“Cross-legged, As We Sat Through Time” by Julia Ponce Diaz

Feb 24

A visual poem exploring female relationships and intimacy.

A journey across the different stages of a friendship that emphasizes both the unique fragility of female bonds and the extent in which they impact our identity as women.

FROM THE DIRECTOR

“Cross-legged was shot combining different formats, both digital and film (16mm and 8mm), and edited non-linearly, in order to convey the complex ways in which memory often operates.

We shot this film during a weekend trip to the desert. The team was as tiny as it gets: me, my DP, a 1st AC, and the actors. After our first year at AFI, and in preparation for our thesis film, me and my DP wanted to have some fun with a project that didn’t have to fit a straight-forward narrative.

So we went into this with an open mind and almost no script. We used the poem as our guide and created a loose list of the images we wanted to capture. In hindsight, it was one of the most playful and liberating on-set experiences I’ve had, even if it ended up taking a whole year for editing and post-production... But we can blame that on all the other projects that kept distracting us along the way.”

-Julia Ponce Diaz