 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Buenos Dias. Buenos Dias. I'm with you. That's the voice of one of my favorite people, Jemma Kubero Del Barrio, filmmaker. Wow. It is so nice to be with you, Jemma. It's nice to be back. Thank you. So many things going on. Now you're a filmmaker and you have a film at Hawaii International Film Festival, locally made, local product, which is good, and before we get to that I want to ask you about Catalonia. How do you feel? You're from Spain, you're from a town near Madrid, and Madrid is not near Barcelona. So you have feelings again about Barcelona and Catalonia, which is Barcelona. How do you feel about that? Who doesn't have feelings about that? So I love Barcelona, and I have a really good friend, Catalan friends. I think what's happening is unfortunate. I think Catalonia is a very rich, wonderful place with a lot of wonderful people, and I think the former president of Catalonia is really polarizing the issue. Yeah. So I don't agree with what he's doing. If you think polarization is limited to the U.S., think again, it's everywhere. It's spread. It's spread. It's like a virus, even, yeah. It's the easy way to polarize, I think, anyway. Let's talk about your film. Short version. Second film. The first film was about bullfighting, and I think we really have to talk about that, because I looked at it, at least part of that, and I was so impressed with that. You covered a woman who was a bullfighter. Two women. Two women who were bullfighters, and this is a great statement, I mean, because bullfighting is not so easy. You know, it's risky, it's bloody, may I say. It's deeply involved in the Spain since the early 19th century. Yes. A lot of Spanish people still like bullfighting. Yeah. It's sort of a national sport, if you will. That is soccer, right? It's so much part of our language. Yeah, part of the language, yeah. I told you that I found out from Carmen the Opera that, in fact, Torridor is not a Spanish word, nor is it a Hispanic word. It is a French word, and it was created by George Bizet in order to write four syllables for Carmen. Torridor. It's not Matador. That's only three syllables, so he invented it. That's amazing. It is amazing. We have a movie right now on OC16 about Carmen, about some of these interesting points about Carmen, who was really an example of the way the French saw Spain and Spaniards and Spanish women, the dancing Spanish, the Carmen type women, the liberated, emancipated women, worked in a cigarette factory already in the early 19th, middle 19th century. Anyway, so you wrote about and made a movie about the Matador, the two women Matadors, and you showed the whole scene in the bullfight, and you showed essentially what they were like, and they were really impressive. Why did you make such a movie? Bullfighting, just like you said, is so much part of our culture. And it's not that I'm into bullfighting, but when I learned that there was a woman that was not allowed to bullfight, it really caught my attention, and I was living in America. And I made the film, I made the film with Alessia Carrasco, because we wanted to look at something as deep as bullfighting and look at it from a different lens through the eyes of the women. And then when we got really into it, we followed this woman for eight years, we learned that the passion was really had no gender, that it's the same passion for men and for women, but that the women were really not allowed to do it for moral reasons, not for lack of a skill. So that really grabbed me. This is a modern thing. This is an emancipation of another kind. Yeah. Yeah. They were there. They were there in your passion, really. It's really, you know, it's an emancipation, but it's also about, can I do what I really want to do? Yeah. And they were really impressive, honestly. Thank you. They are. And they were very feminine, too. Yeah, they are. You know, it wasn't that they were, you know, heavy masculine figures as women. No, they were nice-looking women, ordinary-looking women. I mean, even better than ordinary-looking women. They're athletes, really. When you see them live, they're so impressive because they have to train so rigorously. They look like athletes to me. They are. Yeah. And also, they have to have a really sharp mind to be ready to face an animal that can kill them and also a very strong physical body. Yeah. So I think they are amazing. And it teaches you about bullfighting. And about life. And about life, yeah. And about how to, you know, live your life in a way that's consistent with your, realizing your dreams and all that. Yeah. I was very impressed. There's one thing to hold the cape. Yeah. And distract the bull and shake the cape. And the bull goes for the cape. That's nice. But she did more than that, the one I'm thinking of, the blonde. Maripa. Yeah. She turned her back on the bull, walked away. That takes clitspa. It takes a lot of