Up-and-coming filmmakers Jessica Mendez Siqueiros and Brian Robau have done a little bit of short writing in addition to other tasks like producing, acting, and directing. They are now scripting their first feature film with the help of some seasoned wordsmiths.

Mendez Siqueiros and Robau are among the Sundance Institute’s ninth annual Screenwriters Intensive program, which is supported by the Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation. The program aims to help emerging independent writers and writers/directors develop their first fiction features. The two-day writers’ training takes place online this week.

Mendez Siqueiros is developing the screenplay for Reforma about a young Mexican American girl in 1967 Tucson who tries to solve the problems of her newly-integrated community through dance. A Chicana writer/director of mixed indigenous Sonoran and European ancestry, she says her goal is to “normalize complex and authentic narratives about the Southwest Mexican-American community through film.”

Mendez Siqueiros has written screenplays for three shorts. Her first one was for Before a Mirror in 2016, followed by And Still, We Love two years later. Her most recent is Pozole, a 2019 dark comedy about a mixed-race Latina woman who sets out to reconnect with her traditional Mexican roots on her nana’s 100th birthday, in which things go terribly wrong. She also directs it. Pozole went on to win awards at the Charlotte Film Festival, Cinequest San Jose Film Festival, and Lake County Film Festival. The film is reportedly the first narrative short executive-produced by the data-transfer company WeTransfer. 

For Robau, the other Screenwriters Intensive fellow, stories about his Cuban-American community are important. He is developing the screenplay for 91 Miles, a drama about a Cuban father and his teen daughter who try to mend their relationship while making a perilous journey from their island country to Miami. Co-writing the feature script is Daniel Klein, who also participates in the Screenwriters Intensive. Robau and Klein worked together in two shorts, It’s Just a Gun and Esta Es Tu Cuba.

Robau is a two-time Student Academy Award-winning director. He won the Silver Medal with It’s Just a Gun in 2016, followed by a Bronze Medal for Esta Es Tu Cuba in 2018. The latter film is inspired by his father and other Cuban refugee children that were part of Operación Pedro Pan that brought thousands of unaccompanied undocumented minors to the U.S. in the early 1960s. Esta Es Tu Cuba won a Student DGA award, a College Television Award, and a student BAFTA nomination. The film is currently available on HBO Max.

Robau received a master’s in fine arts in directing from Chapman University’s Dodge College of Media Arts. Born and raised in Miami, he currently resides in Los Angeles.

“This cohort of artists from traditionally underrepresented communities will have the opportunity to interrogate their stories and refine their artistic practice,” says Ilyse McKimmie, deputy director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program.

The group of advisors for the 2021 Screenwriters Intensive include Andrew Ahn, Susanna Fogel, Tanya Hamilton, Sarah Koskoff, Michael Starrbury, Wesley Strick, Yen Tan, Joan Tewkesbury, Rose Troche, Ligiah Villalobos, and Kevin Willmott.

Featured Top Photo: Filmmakers Jessica Mendez Siqueiros and Brian Robau by Tammie Rosen/Courtesy of the Sundance Institute.

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