“I think we just have to be bolder, you know? Men have been delusional for millennia, but now it’s our turn.”
Quotes like this made it clear to me: As a journalist, I can’t be neutral about filmmaker Cristina Costantini. I knew from watching her documentaries, “Science Fair” and the newly-released “Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado,” that her work, which she’s so clearly passionate about, is extraordinary.
Cristina grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a self-proclaimed science nerd with two furniture makers for parents. She didn’t go to school for journalism or filmmaking, but today she sits atop a successful career in both.
She began as a print journalist focusing on immigrant communities and issues before moving into investigative work, tackling the opioid crisis, detention centers, and sex trafficking in Mexico while racking up nominations and awards along the way.
While working at Fusion, she decided to learn about filmmaking and, under the guidance of a few superiors, she learned the tricks of the trade over time. She took a chance and made her first documentary, “Science Fair,” alongside co-director Darren Foster. It won an Emmy award and the Festival Favorite Audience Award at both Sundance and SXSW.
Her newest documentary, made with co-director Kareem Tabsch, follows the story of beloved, gender-nonconforming Latin astrologer Walter Mercado. It has garnered nothing but buzz, positive reviews, and is no doubt guilty of stirring up millennial nostalgia all over the world.
How she went from Wisconsin science nerd to award-winning documentarian was very clear to me after spending just twenty-five minutes with her: she’s a woman who knows what she wants and unapologetically chases after it.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
What was it like growing up in Wisconsin? How did it influence you creatively and professionally?
Milwaukee is a great place to grow up. It’s a small town. I have a lot of love for my city, but it’s also a city with a bunch of problems. It’s the most segregated city in the country. I’m forever grateful to my parents for sending me to public school. I went to a public school that had a mixture of different communities: Black, Latino, and white students. I think that was very formative in who I am. Then they pulled me out of that and sent me to a private middle school and high school and it was a total culture shock; it was mostly white students. Growing up in Milwaukee gave me a great appreciation for the culture and race divide that exists in our country. It kind of put me on a path that made me obsessed with trying to get these communities to talk to each other. Sharing stories with our communities with the mainstream, largely white audience, and making sure that our stories were told and resonate. We all live in this country together and so many people don’t understand each other and I just would love to be a vehicle for empathy. They call documentaries ‘empathy machines’ and I think that’s a great description. I think, through documentaries, if I could foster more empathy for people’s understanding and more oneness among different people, races, economic groups, and religions, then that would be wonderful. So Milwaukee kind of sent me on a quest to do that, to foster more understanding. The stories I’ve always told have centered largely on immigrant communities, even if they’re not straight immigration stories they always have something to do with the immigrant communities in our country. I did a documentary called ‘Science Fair,’ which is about nerdy teenage kids competing in an international high school science fair. Many of the kids I profiled are immigrants or the children of immigrants, many of them underappreciated and undervalued in this country. So that, for me, was very much an immigration story even though it was about science. So, yeah, Milwaukee definitely gave me this drive to make things that people would want to watch that foster empathy and understanding between different kinds of people.
Do you have a memory that stands out for you where you realized what you wanted to do, career-wise?
I remember there was a documentary called ‘Spellbound’ that I loved. It was about kids competing in the National Scripps Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. I must have been in middle school at that time, and I remember watching it and being like ‘oh my gosh, I love documentaries.’ It was nominated for an Oscar in, I think, 2002, when it came out. It made me laugh but it also talked about some of the most serious issues facing our nation, but in a way where people wanted to watch. And I loved it. I remember just being in awe of how it was put together. I don’t think I ever had an understanding that I could be a filmmaker or that documentary film was in my future. I didn’t go to journalism school or film school, I was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, so I didn’t see it as a real, viable career path. I was just in awe of the people who made it. I think for this film [‘Mucho Mucho Amor’], growing up in Milwaukee, every day that my grandmother would babysit us we’d have Univision on, just as background noise. And I remember every time Walter would come on just being fascinated by him and what he looked like. Allegedly, he could tell the future and that was very captivating to me, he was magical. He was kind of like Oprah meets Mister Rogers, but dressed as Liberace. I have been really in awe of him since I was a little kid. Then, as an adult, I had a newfound appreciation for everything he did. To look like that on television during that time, to be so uniquely and radically himself during that period of history is just remarkable. So, as an adult, I had a newfound respect and admiration for him. That whole feeling and thought process is what led me to start to look for him in 2017.
