FEATURE THE HEALING POWER OF SALT WATER BY BILLY CAHILL
Salt Water is a fearless and intimate examination of memory, identity, and the lasting impact of emotional trauma. Set along the strikingly beautiful Colombian coast, the story follows thirty-threeyear-old Jacobo (played by Luis Mario Jiménez) as he reconnects with José Luis, a fifty-year-old Catholic priest who sexually abused him as a child—and who is now leaving the clergy following new accusations. Queer filmmaker Steven Morales Pineda explains more from his home in Columbia. As a queer filmmaker, how does your identity shape the kinds of stories you’re drawn to telling? Steven Morales Pineda: It shapes everything I create. I come from a region in Columbia where storytelling is rich, but also where machismo runs deep. In places like mine, being sensitive, being different, or simply being honest about who you are can feel dangerous. Just existing authentically takes courage. And that’s where my voice comes from.
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What kind of stories do you like to tell? I’m drawn to stories that live in the margins—emotionally complex, often uncomfortable, rarely told. I care about the characters who are asked to stay quiet, who love in secret, who carry shame that doesn’t belong to them. I want to give them space. I want to say what so many of us were taught not to say. What inspired you to create Salt Water? Salt Water came from a memory I have carried since childhood: the first person I ever felt something for was a priest. Of course, now I see it was a child’s yearning, not adult love. But his sudden disappearance, without words of goodbye, left a deep mark. However, what’s stayed with me all these years isn’t anger, but this strange tenderness mixed with abandonment. A feeling that’s hard to explain and even harder to admit out loud. But that’s exactly why I felt Salt Water needed to be told; not to shock, but to bring honesty and humanity to something we rarely see on screen.