Filmmaker Talks Success of Border Series

| By: ERIN COULEHAN photos courtesy of: ALFONSO LOYA |

The border is front-and-center of American culture and politics as immigration continues to inspire local artists and storytellers to share our unique stories. Alfonso Loya is a filmmaker and multi-instrumentalist musician who was born in Juarez then moved to New Mexico when he was 12 years old. Loya founded In Cadence Films, a production company, in 2017 with film partner Tony Marquez.

In 2022, In Cadence Films produced “Entre Fronteras,” a drama series that focuses on the human impact of immigration and life on the border for streaming platform Canela TV, a free streaming service that offers content in English and Spanish. In Cadence Films won the Grand Jury Award for “Entre Fronteras”at the 2022 New York International Film Awards for Best Web Series.

“Entre Fronteras” was written by Loya, Marquez, and Julian Nunez after their film “De La Luz” caught the eye of Canela Media, who asked the filmmakers to produce a threepart series based on the film. The series focuses on a group of immigrants from South and their journey to enter the United States. The pilot episode was shot in seven days and came to life entirely through the expertise of local filmmakers, locations, and actors.

The City Magazine sat down with Loya to talk about what it’s like to be in the spotlight and on the border.

The City Magazine

Tell me about yourself and the series you created.

Alfonso Loya

I studied film in Las Cruces at NMSU and graduated in 2016. Since then, I’ve been doing a lot of local productions here in El Paso: short films, music videos, commercials, and work on bigger films. Then, the opportunity came to do this series about immigration for a streaming platform. It all started because we have a short film, very similar to the series on immigration that we submitted to a lot of film festivals. The film actually won a few awards, but it also won a competition that the streaming platform was doing. The streaming platform wanted us to do a series based on the film, so we did. We started last summer, and premiered in October. We’re writing episodes two and three right now.

TCM

Why is it important to tell border stories?

AL

I grew up here and believe we are the ones who should be telling the story, as opposed to somebody else coming from out of town and trying to portray the border. We know what it is. We can put it on screen, too. Our series was made completely from local filmmakers and local actors. Staying local made it more authentic.

TCM

How did you go about writing the story?