On the eve of her graduation from DePaul’s MFA Film and Directing program, I had the pleasure of speaking with emerging filmmaker Jewells Santos about her short film “Fatfish.” Jewells is the recipient of the Chicago Spotlight award for this year’s Cinema Femme Short Film Festival, for it’s 6th edition. This award is given to a filmmaker who is based out of Chicago and has been recognized for the exciting work they are doing in the Chicago filmmaking community. Her film “Fatfish” screened in our Shorts Program 1: Dear Body.
This year was our second in-person screening year for the festival at the Music Box Theatre. Since we’ve been in-person and we’ve been connecting deeper with the Chicago film community, we thought it was appropriate to honor a Chicago local filmmaker from the selected filmmakers for the festival. Last year we honored Chicago local filmmaker Margaret Kellas. The award is a YouTube interview, featured above, that is also showcased on our YouTube platform. The winner is chosen by a select group from the Chicago filmmaking community. I had the honor of announcing Jewells as the winner during our award virtual ceremony: “This was a scrappy production, and you told us in your Q&A that you only had a $300 budget for this film. I feel that’s really a Chicago thing using the resources that are around you, and making it work. Because in Chicago, filmmaking is about the work.
“Fatfish” synopsis: In between jobs and apartments, Maggie crashes with Lydia, her uptight, younger sister. Maggie obsesses over her appearance. Lydia obsesses over the immaculate cleanliness of her apartment. When Lydia is away for the night, Maggie invites over a man she met online.
Jewells Santos is a Chicago-based Puerto Rican filmmaker and creative producer.
Her narrative work often starts from a ripped out page of her diary and embraces the
cringe of young adulthood. With a too close for comfort lens, she explores themes of
womanhood, female relationships, sexuality and body image. Her first feature,
Waiting for the Light to Change, which she wrote and produced, won the Grand Jury
Narrative Prize at 29th Slamdance Film Festival. She is the founder of Fatfish Films, a
production company focused on femme and queer representation both on and
behind the camera. Jewells Santos began her film career directing music videos. Her
work has been featured at Nylon Magazine, Chicago International Film Festival,
Midwest Film Festival and GLAFF. She is currently an OTV Fellow and pursuing her
MFA in Film & Directing at DePaul University.
