Director Carla Gutierrez stops by The Hollywood Reporter's studio in Park City during the Sundance film festival to talk about her film 'Frida.' Gutierrez shares her personal connection with artist Frida Kahlo and her journey diving into the archival material of her art and writing as well as reaching out to Frida and husband Diego Rivera's families.
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00:00 I know a lot of people, you know, have seen their own experiences and a lot of communities,
00:05 their own experiences really reflected in her art and, you know, we claim her.
00:14 I was one of the probably like millions of people in the world that like got pretty obsessed
00:22 with her at some point in my life.
00:24 It was in college many, many years ago that I discovered the first painting that I saw
00:29 of hers, which is her standing in the middle of the United States and Mexico.
00:36 And I just saw, I was a new immigrant in the States, so I saw kind of like my own experience
00:40 at that time reflected in that painting.
00:43 And I was just like, who is this woman?
00:45 What are her paintings?
00:46 I started reading, I bought her diary, I started reading a lot about her.
00:51 But I also discovered that as I mature as a woman, a lot of my experiences were, you
00:58 know, she continuously like capture a lot of the emotional experiences that I was going
01:03 through.
01:04 So, I felt that I kept getting closer and closer to her art.
01:09 So yeah, that's my personal relationship, but I know a lot of people, you know, have
01:13 seen their own experiences and a lot of communities, their own experiences really reflected in
01:19 her art and, you know, we claim her.
01:22 So what was the process of getting access to all of this once you decided that you wanted
01:26 to do this?
01:27 How did you go about like going through all of the archives and her writings?
01:34 It took a lot of research and it was a lot of, you know, very involved, like diving into
01:40 the archival material.
01:43 My production team incredibly, you know, led by the incredible Katia Maguire, like really
01:48 just kind of jump into it.
01:52 The writings, Frida's writings are really kind of like all over the place.
01:56 There's not one central book that has published all her writings together, but my team kind
02:03 of like follow the academic work that had been done about Frida.
02:08 You know, we looked at every footnote and then we started collecting the original letters
02:13 and the original essays and, you know, from the newspaper.
02:19 So that was, you know, part of the work of like just getting, gathering all of her writings
02:25 and having all of her writings to be able to read.
02:28 And then in terms of, you know, access to the rights of Frida, Frida and Diego, you
02:33 know, in our film we talk about what, you know, they were very, you know, passionate
02:39 communists and they both believe that art belonged to the people.
02:45 So Diego Rivera left, you know, to the people of Mexico, he left all of the art and the
02:51 writings of both his own art and Frida's art.
02:55 So it really belongs to Mexico.
02:58 So we, you know, we went to the government of Mexico to get the rights to be able to
03:04 show her writing and her art.
03:06 I'm curious if you did anything outside of the strict work that related directly to the
03:12 making of the documentary.
03:13 Did you do anything kind of like on a personal level to get to know her or to connect to
03:17 the material that maybe we didn't see come out in the film, but that like informed, like
03:21 did you go, you know, down to Casa Azul and go around or any of that kind of thing?
03:26 Yeah, I mean, we visited Mexico to be able to have, you know, kind of like direct contact
03:32 to the art.
03:33 For example, the two Fridas I hadn't seen in person, which is like her largest piece
03:38 of, you know, piece of art.
03:40 So it was really important for us to like have that experience.
03:44 And we also reach out to people in both Diego's and Frida's families to be able to kind
03:51 of like talk to them.
03:54 We got to sit down with Christina, Christina Carlo, who is a great niece of Frida.
04:01 They look very similar.
04:03 So it was kind of like a really nice experience.
04:06 And she had actually asked the hospital where Frida had a lot of surgeries for, because
04:12 she was a family member, she was able to ask the hospital for the records.
04:16 So you know, so we talked a lot with her about kind of like, you know, there is the academic
04:22 work, but there's also like the family stories and the family understanding of like somebody
04:28 that is part of that family.
04:31 Same with the grandson of Diego Rivera.
04:33 So we got to meet him too.
04:36 And the grandson, Diego Lopez Rivera, actually has like Diego's eyes, which are like really
04:42 big.
04:43 So it was an experience to be able to sit with them and like see, you know, descendants
04:47 and you know, talk to us about these figures in their families.
04:53 And before we run out of time, I'm curious, what surprised you the most, either in learning
05:00 about her or about the way her work connects with people or anything like that?
05:04 What was surprising to you?
05:07 About her, it actually surprised us that she could carry so much of this story.
05:11 We thought at the beginning that maybe we were going to need to lean into other voices
05:17 of people that knew her and that were there during her life.
05:22 But it was just like a wonderful discovery where like she herself kind of guided us through
05:28 her life in a very emotional way.
05:31 So to know that she was going to be able to be so present in our film was like a great
05:36 surprise and also her sense of humor.
05:40 I knew she, you know, she had like, obviously I knew she had a strong personality and she
05:45 had a lot of humor, but I love like just reading the letters and hear her sarcasm and like
05:51 her sharpness.
05:52 She had a sharp tongue and that was just fabulous to learn.
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