bravery. And you need to know when you can do that. So you need to know the animal really well. So you need to really measure at what moment you have to do it. And you have to be so in the present. I think bullfighting is a lot about actually being in the present and facing the unknown. Because if you don't know what the bull is going to do. Yeah, yeah. That was an amazing moment in the film. Raising awareness. When you face death, you raise your own awareness. You have a different perspective. And that's why, you know, these women, I suppose bullfighters in general have a different way of looking at things because they do face risks. And that's why people treat them as heroes too. Thank you. Great movie. So where did that play? So that played everywhere. That film was released in 2000. That was called She is the Matador. In Spanish, what was it? Ella es el Matador. I knew that. That played in festivals in America, in Mexico, in Spain. Got several awards. And what's incredible is that it played also on POV, on PBS. It's this amazing channel that programs, films that have a point of view. And we were there. And it was the most watched documentary that year after Kern Burns' department. Is that right? And you're here in our studio? Thank you, Gemma. Thank you for being here, Gemma. I love because it was such a challenging film to do. And a lot of people were like, ooh. And they were so brave. They programmed it, knowing that we were going to get a lot of controversy. They got hit mail. It was intense. Why? Because it's killing the bulls. And then months after, I get this email from them saying, hey, Gemma, these are some of the, what is it called? The audience reports. And I love when they told me that because you never know what's going to happen. But anyway, it was challenging though because people have a lot of strong ideas about bullfighting. So you have to have an open mind to go into the theater and see it. It's the reality. I mean, it shook me when I saw her stick those swords right in the bull. That was hard to watch, but that's the way it works. And we knew that we wanted to go to an international audience that was not necessarily into bullfighting. So we knew that we needed to place the killing of the animal in the right place, in the right light. But we would be cheating if we were not showing that part of who they are because they're really matadors. Right. And this is a documentary that will memorialize that because we may not have bullfighting forever. It may go away under protest. You know, even in Spain where it is deeply involved in the culture. Yeah. And that's the beauty of this film is that, yeah, it never kind of died because it's this document of who they were and who they are. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. So where can I find this movie now? She is the matador. Where can I look at that? You can find it on my website, actually. It's West Virginia website. Talcual Films. Talcual means as it is. And in Talcual Films, we sell it. And also we're going to launch it also online through the Vimeo channel. Women Made Movies is distributing the movie and we're going to make it accessible also in downloads. Okay, okay. But we're talking about a yes and a no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The matador. Let's skip the fast forward to the cheesecake. Here's a filmmaker that does cheesecake. It's not the cheesecake you might expect. It's local cheesecake right here in Hawaii. It's Otto the Cheesecake Man. What do you call it? Automatic? Automatic. Automatic cake. Automatic cake. Because the name of this wonderful man is Otto and his business is Auto Cake. Yeah. But there is something very automatic about him. Yeah. There's something very special. Yeah. He's wired differently in the world. Yeah. He's a world in a different way. Yeah. And he actually wanted that title and I let him do it. Oh, okay, okay. So you knew him before. I mean, this is somebody you knew and you wanted a cover, so to speak. Yeah. So I've known Otto for 11 years. I met him for the first time in 2006. My friend Amelia Borowski got me tickets to go see one of the plays that he was producing. Because he's in plays too. He's amazing. You come to the talk. He does everything. And she's like, it's only one part of his life. Infinite. And that's what I realized. So, but let me go back. So I go in to see Hedwig and the Angry Inch. That is this play that played on Broadway. There's a film about it. And I go with my friend. And I am not even filming at that time shooting. I was a filmmaker, but I was producing and directing. And Amelia said, why don't you go into the green room? He's really amazing. So I went in with this mini DV camera, consumer camera, tiny tapes. And I go in and walk into the green room. And I see him on drag. He was like, Phil would make up, put him on a wig. And I was like, and then I watched his performance. It was incredible. And I was