Join us for a film screening and virtual Q&A with filmmakers Adelina Anthony and Marisa Becerra, co-founders of AdeRisa Productions. Founded in 2012, AdeRisa Productions have dedicated themselves to producing bold, entertaining, and educational Two Spirit, LGBTQ+POC films with an emphasis on Xicana/o/x, Chicanx, Mexican and Latine stories.

The screening will run approximately forty-five minutes and will feature four short films:

• Amigas with Benefits (2017): A short dramedy about an elderly bride-to-be, Lupita. She is finally living her truth and is on the verge of marrying her love, Ramona. But on their special day, an uninvited guest rudely disrupts the ceremony. It takes moral courage and a far-fetched plan for the couple to find a way back to their freedom to be happy.
• Guarding Santos (2019): A Mexican American child rebels against gender norms, forcing her traditional parents to make a choice about how to raise her.
• Ode to Pablo (2019): Challenged to a basketball game by local boys, Pablo, a queer, deaf Latino, agrees to play.  He does not reveal much about himself but lets his basketball skill speak for itself. He’s enjoying the game when an unexpected incident makes it clear to the other teens that Pablo is deaf. Despite assumptions about each and however brief, Pablo makes a connection with one of the boys.
• La Serenata (2019): Two parents struggle with their beloved Mexican musical tradition when their son requests a love song for another boy.

MARISA BECERRA (she/hers) is a proud Mexican malcriada lesbian entrepreneur and businesswoman.  She hails originally from Tepatitlan, Jalisco, México, and from a family of immigrant farm workers. From her humble roots, she eventually earned a full scholarship to attend a UC college of her choice. She received her degree in accounting and economics from UCSB.  Her entire life has been dedicated to helping uplift her family, and her myriad communities, which include Latinx, women and LGBTQ artists. In 2012, she became the co-founder and managing member of AdeRisa Productions; it is an independent production company founded explicitly to create film works centering Two Spirit/LGBTQ+ Ch/Xicana/o/x, Mexican, Latine stories and characters. Since the company’s inception, Marisa has been the leading Executive Producer on all of their film projects: Forgiving Heart, The Good Kind, Bruising for Besos, Gold Star, Private Dick (Web Series), Amigas with Benefits, La Serenata, Ode to Pablo and Guarding Santos (which she penned).  

ADELINA ANTHONY (she/they) works and lives on Tongva and Chumash lands. She is the eldest daughter of eight and was raised primarily on the Southside of San Antonio, Tejas (Payaya Territories). She credits her childhood home of MeXicanidad, Spanglish, and the fortune of being raised under her mother’s coyote/trickster/traviesa ways as her first artistic training ground. Because of her mother, joy and laughter were found in the deepest wells of sorrow. It is no surprise then that humor is a trademark in most of Adelina’s performance works. For over twenty-five years she worked in theater as an actor, writer, director and producer. She toured for 15 years on the university circuit with original solo works. For over the last decade, they have focused their energies on film works; especially as a co-founder for AdeRisa Productions. They are the film screenwriter-director-producer of Forgiving Heart, Bruising for Besos, Amigas with Benefits, Ode to Pablo; she is the screenwriter for the award-winning shorts: You’re Dead to Me, Get the Life and The Daily War. And Adelina is the director of the shorts Guarding Santos, La Serenata, and Ro & Shirelle. Adelina was the creator of Teatro Q, which was the first people of color LGBTQ+ space in Los Angeles dedicated to the training of artists in performance and creative writing; for three years she received an Artist-in-Residence grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs to run the workshops at the Southern California Library. She has been invited to participate and teach as a Master Artist at Pangea World Theatre and Art2Action’s National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation in 2015, 2017 and 2019. In 2021 she was selected as an HBO Pa’lante Promise/ WarnerMedia150 Artist for her sci-fi feature script: Harvest-Seeds of Humanity.