“I knew it was perfect for the story,” writer-director Alessandra Lacorazza said about her choice of Las Cruces as the location for her movie “In the Summers.”
“For me, location is so important for the story,” Lacorazza said. Las Cruces is “a place that had impeccable nature and beauty, a thriving Latino community. I wanted something hot, something about the desert that is in keeping with the story.”
She and the cast and crew of “In the Summers” filmed in Las Cruces in May and June.
A native of Bogota, Colombia, Lacorazza has lived in Brooklyn, New York, for the past 14 years.
She used Google Maps to pick Las Cruces when it was time to shoot her first feature film.
“I had this feeling about this place,” Lacorazza said. “The second I got to Las Cruces, I knew, this is it. It just felt like the right fit. The people, the locations, the place, it’s such a vibrant community.”
She was also drawn to the energy of the Organ Mountains, Lacorazza said.
“Making a feature film is a group effort,” she said. “It is an insane undertaking. I feel like we really created a family on set. It was a beautiful experience.”
Lacorazza wrote the script for “In the Summers” “a few years’ after my dad’s death as a way to process my life with him,” she said.
“It’s a story of a Latin dad, Vicente, who is a beautiful but complicated human being,” Lacorazza said.
He is visiting his two daughters, Violeta and Eva, for the first time since his divorce from their mother.
“Following a trajectory of being a good dad,” he is also dealing with mental health and drug addiction issues, she said.
“It comes from trauma,” Lacorazza said, “and that gets in the way of him being a good father.”
The movie is ultimately “a story of two sisters and how their bond helps them identify the trauma,” she said. “It’s reflective of my life in a lot of ways, (but) these characters became their own thing.”
Filming in Las Cruces “changed the story,” she said. It “added a depth and a specificity to the place and the characters. I chose Las Cruces because I wanted the specificity of Las Cruces, not pretending it was somewhere else.
“Being true to a place and true to who you are and who these characters are, that makes something feel special,” Lacorazza said. “Being in Las Cruces helped us dig into a real place that will be shown on screen.”
For locations, Lacorazza chose a Las Cruces house that changes over the 17 years of the story.
The house was “gracious and beautiful, an extraordinary location,” she said.
She also filmed at Las Cruces Airport, White Sands Missile Range, a local hospital, a canyon a short way outside the city, an irrigation canal, an underpass, Laab Pool, local shops and Valley Pizza – a location Lacorazza said ‘was just extraordinary.”
Lacorazza said she is also grateful to Las Cruces and to the New Mexico Film Office for rallying around
the gay theme of “In the Summers.”
“Homophobia is alive and well,” she said. “It was really nice to have the support of people around me in the face of some of those issues.
“It just came to me,” she said about the movie’s name. “We witness this family in short vignettes when the girls visit their dad in the summer.”
The film cast includes Hollywood stars, up and comers and local actors.
“I feel like the luckiest human being on the planet with my cast,” Lacorazza said. “Every single one of them was an absolute dream to work with. Not only were they just extremely talented and brought the story to life. I owe them everything. This story is going to be able to live because of what they do. We used so many local people. They were all fantastic and wonderful.”
Local crew included hair and makeup, grip, electric work and props.
“Just A-list props,” Lacorazza said. “You guys were phenomenal. I would take you guys anywhere.”
The cast and crew worked “really long hours (on a) long, complicated, difficult shoot” that took place in “super-hot” weather conditions, she said.
“Everyone brought their best self. That makes it really special,” Lacorazza said.
Would Lacorazza come back to Las Cruces to make another movie?
“I absolutely would,” she said. There’s people I want to work with again – including some she may be “pulling out of Las Cruces for another project. Everyone feels like such beautiful family.”
Back in New York, Lacorazza is “working with a very talented editor, Adam Dicterow, to complete the film, which likely will be 90 minutes to two hours long when it’s finished, she said. The film will be released in 2024.
For a full list of the cast and crew and more information about the movie, visit www.imdb.com, “In the Summers.”
