Filming the movie “America” in Vieques

They are filming a movie in Vieques from today until next Tuesday. The film is based on the book “America’s Dream” by Esmeralda Santiago, a novel about a family in Vieques. The director of “America”, Sonia Fritz, is looking for volunteer “extras” for a film shot on the dock in town on Saturday at 10 AM. Also she is looking for “extras” for Sunday for the role of tourists in Vieques.

Call Eyra, if you can participate: 787-526-7124. Today they are filming on the Malecon. They invite you to observe the production of the film. Please respect the restricted area and maintain a bit of silence.

Start of filming the movie “America” in Puerto Rico.

(rough translation by Google)

EFE
San Juan, 17 nov (EFE) .- The film “America,” adapted from the novel “America’s Dream” written by Puerto Rican Esmeralda Santiago began recording this Friday on the Caribbean island involving Lymari Nadal ( American Gangster) and Yancey Arias, actors Latinos in the United States.
The director of “America”, Sonia Fritz, said today during a press conference in which he announced the start of filming of the Puerto Rican on the tape that was very complicated to bring the island established artists in the States United, so grateful for his efforts and accept lower fees.
Fritz explained that after reading the work of Esmeralda Santiago felt the desire to take you to a love story that degenerates into violence, as noted problem that is common today to cultures around the world.
“The theme of ‘America’ has much validity today internationally. It reflects the experience of thousands of women migrants seeking a better life for their families,” said Fritz, whose documentary on immigration and issues affecting women have been recognized
internationally.
The filmmaker said he was committed to addressing the issue.
For its part, the author of “America’s Dream” said she was very excited to “see in the flesh” the characters that will star in the adaptation of their work.
Santiago recalled that her work deals with the life of a woman who has a violent relationship with her husband while working as a housekeeper at a hotel in the small Puerto Rican island of Vieques.
She decides to break with the situation and leaves behind her teenage daughter to go toNew York, where reappears the threat of her husband.
The lead actress, the Puerto Rican based in Los Angeles Lymari Nadal said during the press conference she is honored to work in her country alongside a prestigious team headed by Fritz.
Nadal, with works sucha s “The Barber Shop” (2002) or “Crooks and Liars” (2006), shot to fame with “American Gangster”, a film in which she co-starred with  Russell Crowe and cast Denzel Washington.
The actress, who resides in California since 2001, will share the cast with Yancey Arias, born in New York but of Colombian-Puerto Rican descent and known for his roles as Miguel Cadena in the series “Kingpin” from NBC, and Gabriel Williams in “Thief,” FX.
Some of the actors taking part in “America” are Edward James Olmos, Rachel Ticotin, Lauren Velez, Frank Pedrozo, Luz Maria Rondon, among others.
“America” with a budget of about $ 1.5 million, is produced by Frances Lausell and Isla Films which has the financial support of the Corporación de Cine de Puerto Rico.
The movie is recorded in Spanish in Puerto Rican version and in English when it will go to New York. EFE

http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060928261/Americas_Dream/index.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Dream-Esmeralda-Santiago/dp/0060928263

From Publishers Weekly

Santiago, author of the memoir When I Was Puerto Rican, establishes herself as a strong and irresistible new voice in fiction with this story of a Puerto Rican woman who comes to America and discovers herself. America Gonzales, 30, cleans hotel rooms on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. Her 14-year-old daughter, Rosalinda, has run away with a boyfriend, and America grieves that her daughter has not learned from her mistakes. America is, and has always been, Correa’s woman, even though Correa has a wife and family a ferry ride away. Correa, the walking embodiment of blind, brutish machismo, comes to see America whenever he likes, sleeps in her bed and-as often as not-beats her. But an escape presents itself when the Leveretts, a young American couple whose kids America babysat when they stayed at the hotel, call from their Westchester home and ask her to be a nanny to their two young children. Her new life in suburbia and a tentative new love are overshadowed by the growing terror and certainty of a final reckoning with Correa. Lush descriptions of the sights, smells and sounds of the island pervade the early chapters; later, America’s take on Westchester and her cousins in the Bronx is full of deliciously keen observations. As she charts America’s emerging sense of self, Santiago shows us America’s-and America’s-life with wry insight. With its seamless construction, saucy dialect and clear prose, this novel is involving and immediate, truthful and tender. Major ad/promo; author tour; U.K. and translation rights: Aaron Priest agency; first serial and dramatic rights: Molly Friedrich.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.