Welcome to Filmmaker Fridays, where every week we highlight our Coffeehouse Cinema filmmakers and their amazing projects.

We took a break on Juneteenth but today, we are back featuring Bettina Lopez, director of the short film Más Allá. Since screening at Coffeehouse Cinema Vol. 3, Más Allá has resonated with audiences for its coming-of-innocence themes.

In the feature below, Bettina discusses the film’s themes of curiosity and innocence and her role as a filmmaker.

Thank you Bettina for sharing your time. More about Bettina below before getting into our conversation!

Tell us about your film.

Más Allá (“Beyond”) is a coming-of-innocence fairytale about a migrant girl in the treacherous Darien Gap who discovers a portal that takes her to a magical world where she can be a kid again.

What would you say are the biggest themes your project wrestles with? What made this the project to work through those themes?