Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1124770
34 CINEMONTAGE / Q2 2019 Vida was developed with Big Beach TV as part of a Starz initiative to draw in Latinx audiences, and marks several breakthroughs in the history of television. It is one of the earliest –– if not the first –– premium cable network television shows to be helmed by a Latina showrunner, Tanya Saracho, who got her start as a playwright before writing for TV shows such as How to Get Away with Murder (2015-present) and Looking (2014-2015). Saracho knew from the very beginning of the development process that in order to tell this story authentically, she couldn't just hire actors who looked the part; she also had to have people at every stage of production who understood and identified with the Latinx and queer experiences that this show would bring to the forefront of its narrative. She was supported in her quest for authenticity by our majority-female team of innovative producers and executives; their combined efforts resulted in the first-ever all-Latinx writers room in premium cable. The extraordinary achievement that is this room's mere existence is not lost on Saracho, or the rest of the Vida writers, whose previous experiences on other shows — where many were the only Latinx writer or were designated "diversity hires" — have been vastly different than on Vida. "It felt like, 'Oh, this is what the dominant culture feels like 100 percent all the time,'" said Santa Sierra, one of the show's writers, in a 2018 interview about Vida's writers room with Vulture.com. "I didn't feel that I had to be LeBron James in this room to be appreciated. It's probably the only time I was gonna be able to do that in this business." The drive to hire voices that would feel intimately and authentically connected to the stories depicted in Vida continued into production, with the majority of Season 1 and all of Season 2 being directed by women. Our directors were partnered with not one but two female cinematographers, which is noteworthy for a craft historically dominated by male hires. Aside from the camera team, the majority of department heads are also female, another rarity in both television and film production. Liza Espinas, left, Amy Duddleston and JoAnne Yarrow.