Director Patricia Riggen Courtesy of Fox Searchlight

Were you informed by other movies? Have you, for example, seen Christopher Zalla's Padre Nuestro [the Spanish-language immigrant drama set in New York City that was awarded the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at 2007's Sundance]?
I think this movie is different from all the rest, including Padre Nuestro, because it actually shows immigrants in a good light and from their point of view. That hasn't been done. From El Norte to Padre Nuestro, all these very good movies are usually darker, crueler, tougher. This movie is more fun, more full of hope and light. And that is a different tone for an immigration movie. I always had the immigrants themselves in my mind as an audience — [other immigration movies] are usually for a more sophisticated audience that is sitting comfortably in their corner coffee houses discussing immigration. In this case, it is more about and for immigrants. But then [non-immigrants] also like it. For me it was very surprising when I premiered it at Sundance last January [2007], and that night after the premiere every studio wanted to buy it. And they fought for it very aggressively. Every studio made offers. And we ended up selling it to two studios that joined forces to defeat the other ones, and that was Fox Searchlight and The Weinstein Company. It was surprising because it was a very "festival audience," an Anglo-Saxon audience. I didn't know that they would react this way.

How did you get into directing?
This is my first feature film. I have two previous shorts, each a half-hour long. One was a narrative and the other was a documentary. The narrative short one won the Student Academy Award and the Mexican Academy Awards for shorts. I went to Columbia University with the director of Padre Nuestro and the producer. I know them well. And then I did a documentary that won Sundance a few years ago. But now I have made a movie for the audience.

So, can you tell us a little bit about your background?
I was born and raised in Mexico, and just came over to study directing at Columbia. I have been here nine years but I have all my family back in Mexico and I go to Mexico all the time and I make movies in Mexico.

With Alejandro González Iñárritu, Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón gaining recognition on the world stage, what are your thoughts on the renaissance of cinema in Mexico?
I think it is incredible. It reminds me of the school of French directors a while ago. I think there is a movement of Mexican directors and my feeling is that we have achieved a good craft because we are close to the United States but we have kept our free style of storytelling and that is why the movies are special because there is some creative force right there. And we protect it.

As a female director in Mexico, have you faced different standards in your country?
I think [women deal with] a different standard in any country in the world. I was told that my film at Sundance was the second largest sale [that year], the largest sale for any movie in Spanish ever but I also then learned that it was the largest sale for any woman director ever. So I think that it is hard for any woman, even in the U.S., but things are changing very rapidly. I myself have never felt discriminated against. I think that as we women break through and make our movies and tell our stories, it is going to enrich the pool of movies.