Speaking of your grandma, you mentioned on Twitter that your grandma won the brag-off at her retirement community this week because of the success of ‘Mucho Mucho Amor.’ You all (along with co-director Kareem Tabsch and producer Alex Fumero) even dedicated the film to your grandma’s at the end. What did she think of the film?
So Kareem, my co-director, our producer Alex, and I co-dedicated it to our grandmothers. For many Latinos, Walter’s face reminds us of the time we spent with our grandmothers and the nostalgia we have for those days. But my grandmother hasn’t seen the film. They haven’t figured out how to get her set up with Netflix in her retirement community, and my parents aren’t allowed to go in and show it to her because of Covid-19. But she’s heard a lot about it and she’s seen our interviews on Telemundo and Univision. For her, I think that’s the highest level of success. The fact that we are inside the television that is beaming into her retirement home, I think, is huge for her. So she was very proud, she says she’s getting calls from all her friends. She has a friend whose granddaughter is a lawyer, and she never had anything to [brag about]. But now I have a film on Netflix, which she’s never been able to figure out how to watch Netflix, but she knows it’s a cultural institution. Now that I have a film on Netflix she says she can win this bragging competition.
You started off as a journalist. What skills did you carry from your journalism days into your documentary days?
Everything. Every physical skill is from journalism. I started as a print reporter and then I went to this network called Fusion that no longer exists, but was basically Univision for the ABC news network. First I was a print reporter, but I really wanted to learn how to make television. My boss at the time, who is wonderful and is the reason I’m here, agreed to take me on as an associate producer and get other producers to teach me the ropes. So I learned how to shoot, edit, how to put a microphone on somebody, media manage, boring stuff but really important stuff to know how to make an actual film. I think, most importantly, I was dealing with hard topics. I was dealing with immigration and detention centers and I had to learn how to tell an interesting story. Those can be such dark, sad, dry topics that if you can’t tell an interesting story through a person’s personal experience then people kind of just zone out and it doesn’t do well. That was the best training ground for me, was these difficult stories and to find the narrative arc and to find how to get people to care and remain invested. So I took all of those skills and I pitched ‘Science Fair’ at Univision and, for some reason, the CEO at the time gave me the green light and said I could go make a feature film while he still paid me full salary. It was crazy, and I’m incredibly grateful because that film did well and made this film [‘Mucho Mucho Amor’] much easier. It’s a very strange trajectory, but I always think people should follow what they’re really passionate about. I’m just trying to be truthful to that and trying to do whatever I’m most excited about and throw myself completely into those projects.
You went from covering darker subjects, such as the effects of a school shooting on students, the opioid crisis, the sex slave trade, to doing lighter subjects like a science fair and Walter Mercado. Is there a reason you made the transition?
You know, I honestly needed, for my own mental health, I needed happiness in my life. I have so much admiration for the people who are able to do that day-in and day-out, and I’m sure at the end of the day they feel like they need an escape. I was talking to detainees on the phone and my phone number would be circulated through the detention centers, which does happen to a lot of prison and detainee reporters. And then all hours of the night and day people would be calling me and telling me their immigration stories. It was an, emotionally, very draining experience and I think I needed to, for myself, find some happiness in the work that I was doing, and some light. I think ‘Science Fair’ and ‘Mucho Mucho Amor’ have done well because they address serious issues. Like, with Walter, with the LGBT community, homophobia, the question of legacy and aging and what happens to us when we disappear. All these serious questions, but done in a fun way, which I think people want to interact with. So I’m doing it for myself as much as I hope I can do it for other people. Make stories that are important, but also bring joy and love.
Have you noticed a difference or shift in what it’s like to work in your field as a Latina between when you first started and now?
Yeah, you know, I think it’s a really exciting time to be a Latina in media. There has kind of been this reckoning and now, more than ever, there’s this acknowledgment that we need people of color and women to tell stories. Most stories throughout history have been told through the perspective of white men and that only gives you a very limited segment of the stories that are out there to be told. I think this movie [‘Mucho Mucho Amor’] is a great example of a story that should have been told twenty years ago. It’s crazy that it took three filmmakers, who already had a pretty established leg-in to the documentary world, to make this film. It has all the elements and it’s very commercially viable. But yet it was a real struggle to convince, to find people to give us money to make it before it was made. And I think that is completely the result of the fact that there just aren’t that many Latino and Latina executives. It’s a real struggle, but I think that there’s a recognition that that’s a problem now. Whereas, maybe a few years ago, there were still a lot of people who were skeptical and didn’t want to admit that. I think we’ve entered an era where if someone is trying to tell a story about a certain kind of person, there is a conversation immediately of ‘who is telling this story?’ And I think that’s great, it’s really exciting. So, to any young women who are thinking about being documentary filmmakers, I would say now is the time and come join us, because we need more people.
