ABOUT

Contact BendecidaXO for the feature length script.

DIRECTOR'S BIO

DIRECTOR'S NOTE:

Everyday I dream of love. I dream of a devotion so intoxicating and freeing that keeps company to our ambitions, embraces our fears and takes care whenever we want to cry. Is there anything more beautiful than love? But what happens when the promise of such love seems negated for those who resist to live within docility? What happens when it is through the excuse of love that we get abused, wounded and erased? For over three years I’ve worked with heroines that sell affection by choice. These women have had to transform such a myth of love, so that as its first and sometimes only instance, guarantees their lives and dignity. From them, I learned that true love doesn’t control, surveil or abandon; but rather inspires and supports within freedom. My friends changed my life, and along with their souls, tears, money and work as cast and crew was that we managed to make Magdalena, Te Amo. Our film follows the story of a sex worker that learns not to hide, unveiling a glimpse of what love can mean. It is a clamor of the love we so much deserve and need; a rhapsody that tackles some of the poetry, politics and strength that doing so implies.

With love, A.

THE STORY BEHIND THE FILM:

Bridging New York's most prestigious Film School with the lap-dances that sometimes pay for it. 3 years of on ground research, self financed, made by a women-lead team of sex workers, NYU students and queens in between. 75 % of our cast and 50% or our crew are sex workers; 13 of our 14 Department Heads are women, 8 Latinas and 6 of color. We committed to battle ingrained oppressive beliefs in the merging of people and stories from environments that feel like they exist in denial of each other; yet are nourished by the same hope.

TEAM

PRODUCTION TEAM

Writer/Director

Andrea Calao

Performance Director

Nas Aidid

Producers

Cami Olses, Ana Juanola, Menny Son, Andrea Calao

Associate Producers

Tatiana Caicedo, Jennifer Greco, Nicola Ríos, Kiana Dittman, Zishan Sun

Consulting Producers

Warren Etheredge

1st AD

Sarah Nocquet

2nd AD

Daniella Bernal

Script Supervisor

Kelly Kunyi Wang

Location Managers

Ava Emilione, Amanda Whyte

Production Assistants

Catalina Rodriguez, Jolie V. Gutierrez, Genevieve Kleynhans

Choreographer/Stunt Dancer

Meg De La Torre

Intimacy Coordinator

Allison Jones

Stunt Coordinator

Ian Dugan

Casting Director

Leidy Yohana Castaño

Production Designer

Kiana Dittman 

Art Director

Tatiana Caicedo

Art Assistants

Ally Szema, Hannah Quin, Lucy Everett, Zishan Sun, Nick Korytko, Evyn Bileri Banawoye, Devya Melakonda, Meagan Wachtel, Ana Sofía Calao B

Makeup Artist

Alyssa DiBendetto

Costume Designer

Annette Pérez

Costume Assistants

Emily Ward, Ana Sofía Calao B

Director Of Photography

Cece Chan

1st AC

Ethan Berger, Brandon Kline

2nd AC

Rob Torres, Sophie Sun

Steadicam Operator

Douglas Lau

Best Boy Electric

Joey Lalo

Gaffer

Matt Liang

Grip

Joey Lalo, Olivia Weseley, Wallace HallotPietro Kralj

Sound Mixer

Rhea Li, Amruth Ayyala

Boom Operator

Pranava Kumar

POST PRODUCTION TEAM

Composer

Alexandra Funes

Orchestrator, Arranger & Music Mixer 

Simon Li

"BBB" Written & Performed by

Tatiana Cartagena Rivera

Sound Designer

Matt Rocker

Sound Engineers

Juan Sebastián Parra, Felipe Camacho, Nicolás Hernández 

Colorist

Zack Chalmers

Graphic Design

Nicola Ríos

Social Media Consultant

Lucía Cozzi

CAST

Paloma/Magdalena

Andrea Calao

Tomás

Simón Elías

Pedro

Juan Pablo Gamboa

Honey

Alejandra Ceballos

Sapphire

Leidy Yohana Castaño

Orión

Carrell Lasso

María

Gabriela Moreno

Jake

Benjamin Nowak

Club Dancers

Meg De La Torre, Martina, Nikki, Noir, Hazel, Mia, Eggy,
Suzanne Konsaw, Laura Baumann, Sheneeka Ocasio, Jasmine R, India Shanelle, Jeannet Garcia, Zishan Sun, Anna Lanndau, Azul, Sahand Shahrban

Club Customers

Robert Fetik, Kenneth Londono, Griffin Boswell, Arda Tukenmex, Nick Korytko, Carlos Nazarli, Joseph Harden, Junior Henry, Leonardo Britto, Ryan Halasz, Alexander Pardo, Josiah, Niryand Zaraith Hernandez Rincon

Rooftop Goers

Mateo Martínez, Pablo Villalón, Jorge Rojas, Anayris Tapia, Megan Wachtel, Nick Korytko, Griffin Boswell, Dylan Bicket, Jake Capriott, Sarah Nocquet, Cami Olses, Ana Juanola, Rob Torres

Writer, Director and Actress from Bogotá-Colombia, working within Film/Video and Performance creations. Her research focuses on desire and Decolonization processes of feminized & racialized bodies within trans-media platforms. Trained as actress and dancer at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana’s Performing Arts B.F.A; and as Writer-Director at New York University’s Film & TV B.F.A.Within her Production Company, Bendecida XO, Andrea is currently developing several projects including her first erotic-surreal comedy Web Series “Hoe Diaries”; her first Feature Film "Dream Of A Dove Flying" and co-writing the Feature film “The Warehouse” alongside Sundance Award-Winner Writer-Director Alrick Brown. 

SPECIAL THANKS

ALRICK BROWN
DAN BRANDT
JOHN ÁLEX TORO
HEATHER ALEXIS
SYLVIA SICHEL
KALIN MOON
ABIOLA, CHRIS & JLO
CARAN HARTSFIELD
ALFONSO MORGAN-TERRERO

RICARDA GOMEZ
ANA SOFÍA CALAO BUITRAGO
LUZ MYRIAM BUITRAGO BOHORQUEZ
ANA ROCÍO BUITRAGO BOHORQUEZ
ANDRÉS VELA
OLGA LUCÍA CRUZ MONTOYA
SAMAR ATTA
RICK LITVIN
SYLVIA, FILMS & THERAPY

& THE GIRLS & ROSEWOOD THEATER