SCY Pictures Put Latina LGBTQ Narratives First

Tension, conflict, fear, love… these are a set of magical ingredients which elicit a wide variety of emotions and make for a perfect film premise. Now, add LGBTQ characters to that keyword soup and we’ve got ourselves a story many of us know all too well.

SCY Pictures is a passionate and creative video production team which is located right here in Denver, Colorado. With a focus on presenting stories which focus on women’s issues, LGBTQ rights, and provide a platform for under-represented narratives, co-owners Carrie Gomez and Daustin Harvey are aiming to create their first feature film, A Girl Like Me, which embodies all of these intentional themes.

The coming of age story, which is set to be directed by Gomez, brings us to the life of Anna (played by Evangelina Kisa), a young, queer woman who is forced to choose between her family and the person she loves, Rae (played by Ashley Deuell).

Whether it’s an issue in which we have directly faced or it’s something that we’ve seen friends and loved ones endure with, finding both inner and outer acceptance as a human being is something that many LGBTQ folks struggle with. In this deeply personal interview, Gomez and Harvey discuss their personal connection to the film they are working hard to make, why stories of Latina queer women are so important to highlight, and how honesty in the creative process is imperative to making the best art possible.

How did SCY Pictures come to be?
Carrie Gomez (CG): SCY Pictures started in 2016 with me and two other Latina women and SCY is the initial of each of our names; Shannon, Yari, and Carrie. I had this idea that I wanted to bring Latina woman into business that does a lot of film and video. The three of us had our strengths in what we did so we wanted to collaborate together. Shannon stepped away, and Yari stepped away too, and then I met Daustin a few years ago on set on a film and we immediately hit it off.

Why does SCY Pictures focus on LGBTQ-based narratives? 
Daustin Harvey (DH): We’re working on focusing more on LGBT stories and getting some of those stories told. They’re kind of pushed to the back-burner and  we’d love to expand on that and get some more of those stories told that people are going through on a regular basis. Even today, a lot of people are still having trouble with telling their story.

CG: We want to be honest and I’ve always loved listening to people’s stories. When I meet new people, I always want to hear their coming out story. There are some that are so empowering and some that are so, so heartbreaking. It kind of shapes that person and how they move on in life, and they become stronger as a person. I commend every single of one of them that I’ve talked to, no matter if it was sad or great, everyone’s story is so empowering to me.

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Can you tell us more about the film A Girl Like Me?
CG: I will be directing and I wrote the screenplay; we haven’t gone into production yet, so we’re still in development right now, but I wrote this in 2006. It was out of grief, when my cousin passed away and I didn’t know how to cry, I didn’t know how to let out my emotions. For somebody who was 18 years told to die but lived a life in those 18 years. I’ve been out since I was 18 and I was very fortunate that I had really supportive parents but I look back and think about one of my best friends. When he came out, this was in ’91, it was a really rough time back then.

I wanted to reflect especially on the cultural aspects of being a Latina woman with a very protective, religious family, and also in the perspective of a female. You see  heartbreaking stories of when a gay man comes out and the things they go through, but you never really experience how a female comes out. Being that one that stepped out of the boundaries of what everybody expected in my family, that made me a stronger person so I wanted to reflect in this story as well. We have a struggle too when we do come out.

How does if feel putting out such a deeply personal story for people to see and offer feedback on?
CG: It feels good, actually. I feel impressed with because I was able to put it out there. A lot of people get scared, they don’t want to upset this person in their family or lose people, but it took a lot for people to read it and it took a lot for me to say, ‘I’m going to do this.’ I knew if I didn’t do it, I’d probably regret it and I wouldn’t be complete in my life. I feel really proud to bring it out and I have no regrets.

We do have a couple of actors from LA who have been some big projects that are on board and it’s really inspiring to hear how they really feel like they need to tell this story. It’s really uplifting and felt really good to hear that positive feedback from everybody.

Can you talk about your working relationship and what it’s like collaborating on a project like A Girl Like Me?
DH: I think one of the things that we’re very honest with each other, we don’t beat around the bush or anything like that, which is nice. She has an open, honest, thought process and debate about all the stuff that we’re working on, and it definitely makes us better and improve; we’re pretty comfortable in that set of being able to just talk to each other.

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What have been some of the obstacles you’ve faced in the making of this project?
CG: One of the biggest obstacles with filmmaking is investors. We almost went into production for the film last summer and then our investor backed out at the last minute and got scared. Filmmaking is tricky, it’s a risk, it’s not like something simple, it is a gamble, but we have to understand that going into it. It was hard, but we fought through it, and now we’re thinking of other creative ways in how we can get potential investors attached. We partnered with LUCA Media Collective and they’re a nonprofit who provides fiscal sponsorships to female filmmakers. So, anyone who wants to write a check for our film can go to them and use that as a tax write off. Filmmaking has its obstacles but no matter what, if you believe in it and you work really hard, you fight through it all and everything comes into place.

What else do you hope that SCY Pictures can bring to audiences in the future?
CG: I like working with a lot of nonprofits, so I would love to do personal videos for nonprofits, especially ones that are for the LGBTQ community, the Latino community, anybody who has a great story and is doing great things. We also want to continue with doing more films, if there’s young writers out there that have a great story, once we get this done, we can start focusing on working with new writers and building their storylines.

Is there anything else you want folks to know about what you’re working on?
Another thing that we are doing is people’s coming out stories that we’re going to be incorporating into possibly the end credits of the film. We’re trying to get more people to want to tell their stories so if they have a story they want to tell and want to be on camera, they can reach us at info@scypictures.com and we could set something up to meet up with them and then get them on film.

The filmmakers are currently running a campaign through Indiegogo to crowdsource funds to finish filming A Girl Like Me. To contribute, visit the film’s fundraising page.