Today we’d like to introduce you to Monica Mendoza.
Monica, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m a Colombian immigrant living in Miami with my kids. For ten years, I have been a freelancer (entertainment) reporter for different Latin media including Televisa Publishing, HuffingtonPost voces, TV Azteca and others.
My passion for storytelling took me to direct an award-winning short documentary “El Despertar de las Hadas” Stories of women and their life lesson about self-love.
Right now, I’m working in the development of my first long feature “Aleli and Ettá” and producing a series of interviews about Afro Latinos is called “Piel Canela.”
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a crazy journey. Very rough for few years but always looking for better times. When I look back, I feel proud that I didn’t give up. I always repeated to myself that failure wasn’t an option so I didn’t have other options than keep moving forward for me and for my kids.
Please tell us about Vaina Buena Productions.
I started Vaina Buena Productions after my first documentary two years ago. I wanted to do things in the right way from the beginning. Vaina Buena Productions is about storytelling, we create content with a strong message for our clients to connect with their audience and stories we want to tell. Most of the team are women, we all are Latin. We have from Emmy winner producers, multiple awards winner PR manager, magazine covers photographers, etc. Every single person in the team are passionate about the importance of telling stories with a message. Not long ago, I was in a meeting with a film festival representative and she told me something like “We have women directing documentaries but no women directing fiction”. I want to help to change that, we need more women in positions of power behind the cameras, the audience needs more stories from our point of view.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
In Cartagena, Colombia. Looking the forts and flower on the balconies of the old city, breathing all the stories from my ancestors while I was walking those streets. Smelling the salitre from the ocean. That helped me to go after my dreams, without knowing it, my vision about what I want it in life started there.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.vainabuenaproductions.com www.peopleonthenews.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @peopleonthenews @iammonicamendoza
Image Credit:
Andreina Duven (Poster and the one were I’m looking monitors with three other people)
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