Through archival footage, conversations with her family members and the process of beginning her recovery from child sexual abuse, Jasmín Mara López's first film, Silent Beauty, tells the story of this journey in an innovative way—using relationships and community to drive the narrative rather than conflict.

Jasmín’s extensive experience working with communities in Mexico and Los Angeles and producing documentaries is apparent in this film. Prior to that she worked in journalism, produced radio documentaries and created community projects like Project Luz and Listen Up, Los Angeles!

The impact campaign of Silent Beauty is multifaceted and innovative. It has reached diverse communities outside of the documentary film industry by utilizing Jasmín’s experience working as a community organizer as well as allowing community organizations to use the film as a tool in ways that they see fit.

The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

Brendan McInerney: How did you come to incorporate an impact campaign into the production of Silent Beauty? What does it mean for you?

Jasmín Mara López: I love sharing about the film and the experience, but it's also a way for us to reach survivors. The impact side of it has been really beautiful and started very early like with Bron (Bron Moyi, the cinematographer for “Silent Beauty” and a survivor who shared his experience as part of the film’s impact campaign). From the moment I said I wanted to be a filmmaker and make this film, to the premiere, was seven years.

In that time I met dozens of survivors who started their recovery journeys because they saw it. Not that it’s easy. Whatever the film can be for you, that’s just fine. I kept in touch with a lot of people. I was able to play this role in their lives that was a tremendous honor and so empowering. It made me feel amazing because I was able to contribute to the lives of survivors in this way and not just through them watching a film, but actually building relationships with this community that I had no idea I was going to gain by making this film.

BMcI: How did you figure out the structure of your impact campaign?

JML: I decided that we're going to have these events that are survivor-focused and they are going to depend on each community. We had a pilot event in San Francisco in April 2023. We partnered with BAVC Media and Re-Present Media at the Roxy Theater, we held a public screening and a Q&A. Right after that, we had a separate space just for survivors. We had a curandera (a healer) come into the public screening space, and set the intention. She then guided the survivors to the survivor-only event where we all gathered. A poet and writer and survivor, Kira Lynne Allen, facilitated a writing workshop.

After she read a little bit, a very simple prompt was given to us and it blew me away, what we wrote about. in just those few minutes, that time together—it feels like you find these long lost siblings, truly, because we didn't have the families that we deserved as children. To have someone understand that is really beautiful. It's like we found family so I'm very determined—even though it's been really tough to get funding—to move forward with that and find ways to create those spaces for survivors.

BMcI: Can you give me an example of a community organization you’ve worked with?

JML: There's an organization called Fondo Semillas in Mexico; it means seeds. And they work with women and families, mostly from indigenous communities that have faced gender-based violence. I started connecting with them many, many years back and so I knew right away that's who I want to share this with. That's one way for me to get the film to Mexico and to communities that maybe I might not be able to reach myself. And so thankfully, they were very open to it and they loved the film.

Right around the time the film was going to be completed, we started the conversation around what this could be. Obviously I couldn't go to all the screenings, but I also am not from these communities, so I handed the film over to them. They sent it to the community leaders in each of these different states, then those leaders decided if they wanted to use that in their programming, and they did. There were several screenings this past year.

That has done a lot for me, too. I got a WhatsApp audio message from the streets in Xalapa, Veracruz, from a survivor just telling me what she was feeling, what she was thinking as she was walking down the street. She’s someone I've never met in person and, you know, she was saying how she was just catching her breath. It's been very beautiful to have the film work in that way—independently. A few therapists have shared it with clients. It's slowly having impact in other ways, not necessarily connected to our impact campaign.

BMcI: That example speaks to a very collaborative film process. As independent filmmakers, we're expected to do so much. And I think part of this hustle culture tells us that we just got to do it ourselves. We got to push through. We got to be strong enough to get this film to where it needs to be. And there's an aversion to asking others for help or admitting you’re not an expert because it might indicate weakness or inability. But the way you talk about it, it makes me believe that when you're asking for help or when you're asking questions of people who might not necessarily be filmmakers, you're saying, ‘I need your help,’ but simultaneously you're inviting them into the process and you're getting support for yourself. Do you have any advice on how to develop a more collaborative way of working?

JML: Well, I mean, it's obviously going to vary by project. And, you know, each project, each issue, each community has very, very different needs. But I do think that it's important to ask, ‘What do you want?’ You know, ‘What should this look like?’ Because for the most part, we aren't the experts. This was a personal film, I was able to put myself in people's shoes more because I was in them, you know—they were my shoes, too. And a way to to build trust is to look to these people, communities, these groups, the people that are in your films, whoever it is that you're working with, and trying to ask them what you should be doing. Because who are we to build something for people and tell them what they need?

I've really started to think of how I can do this without relying on the film industry so much. Besides Firelight Media and people here and there that have really tried their best to advise and support this, it's not happening. Being stuck in these dark spaces that the film industry puts me in sometimes is not healthy and it's not helping the communities I want to work with.

I'm just going to fundraise on my own and I'm just going to hope that this gets out there and we make some money or I'm going to reach out to organizations and community groups and hand my film over. We don't need money to do that. They already have the infrastructure, they already have ways of doing things. So I think we could disrupt in that way. It could really build something different for ourselves. We don't need the approval of the film industry or of people in the industry. I will say, though, that Firelight Media was really great at helping me think outside of the box.

BMcI: It seems like it was a very organic process for you, it feels like you did a really great job and I want everybody to do such a good job. Is it reasonable to expect every impact campaign to be done so mindfully?

JML: It's hard. We don't always get it right and there were times where I didn't think of something. I had private screenings with the people in the film. I sat down with my sister, then I went to my mom, then I went to my cousins and I let them see what the film was and what it was going to be. My cousins were doing something that my family did not want them to do, you know. I needed to know that they felt safe, that I had the permission to move forward. Once my sister finished watching the film, she was like, ‘Wow, that's a film.’ I didn't actually realize in that moment how scary that was. Every time she'd see something about a screening it would make her nervous.

I think a lesson that I learned is asking ‘What does this mean?’ every step of the way. I stopped sharing as much about the screenings with my mom and my sister. They’re proud. They’re proud, but it creates anxiety. My mom got to go out to the world premiere in Toronto. All of us got together and went to the New Orleans premiere—that was kind of like the home of this film and where we had the most communities supporting us. It was really beautiful, but it was also a lot for them.

In building these campaigns, a way that we can do better is by asking people in the community, ‘Is this okay?’, ‘How else could we do this?’ It's tough and it's time consuming but we have to do it. You know, we really have to do it. Invite organizations, invite community. I started to ask film festivals to invite people from local rape crisis centers or child abuse prevention programs. I started to ask festivals to please invite a therapist or someone that is a community healer to be present for screenings. That obviously couldn't happen for every single one but I made sure to ask.

BMcI: What advice do you have for someone beginning a new film project who would like to think about an impact campaign? Where do you begin?

JML: I mean, begin with the community or the family—the people that you're telling a story about and with yourself as well. Ask, ‘Why am I doing this? What am I trying to achieve?’ And also ‘Is that what we should be doing?’ Ask those questions to the people you're working with.

We are putting these films out there and, for the most part, we walk away, go on to our next film. In terms of impact campaigns and really building care into your strategy, you really have to think big—as big as possible. But you need to take your time with this sort of thing because you could harm people on your way to achieving your goals. Even though you're trying to do good work, you're also going to do harm. You need to think about how you are possibly going to harm and then try to minimize that. Some of my family is not going to feel good about this film being out there. It's important, you know, you need to care for these communities or these people that you're working with.

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