Hi everyone! We did it! I am excited to have finally released The Mirror for you all to view. It was one of the hardest films I have ever worked on, and it took almost two years to get here.
From the initial writing to the filming and post-production, the process was strenuous and challenging but has also produced a film that I am proud to share with you.
We live in a culture dominated by speed. Images cascade in a constant flux. Swipe, swipe, swipe, our language regresses into a routine movement of the fingers—left, left, right—the mind slips into an automated trance. Bodies blur like a steady mind-numbing IV drip across social media, dating apps, and content platforms.
Within this ecosystem of immediate consumption, sex has also become rapid, fragmented, decontextualized, and cheap. Stories have been replaced by gifs replaying the same climax ad infinitum. Narrative subjects have been sacrificed for narcissistic objects, and humanity has been traded for escape. Yet legitimate emotions resist the violence of dromology, society’s increasing submission to the logic of speed.
Breakups, for example, cannot be processed with a simple swipe. Irrationality swells from the inner world that connects us as human beings, an intangible form of pain. Just as the mind bends and perceptions are altered in the wake of physical trauma, the situated experience of heartbreak ripples around the one suffering the loss of love. It is an extraordinary mental state. The star of love collapses and one is left abandoned, attempting to reconstruct what has actually happened.
“A more mature and controlled approach to storytelling…”
The Mirror immerses us within that abyss. I know that many of you have been there before, but we all experience it differently. In this case, Roberto’s world is destabilized, and time begins to warp. Isolated in his apartment, the past replays in his mind—conversations, moments, all that is absent—and reality disintegrates into a delusion, one that begins to speak back from the other side of the mirror.
Intimate, painful, and grounded in the ambiguities of a life lived, The Mirror has been an opportunity to make a clearer statement as an artist. I know that my work often gets overlooked because of my creative choices, but I have been forging this path to create narrative filmmaking that integrates our adult experiences in an honest and beautiful way. As such, The Mirror builds on my prior work to reflect a more mature and controlled approach to storytelling. Specifically, it dives deeper into the psychological depths and subjectivity of character.
This required a stricter approach to writing, more rigorous assessment and revision at each stage, and overcoming periods of doubt to do it justice. I had to create a narrative that felt complete, both emotionally and logically, along the way to discovering the twist that makes everything come together.
Additionally, I did not let myself cut corners. I meditated on the details of the dialogue, sculpted the structure in tune with my sense as a craftsman, and weighed the effect of the denouement. It was frustrating. I had to continually rework the manuscript. To be honest, almost none of it was fun, but the result is the reward. Executing a story that flows organically and provides true windows into life is an immense challenge, and it is even more difficult as one ventures into the imaginary.
“On this side of surreality, the world melts into a dream state…”
Meanwhile, the shoot itself was relatively contained, which allowed us to focus on performance and atmosphere. We invested significant energy into preparing performers to enter the world of The Mirror. On this side of surreality, the world melts into a dream state, but we also needed it to feel as real to you as it does to those who live within it. We wanted you to experience the uncanny, that sense that the imagined and the lived worlds are one, and it is all too easy for the result to feel alien. As such, the team overcame numerous challenges while bringing the world to life and presenting emotional truth within it.
One of our actors, (Raúl Gordillo), also took on the challenge of performing in English even though he does not speak it yet. This required extensive preparation, practice, and coaching sessions with an acting coach, Marc Ribera. Marc and I have worked together since Forget Me Not, and he also works with the actors from the Netflix series Elite. He is an incredible actor and psychologist who has assisted me equally as much during the writing and character creation stages as with the emotional and character work we conduct with the actors. In the end, though the process was demanding, and the role required a high level of precision, Raúl broke through the barriers to inhabit the screen and our imaginations.
However, the subsequent editing process was where we hit a lot of snags. I was dissatisfied with the first cut. I often am, because I develop expectations during the writing and shooting that are almost never reflected in the initial result. I have high standards for myself, and I work hard to meet them. Hence the two years it has taken for us to finally release the film since shooting during the summer of 2024.
A lot of the postproduction was dedicated to refining rhythm, pacing, and emotional coherence. It was a long and mentally demanding process, full of tinkering and dancing with the devils in the details. Music also played an essential role in cementing the tone of the film and establishing a more visceral engagement with the piece. Ultimately, it took a long time before I could finally take a step back and see it all as a completed work worthy of the Bedtime Stories legacy and your time.
Though the journey was a pain, and it taught me a lot about the obstacles in the way of my creative ambitions, it is my pleasure to share my work with you. None of this is possible without you. This is our accomplishment, and I look forward to creating work that integrates the lessons learned to produce even higher quality and more compelling films while continuing to develop mastery in my craft. Please enjoy
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