Make-up lol. I have a bad Sephora habit thanks to my friends. 

You are enough. Trust your gut. You have the chops. You are it. You don’t need to convince anyone of that. Be your true authentic self. Don’t take no for an answer and don’t let this industry take advantage of you. Support your sisters, community is everything. Keep pushing.

The most successful moment I’ve had is being able to lead (5) teams in (4) different cities over the course of 2 months for an Adidas campaign I was producing and directing. Majority of the crew were women and I was able to hire a lot of people of color. Not only did we have… Read More @ShirleyVernae: What is a successful moment in your career so far?

My biggest concern is that black people will continue to have to kick and scream for a seat at the table. We live in a world that is unfair to us and doesn’t see us as equal and that’s represented in the stories you see on screen. It must stop and I worry that it will… Read More @ShirleyVernae: What is your biggest concern with the future?

I don’t think I have a specific defining moment but all of my choices, big and small, that I have made have ultimately defined who I am today. 

I love to create and fantasize. I went to school for on camera acting and after graduation I needed to make money so I took a job transcribing for reality television. When I got in and I saw how content was made I was hooked on the process of being able to tell raw authentic stories. 

Twitter: @rodriguez545 Instagram: @rodriguez545 Website: storieshappeninforests.com Website: dogwoodalliance.org I’m going to continue to promote and submit “Stories Happen in Forests” to film festivals. After that, I’m excited to plan for the public release of the film and, hopefully by then, in-person screenings of it. In the meantime, my colleague @ezucchino and I are working on… Read More @rodriguez545: What are you working on next? In addition, if people want to find out more about you, where can they find you on social media?

As a young queer woman, I was particularly drawn to female action figures, probably for their power and powerful sexuality. So I still have an exquisitely nerdy action figure collection from my tween and teen years. I also have a serious book problem. My wife built me copious floor to ceiling bookshelves, and no matter… Read More @rodriguez545: What, if anything, do you collect?

Work with other women. Hire other women. As a marginalized identity in the filmmaking industry, we must support and uplift each other. As a queer Latinx woman, I also keenly feel a responsibility to expand the narrative scope and widen the field by using whatever power and privilege I have to work with, hire, cast,… Read More @rodriguez545: What advice do you have for other women in the industry?

Honestly, as a first-time filmmaker, who was part of a two woman crew with a shoestring budget, I wasn’t confident that my documentary “Stories Happen in Forests” would be well received, but so far it’s been accepted at 5 film festivals and counting. It’s an important reminder that story is everything. People are hungry for genuine,… Read More @rodriguez545: What is a successful moment in your career so far?