UNO Documentary: Breath Interview

What: Breath Interview

Film By: UNO Student and documentarian Ashley Deshotel

Editor’s Note: NolaVie partners with students of UNO professor László Zsolt Fülöp, pairing them with artists, non-profits, environmental groups, and cultural entities to facilitate a live curriculum that results in a short documentary. This documentary short was made by Ashley Deshotel, a student in the Film and Theatre Department at the University of New Orleans, about Gabriela Lopez Ruiz and Jada Williams, and Breath Project.

|Read the full transcript of the interview below|

Hello, my name is Gabriela Lopez Ruiz and I am a theater major at Loyola University New Orleans. I was born in Mexico City, and I really just enjoy play riding and acting and directing.

My name is Jada Williams, I go to Loyola University of New Orleans, I am a theater major, third year student. My family is originally from Chicago but I have been living here almost six years now so New Orleans is home to me now.

So, over the summer Jada and I wanted to collaborate on a play. We knew that’s what we wanted to do. And we tried to submit through some other companies but we unfortunately didn’t have the time to hand it in. And then one day we are scrolling through the Instagram and I saw Southern Rep post about the Breath Project, and I thought it is a really interesting, cause at the time we were all having these conversations within my school about discrimination and racism. So, I reached out to Jada and asked her if she wanted to do this with me and that is how it all started.

Breath Project is an opportunity for students to really express themselves. We tend to always have an issue with being all the backburner when it comes to our voices being heard, and with this project our voices are being amplified and put in highlighted instead of being secondary to somebody else’s so that’s what I believe the Breath Project is about.

One primary challenge that we face first was trying to figure out what exactly we wanted to say in this piece, and how we wanted to get that message across. At first when we started writing it, I was like: “How are we going to like both of our ideas and type what we both want to say.” But I found out that you can really work on it independently and together at the same time and really just both of your experiences, cause that is what this piece is really our personal experience put into a show or a piece.

I think what we want for people to take away from this performance is to know that even growing up today, we still have these little moments when this happens or those big moments when that happens and it is not okay.

This is something that comes from your heart, and also these are personal experiences that you may or may not relate to but it is not meant for you to exactly say that you have been through specifically when more so for you to understand that these are the things that  real people go through and real people find no matter how old they are or who they are.

For the people that go through this stuff and can relate to our stories I think what I would want them to take away is that they do have a voice and they should be heard, and they should fight to be heard, and I know it is exhausting like I was exhausted, obviously that is not something I want to do my entire life. I want to be the representation that I had never had growing up.

Whatever I do I want to make sure that I am amplifying somebody else’s voice. I am using my platform to you know help somebody else get a step up and also making sure that I am focusing on my community as well. So as many times as I can I am going to tell our stories whether it be mine or somebody else’s.