, as a woman, she's vulnerable to become an attractive woman. And I don't know if necessarily, she understands, she understands what she wants, at that point in the film.

Robynn Bourne 7:52

Definitely trying new things, but then you see, like her push forward and pull back as well. So I get that she doesn't really know she's just going through it, right.

Mario del Mar Rosario 8:02

I feel like sometimes there are some sometimes in life, there are some, you have so many options, and possibilities, and especially like being a migrant, not like not always you have so much clarity. Sometimes you have to survive before you know, or sometimes you need to experience to then decide this is what I want, this is what I don't want.

Robynn Bourne 8:31

So we have seen a lot of sex work, move with technology to online spaces, just you know, the climate that we're in, why was it really important for you to show more of a real-life version, a physical version of this reality for an immigrant woman?

Mario del Mar Rosario 8:54

I mean, honestly, I was writing other when I was writing news, and I think most of the time, I write from, from why it's happening, what I see at the time. I was like, I was added in the festival in Amsterdam, and I passed by this red district, and I saw these women in the, in front of a store.

Like, for me, that image was kind of like how I started doing research in those kinds of shops in when I came back to New York. I walk into a sex shop and started to talk to some of these women two of whom are in the film. Yeah, so I haven't explored online. It's just something that I saw.

Robynn Bourne 9:59

You actually went in, and then those two ladies actually ended up being in the film. How was that? How did they get to actually be actors in the film?

Mario del Mar Rosario 10:12

I talked to two people, I think it's important to inform the film with, with the real people who had the like, like, for example, one of them. Roxanna, she, she told me so many things that are important, you know, like, you don't know, it's not like that, it's like this, this is how it happens, you should and she was like, you should take a show you need to see it, you need to understand what it's like.

And every time I'm making a film, it's important to blend that with, with the real characters of, of the of those environments, and to make the story also informed by their experience.

Robynn Bourne 11:04

I really like that. So even speaking of those students, speaking of Roxanne, like you mentioned, at every step of the way, Angelica had a more seasoned female coworker to guide her and from in the shop to the booth. But we see that it's Ruben she reaches out to to find somebody to help her secure her papers. So can we talk a little bit about that?

Mario del Mar Rosario 11:32

Yeah, um, I didn't know, like, I was thinking on that point, that it's so strange how we are taught as women, I and I was informing that by don't know, when, in my upbringing, I was taught to ask a man for help. And I think that's part of like, what's happening? Like, you think the answers are in someone else, another person, or not in yourself? Um, I mean, if I was exploring, like, some dark places, I don't want to look but are there?

Robynn Bourne 12:21

Yeah, sometimes we don't know where to get the answers from. We get the answers from other people, when really and truly that answer there right in front of us. I was gonna ask something along those lines. But I like that you did mention that part.

So before we go, that this is a really quick chat that we have, but I really want to hear more about what you have Lex, because we see a lot being challenged. And as you said, some pretty dark moments, and then some pretty explicit moments that we see.

One thing that I would love to comment on is the scene where we see her in the booth and we can see it from her perspective, I really think that that was important, because we're really seeing that's what they have to see. That's what they have to go through. And it's over and over and over again. And for anybody watching this, go watch them and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. So I like that you do really expose those darker truths. So I'm really excited to hear what you have in the workings.

Mario del Mar Rosario 13:22

I'm working um, I am working a couple of things. One is a short and it's dealing with immigration. And it's also in dealing with the female body. It's called Womb Bientre. Um, I have also like developing a feature the title is Poncha Colonial and it's also exploring gentrification in Puerto Rico on colonialism and the liberation of the female body. And yeah, what those are like the two main projects I have in the works right now.

Robynn Bourne 14:10

That will be definitely interesting to see the gentrification because as you said before, so many Americans are moving down there. That didn't even cross my mind. Wow. Yes, yes, yes, I definitely I'm excited to see this one come out. We'll definitely follow up. Yeah, I want you to let everybody know where we can find you. So socials, website, let us know.

Mario del Mar Rosario 14:34

My website is Maria del Mar Rosario dot com and my Instagram is Maria del Mar Rosario, but one one R Maria del Mar one R Rosario.

Robynn Bourne 14:51

So that is where you can find her Ladies and gentlemen, I do want to thank you so much for chatting with me today. about them. And hopefully we will get to talk to you in the future about your projects that you have coming up. I really do want to talk about the gentrification of Puerto Rico because that is something that is probably going to be happening soon around the Caribbean. So I'm really excited for that. And on that note, thank you everyone for watching juliemango.tv. Subscribe for more conversations with Caribbean filmmakers. I'm Robynn Bourne. See y'all next time.