Ole Miss student creates a story, now on its way to becoming a film about Latinx culture
Alexa Christian is a woman with a vision and she wants the whole world to see it.
The University of Mississippi junior theater arts major is working on a Latinx short film about Alonso, a young man struggling to recover from a life-changing accident yet still hoping to become a champion bullfighter like his father and continue his family's legacy in the ring. Unlike bullfighting elsewhere in the world, American-style bullfighting focuses on the art without harming the animal.
"I have always loved Hispanic and Latinx culture," Christian said. "When I was 3, my mom placed me in an all-Spanish-speaking daycare. Since then I have really fallen in love with the culture. I don't really know Spanish anymore, but I really loved that part of my life."
Christian wrote the script as a short story in Summer 2021 to enter in a contest but ended up missing the deadline. One of the requirements for the contest was it had to feature a raging bull, which gave rise to the bullfighting theme of her story.
She later transformed the story, now called "Segundo Muerte," into a screenplay while taking an introductory filmmaking class at the University of Cincinnati. Segungo muerte means "second death" in English.
"I had never really done anything like this before, so it was all new to me," Christian said.
The Memphis native transferred from the University of Cincinnati to Ole Miss in 2022 to continue her studies. The screenplay sat on her computer for a couple years until she ran across it again and decided she needed to complete the project.
"One of my favorite parts about taking it from paper to seeing it in real life is the storyboard," Christian said. "I'm not a film major so I'm learning as I go with this. Being able to visualize it is great. Seeing the people that have backed me so far, the community of Hispanic people like Kristi and Gerardo Martínez, who are helping me with the authenticity of the film in terms of culture."
Christian also is getting insight from Miguel Nuñez on bullfighting, which has its own culture and language, she said. Filming will begin this summer at the Santa Maria Bullring near McAllen, Texas, not far from the Mexican border.
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Caleb Suggs, who lives in Memphis, is helping Christian with the film's production. He has been helping her fine-tune some of the pre-production work since he has filmmaking experience, and will be involved with post-filming work. He's produced 14 movies so far, but this one is a little different since it is not one of his original products.
The two met when he was a reporter with WKNO in Memphis. He was impressed with the hard-working, empathetic young woman who was teaching American sign language and wrote a book, "From A Black Girl To All Black Girls: Poems and Monologues Vol. 1," during the pandemic to help others like her who were struggling with solitude. She's also an amazing actress and singer, Suggs said, so he cast her in one of his production company's movies.
"Alexa is one of the most studious, elegant, poised and well-rounded people," Suggs said. "If you meet her in person, she'll remind you a little bit of Audrey Hepburn the way she carries herself."
Suggs said he admires Christian's tenacity in accomplishing her goals.
"It can be very difficult and almost disheartening to try to keep your product out there, but also if you're doing it for the love of it and you just want people to see it, getting it out there is pretty easy," he said.
Once the movie is complete, Christian hopes to enter it in a couple of film festivals, including the Oxford Film Festival, which wrapped up its 21st year in March.
Christian is in pre-production, working mostly with a crew of Ole Miss students. Brayan Angulo, an actor in New York City, will star as Alonso.
"I thought it was very rich in language," Angulo said. "I thought the character was going through a very important chapter of his life. I thought it was powerful. That was one of my favorite auditions."
Angulo said he connected with Alonso because he too is Latinx and is close to his father, which Christian was able to capture in the script. The scenes resonated with the actor, having experienced some of them in his own family gatherings.
"I was actually surprised when I found out she wasn't Latinx," he said. "I assumed automatically that she was. She did a great job at that."
The film's release date is set for Oct. 15 on YouTube.
How to help
Alexa Christian started a Kickstarter fundraiser to help cover the cost of production. To contribute, visit kickstarter.com/projects/segundomuerte1/segundo-muerte.
This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Ole Miss student creates 'Segundo Muerte' film about Latinx culture
