The Keys, a Cat, and a Black Fish / Las Llaves, el Gato y un Pez Negro

Credits

cast

Gonzalo Mejía

Director
05/25/1978

Biography

Gonzalo Mejía, is an award winningHispanic filmmaker born in 1978. His passion lies in working meticulously with actors to enhance their performance and subsequently, the story. During his filmmaking career, Gonzalo has been fortunate to work extensively in commercial content, Documentaries and short films.

Filmography

Ytalo:Golden Fists (Documentary Short) La Monedita (Short) Belligerent (Short) Love and Interest (Short)

Directors Statement

As a Hispanic-American filmmaker I’m interested in telling universal stories happening to Spanish and Latin-American cultures. My longing is to help audiences understand that our culture and background are quite diverse, and that there’s not a “one size fits all” term for people from Spanish speaking countries. This story is dear to me for two main reasons. First, it’s a universal story that can happen to anyone in any place of the world, the second and most important reason is because I feel in love and related with the main character and his situation. Ilford’s character is in a constant pursuit of happiness fronting the odds with his positiveness and noble heart. The process took five years, mainly because it went from being a short story to a feature in Spanish, then to a feature in English, and finally, it ended up being what it was supposed to be, a short film that has been adapted from a short story. One beautiful detail is that the short story was written by my father’s best friend, his name is Pablo Córdova Cordero, to whom I owe gratitude for creating such interesting characters. One of my pet peeves in directing is being able to get the best and most accurate performance from the actors, which is why I made a lot of research about people that live in situations such as the ones that Ilford and Katherine have. It was then that I learned that many men are abused by their partners, but choose to be silent because of shame, pity, fear, among others. Even though the film has a comedic hint and a tragic ending, I hope that it helps men in abusive relationships to seek happiness.