Intrigue, Mystery, and Santeria: Ray Figueroa reveals details about his next project, “Coronation Mass”

Article originally appeared in El Nuevo Día

The Puerto Rican filmmaker, who also directed “Once Upon a Time in the Caribbean,” is excited about the current direction of the film industry in Puerto Rico.

April 4, 2024 - 11:10 PM

Filmmaker Ray Figueroa (Pablo Martínez Rodríguez)

The Puerto Rican film scene is experiencing a special type of “boom,” which has not been seen in a long time. Beyond comedy films or television dramas, a young generation of Puerto Rican filmmakers are committed to experimenting with new formats and different stories. The immeasurable success of a film like “La Pecera,” for example, marks a clear before and after in the industry, now daring to handle heavy themes and using the best dramatic techniques to do so. The same can be said of films like the fantastic, “Once Upon a Time in the Caribbean,” which dared to break with the notion that Puerto Rico cannot be the setting of the action.

It is in this context that Puerto Rican filmmaker Ray Figueroa, director of “Once Upon a Time in the Caribbean,” has begun working on a distinctive and discreet project titled, “Coronation Mass.” For the past two years, Figueroa has dedicated himself to working on adapting an original story by Puerto Rican writer Juan López Bauzá, which will soon become both a film and his most recent novel.

“We started the process, which has been wonderful, because usually the writer invents the story, but adapting a novel by Juan and having the opportunity to work alongside him has been a privilege. It was a rich process of writing, and also learning,” explained Figueroa.

“This will be a film in the detective vein, in which a crime is investigated that is related to Santeria, an Afro-Caribbean religion which is part of our culture. We do not want to see it from a stigmatized point of view, but as a part of who we are, what that means and also the prejudices that may exist.

“I think it is a type of film that has not been seen before in our cinema and I think it will be appreciated a lot,” said the filmmaker, being careful not to reveal too much about the plot.

This project is a production of the company Hirsch Giovanni Entertainment + Publishing, which has been developing film initiatives and productions on the island for several years.

“This is an exciting project that writer Juan López Bauzá has been working on. It's top secret, because it's something that has never been published. A mutual friend connected us and brought the project to the table. Juan specifically asked Ray to work on this adaptation. It can be difficult to adapt a novel, a lot has to be cut out. We have been working on it for a few years, and already have a script ready to go,” said Jennifer Hirsch Bolduc, who works as an executive at Hirsch Giovanni.

“It is going to be a very ambitious project,” she added.

Regarding the growing future of the local film industry, Figueroa was enthusiastic and expressed his excitement at being part of a generation of Puerto Rican filmmakers who are not afraid to break barriers and launch themselves with daring proposals. Some examples of this type of local films, which have been in crescendo since at least 2015, are “La Granja”, by Ángel Manuel Soto, and “Antes que cante el gallo”, by Ari Maniel Cruz. More recent projects such as “Perfume de gardenias” by Gisela Rosario can also be added to this equation. They have all been warmly received by movie watchers.

“Our cinema, for some time now, has been beginning to tell historical tales, which must be done when a national cinema is growing, but there comes a time when we can have the confidence to be able to make genre films, to be able to make horror movies, samurai movies, police movies. We already have the confidence as an industry and as a community to be able to experiment,” explained Figueroa.

“We are ready to make these stories and to see them,” the filmmaker said hopefully.

“Coronation Mass” does not yet have a scheduled release date, but the team hopes to be able to fully enter the production process this year, and to be able to give final shape to the special and mysterious story that promises to add a new and refreshing chapter to the Puerto Rican film scene.