like, who the hell is this guy? So that was the first seed. Then I learned a lot about him. I came back in 2012. And he was really struggling. He had opened a shop. I think it was he opened the shop in 2005 or so. And he was doing really well in Chinatown at Smith Street. He was doing really well. But he was being deeply harassed by the drug dealers. And he told me about it. He called me up and he knew that I was a filmmaker. And I was actually at that time in a kind of like a big transition in my life. I was a little bit heartbroken. I was also, I had finished A.S. El Matador. And I wasn't sure what was going to be next for me. And he called me up and he said, Hema, would you come and help me document what's happening at the shop? My life is being threatened every day. So I said, you know, Otto, I don't want to do something about police corruption in Honolulu because I have already done another film in Mexico about that. But I said, but I would love to do something about you. And we thought it was going to be a short film, 10 minutes. And that's it. I followed him for four years. And I've been working on this film for five years. He was baking all the time. He's a man with focus. So he was always baking. So when I make a film normally, if I'm going to make a film about you, I will go and interview you. And then it will open up from there. He was always baking so I could never get him. But he would say, go and talk to so-and-so. Go and talk to such-and-such. And that's when I realized, oh my God, he was a punk rocker, a music promoter, a cheesecake baker. Yes, for 27 years. He made a big imprint in the punk rock scene. He was part of the 86 list, the Sticklers. I mean, he was a performer. So I got these amazing interviews. So the film released about him through the eyes of people that love him. And also it's about Chinatown and what he went through when he was in Chinatown. Which was not pretty. It wasn't. He moved to Kaimukki where life is better. I know this because he was on one of our shows, not too long ago. Wonderful. I hope you can have him back. So what's interesting about Otto is that I was following him for all the time. And he was struggling. He was like trying to, he really deeply cares about his community. And very few people wanted to talk about what was happening in Chinatown. But despite all the death threats and everything, he always was true to himself. He always chose to do things that he loved. Punk rock, roller coasters, and roller skates. And cheesecake. And really, Otto has given me such a great gift because I was like, wait a minute. I was surrounded by this guy that was choosing to be joyful. So the film is about cheesecake, but it's about a lot of layers of cheesecake. I got to see this movie. But let's take a look at the trailer. Okay, we're going to play the trailer now and you can get the idea of what's going on with this movie. And then we'll come back and analyze it, okay? Okay, thank you. Hello, this is Otto. May I help you? We have mocha, lily-coi, and plain left. I like cheesecake. I remember hearing about his cheesecake and everybody's talking about it. Then you go to punk rock shows and you see little kids eating it. You know how to play bass? Otto said no. Would you be perfect for our band? Why don't you join our band? So we figured someone who didn't know how to play would be perfect for a band that didn't know how to play. Otto's the huge, just roller-coastered person in the entire world, I know. And he said, Joe, do you think it would be okay if I wore skates to work? So I let him skate. He would skate behind the counter, skate out to the people. He's like punk rock, punk rock, punk rock. So I was like, okay, it's punk rock. Let's go, let's do it. Dropping up cake. I have to do something with that account. One employee attack, which I've already told you, I've been attacked. That same guy that attacked me also hit a customer in front of my bakery also. Yeah, with all the drugs you sell? Yeah. No, I don't sell drugs. Oh, ma'am. Oh, don't lie. Everything that's happened is because of the cake in my life, you know? The name of that movie, if you didn't catch it, is Automatic Cake. World premiere right now. Tuesday, November 7th. My goodness. That's next Tuesday. It is. At 7.45 p.m. at what? The Dole Canary Theater. Yeah. Okay. And Friday, November 10th at 4 p.m. at the Regal Cinema Dole Canary Theater in Honolulu. You're famous yet again. I'm not. Gemma, Hema. Hema, yeah. Yes, either way. Hema, perfect. