Now that you guys have seen the production process, let's reflect!!
“Make it Happen” features latino entrepreneurs overcoming language barriers and operating successful businesses in the United States.
Javier, our main subject, was born in Venezuela and is the proud owner of Sumiflex. Although Spanish dominant, he has become fluent in English, and says that it is crucial for aspiring entrepreneurs to learn English. Latinos often face many barriers after immigrating to the United States, especially linguistic discrimination. In 2018, 22% of latinos said that they had been criticized for speaking Spanish in public and 24% said that they had been discriminated against because of their ethnicity. Discrimination makes it hard for Latin Americans to find jobs, discouraging them from becoming proficient in English. They may feel ashamed of their native language, or the way they speak English, thinking, “If I don’t speak, they can’t make fun of me.” This belief will cause latinos to close themselves off from the world and opportunities they opened when immigrating to the United States. This documentary aims at empowering Latinos who have faced discrimination by telling them Javier’s success story.
Despite many Latinos prospering in the United States, stereotypes like “job stealers,” “unwilling to learn English,” and “lazy” are still used to describe them. This problematic hostility prompted my team and I to showcase one of many hardworking bilingual latino entrepreneurs. The documentary challenges these stereotypes as viewers see that Javier can manage his business, and speak English well enough to communicate effectively with his employees and customers. Our documentary presents latinos in a positive light. We hope that by showing that Latin Americans are capable of success in the U.S., these stereotypes will disappear.
“Make it Happen” is primarily meant to engage with Latin americans. We want our viewers to be latinos that are scared to start a business because of their language barrier, in hopes that our documentary encourages them to take on the challenge. Latin American entrepreneurs are a minority in the U.S.’s business sphere, making up only 15.4% of business owners. Our documentary intends to help this number rise by showing latinos the success of someone in their community. Javier shines through as a relatable individual that latinos can look up to and use as a symbol of encouragement. He believes that there is a need for latin american entrepreneurs, ending the documentary saying that it was a difficult process, he did not know any business owners and had to make connections to people that could guide him, but viewers of “Make it Happen” can connect with him.
Our second target audience is teens and young adults. Although our product is primarily meant to engage with and encourage Latin American audiences to become entrepreneurs, “Make it Happen” is also meant to inform of the successes of Latin American entrepreneurs in the United States, teaching younger, more impressionable, audiences that immigrants can be successful. They are job creators, bilingual, and hard working individuals. We hope our documentary works to spark a positive change in the stereotypes targeting latinos, and shows young Latin Americans that entrepreneurship is an option.
Before the production of “Make it Happen,” we viewed other documentaries to determine what conventions we wanted to follow or challenge. “American Promise,” a documentary about two African American kids, one who navigates the public school system, and the other the private school system, in New York, helped inspire our documentary. Issues of race and class play into “American Promise” as the children are the only African Americans in their class. This helped spark the idea of exploring difficulties latinos have when immigrating to the United States. As Hispanic Americans ourselves, this topic is one close to our hearts and we wanted to help break stereotypes regarding Latin Americans.
Direct interviews were used in “American Promise” when the two kids were very young, but primarily indirect interviews were used. I liked the use of indirect interviews because I felt it progressed the story better, giving it a verite look; however, when editing, we chose to include direct interviews because the most experienced editor on our team was unavailable, and direct interviews were easier for my teammate Isa and I to edit.
The direct interviews made the documentary feel choppy at times, but they were useful when interviewing Javier’s mother, a Spanish speaking woman, as viewers could understand what the interviewer was asking her and read her responses through the subtitles. I felt that Javier’s mom added a lot of value to the piece by showing that Javier is the first in his family to learn English; it shows that he struggled, but he was able to reach his goal, reinforcing the message that latinos can be successful business owners in the United States. Our advisor suggested we interview Javier's daughter. We incorporated her into our documentary to provide perspective and serve as a measure of success for Javier. The use of multiple subjects was also adapted from “American Promise” as it features the kids and their families, it gave the documentary context, allowing viewers to understand the home life of the two kids. I believe that our documentary would have been brought to the next level by showing that the interviews were conducted by Javier’s daughter; however, by the time we thought of this idea, it was too late.
Additionally, “American Promise” had an amazing flow to it. It was composed of more b-roll than interviews, making the documentary feel natural. I loved their use of b-roll and we made sure to use a lot of it in our documentary. Despite our interviews being long, our b-roll kept the audience engaged.
Overall, this project was a great learning experience. I am very happy with our final result, but there are a few changes I would like to implement. I believe once these changes are made, “Make it Happen” will be ready to submit to student short film competitions. I hope we can take our project to the next level and I am so grateful for this wonderful group experience.
