The Firefly, or La Luciernaga, is a film written, directed and co-produced by Ana Maria Hermida. The story follows the journey of a woman in mourning who finds comfort in an unlikely ally. Ana Maria and Luisa Casas, co-producer, sat down with me to discuss their film. “I came up with this idea about five years ago after going through a mourning process myself,” Ana Maria told me. She fell into a period of depression after losing her brother with whom she was very close in a tragic car accident in 2007. “It was a very dark time in my life,” she recalled. “I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted.”

Shortly after the accident her late brother’s long-term girlfriend got in touch and the two women connected over their shared sadness. The two began spending a lot of time together and helped one another heal while sharing in the mutual love of Ana Maria’s late brother. Helping his bereaved girlfriend, in her own words, “gave me strength” as Ana Maria processed her feelings. “It really is a fictional piece but it came from something that happened in real life,” she said of the storyline.

The Firefly could be described as a love story, but “it’s kind of a love that goes beyond boundaries, because neither of these women are attracted to women,” said Ana Maria. It’s a story about friendship, often expressed through nonverbal cues and creative use of actions like slurping a coffee that hint at the real experiences of Ana Maria in her personal friendships.

In the film, Ana Maria pulls from folklore and analogies to convey the emotions of the main character, Lucia. “I wanted to play with magic realism, but it’s kind of goth magic realism,” she said, a term that she has invented and feels is applicable to the story. The Firefly plays with classic archetypes expressed through dreams, including that of Catrina, the Mexican representative of death. “She sees herself as this dark being,” Ana Maria said of Lucia, citing this analogy as the reason for the name of the film, “but she reflects light in her dreams, she lights them up.”

The connection between Ana Maria and Luisa was initially forged nearly 15 years ago when Ana Maria first moved to America and shared an English class with Luisa here in Atlanta. Oddly enough, though they were very close as friends, it took many years for them to begin talking about film and working on them together. “We were very close friends,” Luisa said, “but we never talked about film.” It was a fruitful revelation when they realized their shared interests, and thus the collaboration was born.

“I fell in love with the story,” said Luisa of her choice to come on board. In addition to a solid script complete with true-to-life references to female friendships, Ana Maria had also planned to film it in Colombia, the country where both women were born. “Because I am Colombian I feel as a filmmaker I want to show how beautiful and magical it is.” This piqued Luisa’s interest because she is also quite interested in filming in Colombia and is currently working towards at least one additional film set in the area.

“It’s funny because even though Colombia is our country and we thought it will be easier because we are from there, it was just as hard as if we were shooting in Romania,” Luisa laughed, recounting some of the challenges. Though they had a few resources in the areas where they were shooting, being outsiders in their settings sometimes posed a problem logistically.

“I think because we had so much fun we forgot about the problems we had,” Luisa said, because “everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.” Somehow despite the odds they managed to solve each problem they encountered with the help of their crew. “They are helping you, they are part of your film’s success,” Luisa said, making a point of how important it is to treat the crew with respect. “If you don’t care about them, they won’t care about you.”

Sometimes, the inherent differences of working under a female director and producer became apparent and created lasting connections as well. “Being a female producer, we are more nurturing with the crew,” Luisa told me. They found themselves often asking their team “‘how are you doing? are you hungry? what do you need?'” The attention to the crew’s well-being paid off, and together they overcame the challenges that they faced during filming. “We always found a solution because the crew loved us. We always treat our crew with respect,” Luisa said with conviction.

“It’s important for us to have fun on set,” Ana Maria told me. “As a director I try to make my set fun and free spirited and open for inspiration.” It’s the time when she feels the most herself and the most relaxed, but is also unfortunately often the shortest part of the process. Although admittedly challenging at times, and complete with long hours and arduous work, working on this production was rewarding for them. “We were tired, but it was so awesome,” Ana Maria said. “We had difficulties but I don’t even remember because we had so much fun.”

Both Ana Maria and Luisa have a variety of projects currently in the works, and the two plan to work together again in the future. To learn more about The Firefly, follow them on Twitter.

-Isadora