profile
now Do You K
? a i j e M r e i Eric Jav
Eric Javier Mejia is a 23 year old, Los Angeles film director with an upcoming short film “White Wedding,” co-written with Colleen Banet.
What is your film’s plot? Catherine is a morbidly obese 22 year old. Once a victim of bullying herself, she takes to eating and immersing herself in a world of wedding magazines and romance movies. It takes Ali, her 13-year old African-American neighbor, the victim of brutal bullying for being “different,” to make her grand delusion come crashing down. Were you bullied? Yes. As a victim of violent physical and verbal bullying, it is definitely a subject I am haunted to tell. As a Latino man, being brought up in a Catholic school for 12 years, the influence is plastered all over my work. When you grow up with Nun’s telling you, “You’re gay! You deserved it!” after another boy smashes your head into a rusted nail on the playground, and having my priest, who made sexual advances at me, tell me, “You’re a sinner for being born gay,” I walked away from the Church with a bad taste in my mouth. What has your family’s response been? My father, who was once very strange on the topic of my orientation, has come forward to help me make this film come to life. I think he’s finally realized that it isn’t about my orientation; it’s about being a human being. You can view Eric’s work at www.youtube.com/noirvisionstudios. His website launches on Feb.14 at ericjaviermejia.com. - (Rick Wilkinson) 32 The Fight