You’ve accomplished a lot in your career already. You’ve won an Emmy and you’ve gotten so much good feedback from your films . Has there been one defining moment in your career that stands out to you?
Maybe the most surreal thing was winning the Emmy for ‘Science Fair.’ It was really remarkable; we didn’t expect it. I had kind of prepared a speech but I get nervous about public speaking. My friend Jeff, the producer of ‘Science Fair,’ was filming and expecting me to have a huge response, like screaming and celebration. But when they said my name and the film, I didn’t believe it. So I went into a very quiet space of ‘this might be a mistake,’ and then, ‘oh no, I have to give a speech now,’ so I was silent. They said the name of the film and I was like, ‘I don’t know if that’s us, could it be us?’ But the film my friend took was so anti-climactic, he was going to share it but he said I did nothing, I had no reaction.
What is your relationship like with your subjects once the project is over? Do you talk to them or check in on them? They’re all fascinating people.
I don’t recommend doing what I do, which is I get very close to my subjects, at least with ‘Science Fair’ and Walter I did. It’s explicitly what journalism school tells you not to do, so I think I’m doing it wrong. In those two films in particular, I love the people in front of the camera. Part of the reason I think there’s an intimacy in those films is because I truly spent a lot of time with those people and came to see them as friends and loved ones. I don’t know if it would be different if I didn’t like the subjects. Like Myllena, one of the kids in ‘Science Fair,’ she’s Brazilian, she was living with me two weeks ago [laughs]. Like I said, there’s not a good separation. She’s here studying English and now she’s enrolled in college, but college is now remote and she had a few weeks where she was trying to figure out her housing situation. So Darren Foster, who was my co-director on ‘Science Fair’, and his wife and I have been splitting her. It’s been really funny, we would split her like, one week at their house, one week at our house, another week at their house. So, definitely we get very close to our subjects, we love them.
What advice would you give to young Latinas now that are trying to break into your profession?
First of all, there are so many stories out there that we have to tell that other people just have no entry point into. I think there’s an imperative that our stories are told. For our community to see ourselves in different ways, but also so that the mainstream will understand that we are more than just narcos or criminals, which I think so many of the depictions of us are that. We’re complex and nuanced and sometimes fabulous, which I think Walter proves. So look for the stories in your life, look for the figures in your life, look for the narratives you’re drawn to that other people haven’t told. The world is so interesting and, like I said, white men only know a little bit of it. I would also say to dream really big. I think dreaming to the point where other people think you’re delusional is a good thing. My dad is a small Argentinian man who is very confident and often delusional and, when I need to, I try to channel him. Like, would Mario think about all the reasons he can’t do it? No, Mario would think about all the reasons he can do it, and I think it’s important to think that way. To be prepared though, in order for this to work, you have to be prepared for failure. I think I fail at nine out of the ten things I set out to do. But, if you’re dreaming really big and one of those ten things works out then, you know, you have that one thing. So for every Walter project, for every ‘Science Fair,’ there’s a bunch of littered projects that haven’t worked out. I think just staying delusionally hopeful, understanding that failures happen and failures are normal, and preserving has been super important in my career. Especially for women, I think we just have to be bolder, you know? Men have been delusional for millennia, but now it’s our turn.
Can you tell us at all about what you’re working on next?
I actually don’t know if I can talk about it. I’m working on some things where I’m trying to get into the scripted space, so I have some scripted stuff I’ve written and would love to make. I’m working on developing the narrative version of the Walter project. I would love for Walter’s movie to be a scripted, narrative film. He really wanted it to be a scripted film, his life story, and there’s so much there that we couldn’t get into the documentary that I think would be really good dramatized. And some documentary projects, but I can’t really talk specifics, but I’m very excited that hopefully some of them work out. Like I said, I’m dreaming big and hopefully one of them will happen.
Like asking Timothée Chalamet to play Walter, the way Walter wanted?
Exactly! He [Walter] is so cute.
Article edited by Karen Garcia.