Maritza Navarro

As a little girl I would sit and dream into the screen. A year ago I finalized color and mix on my first feature documentary. Two years ago, I woke up from a nap where I saw my younger self in the 80s, alone late at night watching old movies on tv, dreaming of telling stories from a different perspective than what I was seeing on screen. I later learned I shared this dream with the filmmakers I interviewed on this feature and that’s how the opening to this film was born. A huge thank you to @_fonteyn_ , who magically understood how to translate all the nostalgic feelings I wanted to capture and turned it into a composition that led us into the film. And to @dan_scruggs who patiently interpreted my wild references from disco balls and water refraction into a tv coming to life. To my collaborators @jrxklein and @camcotv and @liz_shea and Shawna, who believed in my fantastical ideas for documentary prologues, I can never ever thank you four enough for supporting me, loving me and believing the stories of women and queer people with me. I’ll be forever grateful to @queerfilmfest who selected this film to premiere with them and stood with us. There are so many more people to thank who made this film possible, which is probably why I miss the experience so much - filmmaking is a communal art. I’m so grateful I got to make this film with all of you. I can’t wait to do it again. This film was especially important because it represented the possibility of another world. One where marginalized voices can retell history and shape their own narratives: ones that reflect OUR reality. In a moment when this reality is being crushed globally and the voices of victims are being buried, I am grateful I have been able to work with brave, ethical humans along the way. I will forever cherish this experience. Opening Title Credits 📺 Producers: Dylan Klein, Liz Shea, Camille Cotteverte Director of Photography: @janinesides 1st AC: Mathew King 2nd AC: Kate Steinhebel Gaffer: Tom Sigurdsson Key Grip: Tim Finn Production Designer: @mdirolf Art Grip: Michael Cox Studio Teacher: Sammy Kline Editor: Shawna Callahan Talent: Guinevere Arnold, Madeline Browne, Scarlett Chao

After being away from Los Angeles for three months, the things I miss most… are the angels living here. These scenes are from last February, 2025 - in my old apartment, being witchy as always, making dance with @kikoyasuda , workshopping at Effie with the brilliant dance and performance curator @wanswonders who has supported us so much over the last year and always, more falling in love, more friends I can’t get enough of, watching our friends perform, capturing Danielle building her business and saying goodbye to her old house, helping produce @todayingaypod with talented and beautiful people who I miss making things with daily… and a little more.

When Danielle lost her home last year in the Eaton fire I didn’t know what to do. I felt desperate. I didn’t have the words or the money to save her, but that’s all I wanted to do. Make the pain go away. To fix it. So I did the only thing I could do. I asked her if she wanted me to capture it, to try and transmute something from the pain. As my creative partner, I knew that if we could build, make, do… maybe we would ease some of the hurt. I’m not sure what we’ll do next with the footage, but for now I’m sharing it here, as a moving Ofrenda. An altar to what was. An offering to what will come. And as reminder of what is possible, for when we forget what we are capable of. Love you Dani. Music: Yehezkel Raz

Instead of resolutions this year I’m contemplating revolutions. Revolving - returning - radical change - upheavals - and above all, growth. Growth like nature - morphing like water, moving over old wounds like trees grow bark, and finding a way forward by any means possible, through flow, resilience and unconventional action. In that spirit I’m looking back over the last year… slowly. To take in lessons and remind myself there is always some good, some laughter, some softness in people and in love - even as the world struggles to find its footing and understand one another and the unity in our pain under imperialism and dictatorship. Scenes from Jan ’25 included: Celebrating with my sexy coven, dancing on the 1st day of the year - per tradition - in my favorite studio @studioadancela , celebrating my first Día de Reyes Magos, falling in love, kindling the sparks of platonic love, and returning to LA to hold my community close as they rebuilt their spirits and homes. 
I re-discovered how obsessed I am with Los Angeles last year. I felt deeply grateful to have cultivated a family there who truly care for one another in dark times and lift up the voices of the oppressed, together. I watched as friends navigated incredibly heartbreaking moments, some who lost everything, and yet continued to persevere and still have the stamina to give more. 
 The takeaway last January: After racing up a drizzly mountain at sunset and sliding in the mud the whole way up - we found ourselves lost in the fog, and unable to see the view. So we laughed at our luck and explored the top instead… but the fog finally lifted.

Can you hold me? :) • Our last Dance Cake of 2025… already dreaming about mixing up the next one. We usually make a “dance cake” in a workshop session together in an hour or so, and then come back together to film it. it’s an ongoing lesson to release the fixation on perfection and celebrate what baking the dance cake is about… being together, making something yummy and fun and emotional at times. Releasing our tough days and moving into something gooey like batter. • So grateful to have this space with each other and to hold all of it together. Still obsessing over this @rosalia.vt album. Thanksalot @calderizi 😌

e m b r a c i n g the g r a y… when my anxious mind is ping-ponging desperately between black and white. Labeling things - good or bad, scary or exciting, torture or inspiration. I’m still not sure what lies on the other side of this mountain I’m about to take the first few steps toward. All I know in this moment is that I will lift my feet, one skip at a time - even if it means returning somewhere - gray. • I’ve been precious about posting as the world burns. 
I’ve kept a lot of things close, hidden. Especially my wounds and my wins. I’ve mourned so many things in the last year and I really want to share them. I directed a feature film that was selected for a film festival, but buried, along with the stories of so many other marginalized people who should have been heard. I guess I took that hit like a sign to stay silent for a little while. • But I’m rediscovering how to reignite the light in myself slowly. A lot thanks to my friends and loved ones who embraced me through the chaos and encourage me to keep going despite… in spite of… to spite. And a special thanks to @pecacruz - who took this photo of me in my special place, my home. Thanks for holding me close.

