Maria TV

My name is Rodrigo Valenzuela.  I am a Chilean artist now based in Seattle.  I want to tell you about Maria TV and why I decided to start this campaign.  Maria TV is an experimental video/soap opera centered around Latina domestic workers (nannies, maids) as they are represented in the media, and as they exist in real, everyday life. For this project I will interview domestic workers and record them performing their everyday activities on the job.  In addition to this documentary footage, I will also create sets and direct reenactments of their roles as they are portrayed in film and on TV; all of which will be interwoven with clips of various telenovelas to create an hybridized narrative.  The all-women cast will perform for the camera both as the 'seen on TV' characters, and as themselves - representing their own stories, their own lives.  Playing out like a dress rehearsal of sorts, in combining these materials a slippery space is opened up - one that sits ambiguously between action and enactment, or 'real life' and fiction.  In doing so, my aim is to evidence and critique the blind-spots in media representation, and at the same time address an under-represented group's socioeconomic struggles in an engaging and intimate yet playful way. 

Maria TV was inspired by, and will be in dialogue with, a recent project entitled Diamond Box, which I created last year.  For this work I interviewed immigrant workers whom I hired from the Home Depot parking lot, lacing their personal stories together with silence and pause.  Produced with a $700 grant from Sprout, Diamond Box has since been nominated for the Vimeo Awards, exhibited at the Henry Art Gallery, NAAMNW, MOCA Miami, El Museo Cultural in Sante Fe, The National Academy Museum in NYC, the UC Irvine gallery and more.   

All of my work as an artist is, at its core, a commitment to empowering communities through creative intervention, and raising awareness about social and political issues.  Maria TV will be my longest and most involved video project yet, both in terms of length and production.  The opportunity to create Maria TV with external support would allow me to bring my work to the next level.

Budget and funding 

The total budget for Maria TV is $30,000.  I am fundraising for $10,000.  

I have secured $5,500 from 4Culture and $8,000 from The Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural affairs.  Additionally, $6,500 will come from art sales and my work as a teacher. This, however, will mostly be awarded/earned upon completion of the project, whereas I have virtually nothing with which to begin it.  I am therefore fundraising $10,000 for equipment and pre-production (such as stage fabrication, costumes, studio rental etc.). 

In my original budget I did not factor in the cost of equipment since I already had nearly everything I needed, including my own HD camera and audio equipment.  Unfortunately, on a recent bus trip through Central America, during which I had planned to produce a new body of photographic work and shoot b-roll for Maria TV, I was robbed of everything.  A group broke into the house we were staying in and, while we slept, stole both of my cameras (5D and Pentax 67), my go-pro, audio gear, lenses, hard drives, memory cards, laptop, passport and greencard (totaling more than $10,000 - this bag of stuff basically constituted all of my worldly possessions, as well as my livelihood).  

I need to start shooting Maria TV by mid January! Renting the lost equipment is unrealistic since the day rate of the Canon 5D alone it is $200, and borrowing everything for a month of shooting is just unprofessional (and also logistically untenable).  This project means so much to me and I am devastated over the loss of my equipment and my ability to create the work as I'd imagined and planned.  

Your help would be deeply appreciated - and I am offering great rewards for it!!