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, we're going to take a short break. And when we come back, Hema, I'd like to talk about, you know, your own way of looking at things as a filmmaker and then how you execute and implement, you know, the ideas you get by just walking around town. Because I think everybody can and should do that, but you've done that. So I want to know how it works. We'll be right back. The host of Voice of the Veteran, seen here live every Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. on Think Tech, Hawaii. As a fellow veteran and veterans advocate with over 23 years experience serving veterans, active duty, and family members, I hope to educate everyone on benefits and accessibility services by inviting professionals in the field to appear on the show. In addition, I hope to plan on inviting guest veterans to talk about their concerns and possibly offer solutions. As we navigate and work together through issues, we can all benefit. Please join me every Thursday at 1 p.m. for the Voice of the Veteran. Aloha. We're back. The point I was making during the break with him I was, you know, she doesn't make a lot of money doing this. How much money do you make? Are you able to get along with the money you make from doing this creative film, these documentaries that you make? Is it a luxurious life that you make? In moments like this it feels luxurious. It's a challenge, but I do what I love. I go through phases, but I feel really lucky that I have been able to, you know, make a living doing them. You don't make a lot of money. Documentary doesn't make profit, but the profit comes in different shapes and forms. Psychic profit. Community project. What happens to people? You make a film and everybody changes. The people, yourself, you learn something about life. I've managed to make my life very simple. I don't shy away from money. I raise a lot of money, but I put it on my films. Sometimes I know that I have to really make a sacrifice and just follow my passion and just see what happens. I think I'm actually a risk-taker. I don't really have a choice otherwise I would not make an event. It's enviable. It's admirable. It's the best statement of the real condition. You might have no money on me. A comparison. What we do is we have this kind of experience for half an hour, and we never forget. I won't forget this conversation, and hopefully you won't either. We enjoy ourselves together for half an hour. I don't think it necessarily changes our lives, but it's an important thing. When you make a documentary, as you said, it changes the people around you. When you study somebody like Otto, changes him, changes you, you're taking a huge step in terms of your own appreciation of the world. So you go further. That's what I'm saying. We do something in baby steps. You do them in bigger steps because of your doctor. That's what I think. What do you think? I take the time that it needs to do it. When I start a project, I don't know how long it's going to take. I don't know. I don't have a map. I have to create that map. But I know now that if I follow my intuition and I am respectful to the people and I'm trying to search for some truth, then I will get to the end. I will get to the other side. But it's definitely not a... It's not a... I always find something new with... You get an idea, you start with this idea, and at the end of the journey you have discovered something new. And that is really enticing. Yes. Creativity is its own reward. It's a beautiful way to live your life, actually. I envy you that. Thank you. I think everybody should appreciate the sweetness of doing what you do. And having the luxury... It's a luxury of sorts. Being able to do what you do. There's a lot of filming people that are independently wealthy. I'm not that. You don't want that. You're really rich because of the stories and the people that I get to meet. Yeah. Let's go through some photos. We're just going to go through some photos and you can tell us what this means. All right. So this is Otto. A wonderful Otto in Chinatown, actually on Smith Street. This was shot, I think, in 2012, 2013. And that's me doing everything. This is Otto a few years later. I followed him for four years. We worked on this film for five years. So that is in his shop in Kaimuki. And he was just getting hundreds of emails a day and just trying to make sure that he could serve everybody. Okay. That is Otto. I should go to Apple for money because he's using the Apple Watch. Yeah. He's making telephone calls with his watch while he's baking. You'll see in the film, Otto is a man that has found the world. And sometimes he has a hard time reading and spelling, and he uses the Watch a lot. And it's really lovely to see how he does it. So I should go to Apple for money. Yeah, really? One of his passions, roller skating. He was a roller skating champion. I don't want to give the movie away. But this is a man that follows his passion. His recipe for joy is what do you think? I don't know. It's something that he does. He loves roller skating, so that's part of the film, too. It's similar to your experience, I think. Anyway, so I wanted to ask you, how this has changed your life to do automatic cake? I mean, we talked about Matador, but what about this one? This one has, you've learned a lot about him and what he does doing what he