Viva Ruiz turns a telenovela eye on to her own New York City life, as NYC cinema verite meets the classic Spanish soap opera form.
Brooklyn artist and dancer Viva Ruiz mixes classic Latin melodrama with her contemporary NYC life to create the ultra modern telenovela ROSA NEGRA.
ROSA NEGRA is one woman's desperate search for love in Brooklyn's multicultural scene of aspiring artists, dancers and santero priests. It is a series that uses the florid language, effusive close-ups, longing fades, and dramatic music of traditional telenovelas to tell a modern story of Rosa and the gay, straight, transgendered, and intertwined group of friends and lovers that surround her.
A first generation Ecuadoran/American, Ruiz was raised in Queens on a steady diet of telenovelas. She has always felt how strong this genre's unifying power was not only over the immigrant class, but the new generations of American/Latino peoples as well. ROSA NEGRA is this form twisted into something entirely new: a conflated, conflama of a soap opera of Viva's life, combining the influence of her cultural roots with her own post ultra modern life as a NYC go-go dancer and downtown performer.
Produced by Housing Works Obie winner Gregg Guinta, Rosa Negra features an all-star roster of important downtown artists and personalities, including writer/monologuist Mike Albo, comedian Marga Gomez, photographer Miguel Villalobos, nightclub legend Sophia Lamar, and "introducing" renowned pornstar Tiger Tyson. Original theme song by Adam Dugas, with title animation by Miguel Villalobos for Dancing Diablo Studios. The soundtrack features some of Brooklyn's finest, including the recently Grammy nominated Yerba Buena, afro-beat Antibalas and salsa group Radio Mundial. Much of the score was created by Barb Morrison, whose latest film credits include "The Safety of Objects". Filmed in Spanish with English subtitles, the cast and locations are taken from Ruiz's own NYC community, contemporary characters seen through the magnified lens of pure Latin melodrama.
The 1st episode "LOS LABIOS MIENTEN" (2003, 15 min.) has screened in film festivals internationally to wide acclaim. ROSA NEGRA episode 2 "COMO CORRE EL AMOR" (2004, 30 min.) premiered at Deitch Projects, with a spectacular opening night and then screening as a double feature in the Brooklyn gallery.This episode continues to be screened here and abroad..