In this episode, we spoke with Colombian-American artist, Catalina Alvarez, who visited Saki at her apartment for this interview. Catalina’s first language is Spanish and we talk about her choice to continue speaking her mother tongue with her child. We discuss the advantages of not knowing the prevalent language of a city, how bodies move through space differently depending on the cultural norms of a specific place, and Catalina reads an excerpt from her short story, “The Word.”

Guest Bio:

Catalina makes choreographed films and experimental musicals. Her films have screened at festivals including Slamdance, Fantastic Fest, New Orleans and Palm Springs, and venues such as the ICA Philadelphia, the San Diego Art Institute and the Museum of the Moving Image. She is a recipient of fellowships and residencies from the Flaherty Seminar, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Rooftop Films, Flux Factory and the Wexner Center for the Arts. Catalina grew up in a bilingual (Spanish and English) household. Since 2022, she has taught in the Visual Arts program at Fordham University, where she is head of Art & Engagement.

Show notes:

• “The Word,” a short story, which Catalina read an excerpt from (at around 13 min.), will be published by Ediciones de Ruina in “Vagaries: a Collection of Screenplays,” coming in Summer 2025 
• The music you heard while Catalina read “The Word” was “Combine D” from the Alphabet Combines by Ted Coffey. You can find the whole album on Bandcamp at tedcoffey.bandcamp.com
• Here are some links to Catalina’s film, “Sound Spring”
  • Excerpt and description on her website
  • Official Soundtrack available on Kuyin
  • Cleveland International Film Festival
• And her work Modos de Transporte: Bois de Rose
• We also mentioned:
  • Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (children’s book)
  • Renee Gladman (writer)
  • Ant Farm exhibition at Pioneer Works
  • Voice in Cinema by Michel Chion
  • “My Native Language Is Noise” by Kimberly Alidio

Credits:

• Edited by Amanda Dee and mastered by Rebecca Seidel.
• Theme music by The Necklace, a project by Taylor Shields and Morgan Võ.

Sound effects courtesy of freesound.org:

• Palm Trees in the Wind.wav by StrangeAcoustics — https://freesound.org/s/346106/ — License: Attribution 4.0
• Cumbia by Tomentum+ — https://freesound.org/s/663170/ — License: Attribution 4.0
• Small Caribbean Ocean Waves by fran_marenco — https://freesound.org/s/796618/ — License: Creative Commons 0
• Sparkly.wav by opticaillusions — https://freesound.org/s/554312/ — License: Creative Commons 0