You get told a lot in school to tell what you know, write what you know. But what excites me about filmmaking, about being a storyteller, is being able to learn about other people, putting myself in somebody else’s shoes, whether that be someone from the Dominican Republic or someone from Cuba or inner-city Brooklyn.
I’m with expanding in my culture, from the Dominican Republic all the way to Cape Verde. Please believe that.
The culture of the Dominican Republic definitely influenced me. We enjoy music in this crazy way; we celebrate absolutely everything.
In 1975, I went to the Dominican Republic for eight months during the shooting of a film based on my novel ‘Captain Pantoja and the Special Service.’ It was during this period I heard and read about Trujillo.
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