Director’s Notes: ‘Radical Eye, Tumultuous Life’
Logline: Italian-born photographer is torn between Revolution and her art.
Characters: Tina Modotti. Edward Weston, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo,
a Marxist professor, a survivor of Spanish Civil War.
Opening: Modotti’s sudden death after dinner at Pablo Neruda’s house.
Heart failure or murder? Then flashbacks—
Tina in her uncle’s photo studio in Udine, Italy. She works in textile plant
to support her impoverished family. Casting: A younger Salma Hayek?
Tina arrives in San Francisco’s Little Italy where she begins acting
in Italian-language theatre. Meeting with Dorothea Lange?
Discovered by D.W. Griffith, Tina goes to Hollywood where she appears
as femme fatale in silent films. Re-enact some clips?
In Bohemian LA, Tina meets photographer Edward Weston. They become
lovers & move to Mexico. Who should play Weston?
With a Graflex, Tina masters her craft. Affair with Diego Rivera.
Deep friendship w/Frida Kahlo, defying category, arm in arm.
From Modotti’s photographs: sea of sombreros, worker’s hands,
typewriter, calla lilies, cactus. Hammer & sickle?
Tina joins the Mexican Communist Party & becomes Stalinist agent.
Expelled from Mexico & flees to Soviet Union. Climax?
Tina works tirelessly for the Comintern. In Spain, relief worker & spy.
Implicated in deaths of Revolutionary fighters? Too much of a downer?
Closing scenes: Return to Mexico, mysterious death. Final image:
Modotti’s ‘Hands of the Puppeteer.’ Too symbolic?
Cinematography: B&W docu-style? Muted color w/ earth tones?
Sample dialog: ‘I cannot solve the problem of my life by losing myself
in the problem of art.’ Too philosophical?
Joan E. Bauer is the author of two poetry collections, The Almost Sound of Drowning (Main Street Rag, 2008) and The Camera Artist (Turning Point, 2021). For some years she worked as a teacher and counselor and now divides her time between Venice, CA and Pittsburgh, PA where she co-hosts and curates the Hemingway's Summer Poetry Series with Kristofer Collins. Her new book of poetry, Fig Season, is forthcoming from Turning Point in 2023. She tweets @Joan_E_Bauer.