Malpelo, a feature film by Film alumna Victoria Rivera '20, was selected to participate in the 2022 Spanish Script Revision Lab hosted by Cine Qua Non. The film was co-written by Leticia Andrea Akel Escárate ’18 and produced by Camila Zavala '19.
Malpelo followsMia Soto, a freediver, marine biologist and co-founder of a shark protection foundation, who decides to embark on a dangerous expedition to the inhospitable island of Malpelo in Colombia. She is obsessed with completing the research of her husband, who disappeared recently on the island. Mia puts all her freediving skills into tagging hammerhead sharks with a team of men who distrust her and her abilities. She soon discovers that her scientific tagging is falling into the wrong hands and encouraging shark finning in the area.
The Script Revision Lab allows participants to work alongside facilitators on a feature length narrative script over the course of two weeks. The participants engage in a two-week residential workshop and a two-day online follow-up session. In addition to script guidance and one-on-one meetings, participants also spend the majority of the residence writing. The lab offers the participants the opportunity to workshop their projects with other international filmmakers, be part of a community of like-minded artists, and access the Cine Qua Non Lab's professional network.
Victoria Rivera is a Colombian screenwriter and director based in New York who graduated from Columbia University with an MFA in Screenwriting and Film Directing. She has made several short films that have had recognition at international Academy-qualifying film festivals such as Telluride, Tribeca, Cartagena de Indias and Bogoshorts, where she won jury awards with her short films Skull+Bone (2016), Verde (2018), Night Swim (2019) and Lucia (2020), nominated for the Macondo Awards in 2022 in the Best Short Film category. Victoria is currently developing Malpelo, a feature film supported by a Sloan Foundation grant and by organizations such as Film Independent, IFP and Sundance Institute, where she has participated in various labs and financing markets.
