I Like It Like That

Director: Darnell Martin

1994 / 104min / 35mm

The first film by an African American female filmmaker to be produced by a major studio—as late as 1994!—Martin’s raucous Bronx-set slice-of-life debut stars Luna Lauren Vélez as Lisette, a young Puerto Rican-Jamaican housewife and mother forced to seek out work and bail money after philandering breadwinner husband Chino (Jon Seda) lands in jail. With the help of transgender sister Jesse Borrego, and facing the hindrance of mother Rita Moreno, Luna fights upstream through drama at home and the office to first secure a sense of autonomy, then to reconcile her newfound independence with the duties of family. Martin gives no easy answers, but she poses incisive questions.

Q&A with Darnell Martin Saturday, August 13