People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state on innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster. - James Baldwin I’m in a state of perpetual devastation. A part of me has been since I was 17, when my awareness cracked me apart like a flash of lightning breaking the ground open. I’ve worked so hard to make a life in pursuit of the truth, as a journalist, filmmaker, choreographer. It’s horrifying to watch people turn away from the genocides, the deportations, the broken systems, the injustice and terror, instead of leaping in and asking what can be done. I can only have gratitude for those standing with me and before me unafraid to look into the abyss and offer ourselves, shaking, at the darkness.

More process and performance from the WeHo Pride Arts Festival as we near the end of Pride month 🌈 Sometimes, in racing toward the goal, the result, the product - I second guess myself. I compare. I degrade my ability. I question whether my story is worth telling. When I listen to the intention, really exist fully inside the process, it’s not that the performance doesn’t matter - but it is only a small glimpse of what the art really is, to me. It’s about making it. Performance Videography: @lilychumas 🤍 Special thanks to @bodiesinplay for organizing this beautiful performance with so many talented artists for @wehoarts @wehopride @lalgbtcenter

It’s been about 2 years since Muda has put on a live performance of any kind and even more since we’ve performed together live… 4? I think the last time I performed with Dani live it was in front of Pasadena City Hall, to protest against Trump for President and mourn ICE detention deaths. And it seems we’ve just gone backwards. I’ve held off on posting because so many terrible things have been happening to the people of our city. To our immigrant country, to so many people who were here first and deserve asylum here. But yesterday, someone reminded me that joy is protest. Art is protest. This piece “Tortillera” is a love letter to my inner child, my Mexican heritage, being queer, and healing a piece of yourself in community even when others don’t accept you. Here’s a piece of our process together - which to me is one of the most joyful places in the world - making art with my bestie. My prayer is that you’re finding your community to fight with and be held by right now. We will get through this together. -Maritza Performance Videography: @lilychumas 🤍 Special thanks to @bodiesinplay for organizing this beautiful performance with so many talented artists for @wehoarts @wehopride @lalgbtcenter #fuckice #nooneisillegalonstolenland

El mejor Equipo 🎥♥️🇵🇷✨🫶🏼 This last week brought many transitions and endings… the first one being a wrap to filming in Puerto Rico for the documentary. Ritualistically speaking, a celebration (a main feed post?) is in order to commemorate this time together, ripe with energy, curiosity, possibility, growth and understanding. For me, every day was a celebration. To be able to create for a living is a tremendous privilege… and to get to make something with minds and hearts like these is nothing short of a miracle that is not lost on me. Compas, I was so excited to see you all every day, to talk through the plan, to let you into the vision and anticipation, and I’m so grateful that you were generous enough to share your perspectives with me… on our technical approach, on your life, on the complexities and wounds of the island and through the lens for the film. I’ll carry this experience and collaboration with me forever. I can’t wait to see you all again. I miss you already. GAYbusters for life. #vanessaspicypicante #espresso #gaybusters

Leaving Los Angeles. For a little while at least. I wanted to celebrate a few of the people who have held me up over the last few months. Couldn’t fit everyone in, but I’m holding tight to each one of you reading this and pictured here. Slide 1 is the contented feeling I get when I leave @sfoxhair and feel like myself all over again - it’s incredible just how much can change in a second. Both ways. I flew by a fantastic and terrifying lightning storm over Denver this morning. I felt my mortality. Contemplated the saints. Cursed humanity for creating huge metal electrical conductors and also thanked the steel for keeping me safe and allowing me to communicate with my loved ones over long distances. Thought about contradictions and duality. Held complexity. Contemplated electricity. Lightning. Fire. Explosive light that can be hypnotizing and dangerous. Evil. The romance of the natural and the horror of the unnatural. Wondering what it’s all for. Pride month has commenced and it made me smile to see a little symbol of it at the airport… but it’s more than rainbows and flags, and celebrating our joy, and holding tight to each other in protest. It’s more than a riot for our rights alone. How can we be free at the expense of the suffering of others? We aren’t free until Palestine is free. The genocide must end. I’m grateful for the work and discussions and steps my friends are taking every day to make change. I cling to the ominous positivity @whenyourloveis posted about this week. Better days are already coming, it’s too late now. And I believe we will make that so. Quote by Audre Lorde Last Slide by @yumisakugawa Love you all. I’ll see you in a couple of months 😘 send love notes 💌

Happy Solar Return to this luminous human. I had too many amazing moments I hadn’t shared from New Zealand almost a year ago - I had to post them. This trip encapsulated so many things that I love about Vico - their ability to reflect the magic in me, even when I can’t see it, their silliness, the importance of self care, rest, adventure, tenderness, consistency, and deep deep love and connection. We met more than 4 years ago and shortly after realized we couldn’t let each other go, ever. We’ve recreated what friendship can mean and look like together. An unbreakable chain of love and vulnerability. I’m honored to have witnessed you evolve and grow over the years and more grateful that you hold space for me to do the same, which is such a rare gift to be given back in this life. I love you babe. Happy Birthday @puertoricaninja ❤️‍🔥🏴‍☠️🥰🥳 I’m so proud of the work you do on and off screen, my dear friend. Here’s to so much more!!!