needs, wants to do, and realize it's self-realization is what it is. But how does it change your view of the world? I'm happy to share with you. So go back 2012. My personal life is a little bit messy. My love life. And I am in transition with my career. I'm doing documentaries, but I'm not sure what is next. And I meet an auto ask me, how do you deal with this? I am with him, so by being with the person that you're documented, you enter their universe. And no matter what was happening in my personal life, I had to show up and be with him. And I was just really like soaking his sense of aloha and his love. He is a magical person. So that is a huge gift. Then I took another risk. I was so tired I'm making another film that is still in production. And I do a lot of fundraising. But with auto I was like, if I go to one of those social justice funders saying that I'm doing a film about a guy that does cheesecake nobody's going to give me money. And I kind of knew that. So I chose not to say anything to anybody. And just really not to go to any funder only get support through him and also with my own resources. When I started auto I have never filmed an entire film. I was shooting a little bit. I was directing and producing. I decided to do everything myself. I got help by... Camera, writing directing and producing. Directing, editing? No. I have an amazing editor. Okay. Got to have that. Only amazing. Local? No. She spent time with me here but she's based in Oakland. And she's amazing spirit and I knew that film is a collaboration. I chose to not wait for funding to come through and just document what was happening to auto. And then I chose to use the music that auto produced with 86 lists and the sticklers and only to use public domain music. I chose to really face my limits. How far can I go with this? And then I hired some people to do the things that I specifically needed to do. Like I shot I hired a local friend here, Mark to help me with the roller skating because I knew that I couldn't get the roller skating if I was driving. But then auto spends a lot of time in roller coaster so he shot his own roller coaster rides. And it's been incredible because then when I got into editing and post-production I have a great editor. We worked for two years on this film. And then I work with people also with color correction and sound design. And Heather Weaver. But it was really it was I mean every film is an act of love I think at least for me. But this one was an act of faith too. And auto is magical so I just thought if I can show if I could do something with the freedom that I need and then put it out there then let's see what happens. We'll see what happens here in the film festival. So how long is the movie? The movie is 61 minutes. It's a serious movie for sure. It's a feature length. And it's so funny because in documentary a lot of the times you feel pressure to do like a 90 minute film so you can get this and you can get that. But I learned very early in my career through Vivian Hillgrove and Luther Sportillo that are my mentors that you really needed to make the movie that you wanted and the movie that had the right length. So it's 61 minutes. Well, feels right. You're done when it feels right. But also auto is infinite. I show it to my sound design person, Phil Perkins and he loved it and said this guy deserves eight documentaries. Well, but you learn a lot in terms of entering the other person's universe. It's biographical but it's more. The hole is greater than some of its parts. You're teaching yourself, you're teaching the public, you're teaching about what he really is. So is this your... Oh, can I say something? He's the only one that has seen the film. And when he watched the film, he looked at me and said he was very moved and he said oh, I forgot that it was about me. There you go. Such a sweetness. There you go. You've changed him, I think. You've given him something. He changed me. You're going to do this again? Are you going to, you know, biographical sketch kind of thing again? You know what? I was trained as a journalist and it was also this theme of differentiating you and the other. And I realize I'm making this other film, Homecoming, and I realize everything I do is personal. Even if I'm looking at somebody else's life, I think you're looking at part of yourself. So I think, yes, I will. I mean, I don't know how can I not? I cannot separate myself. I can do something objective unbalanced, but I have to feel passion for it. It sustains you, otherwise what does? Yes, absolutely. And I would totally agree with that and I hope that honestly everyone would agree with that. And it's really nice to talk to you and I hope we can talk to you again soon. I hope you do well at the International Film Festival and come back here and talk to me some more any time. Because we like talking to each other. Yes, we do. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.