Diana Means interviews Mexican American director of photography and cinematography Lesley Elizondo about her film "Basta" a documentary film based in Los Angeles California that exposes the normalization of sexual abuse in the janitorial industry.

About the film
Basta follows Veronica a 24 year old immigrant from El Salvador who was sexually assaulted while working as a night janitor in Los Angeles. Thanks to her resilience and strength, she did not stay silent and created a grassroots movement to change the janitorial industry and fight its normalization of sexual abuse in the workplace.

About the Filmmakers Cecilia Albertini and Lesley Elizondo
Cecilia Albertini is an Italian born-American based director and writer whose work focuses on socially relevant female-centric stories.

Cecilia’s documentary “Francis Ford Coppola’s Live Cinema”, which followed the legendary director during the making of his latest Live Cinema workshop, was nominated for a American Association of Cinematographer’s Heritage Award. The episode that Cecilia directed for the show “Sanity” was nominated for a student Emmy Award in 2017.

Lesley Elizondo is a Mexican American director of photography and cinematography educator born and raised in Los Angeles.

In 2019, Lesley’s DP work with the activist group “Ya Basta” was featured in a week-long video installation on Sacramento and Washington DC’s capitol buildings. Her cinematography has also been featured in the Senorita Cinema Film Festival in Houston, the Pride Arts Center Film Festival in Chicago, the Stella Adler Academy Hollywood Short and Sweet Film Festival in LA, and the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase in St. Louis. On Youtube, “Pa Delante” has over 96 thousand views and “MacBeth” has over 3.6 thousand views.

About the podcast
Visionary Voices podcast is produced and hosted by Diana Means founder of Alliance of Women Filmmakers, a non-profit dedicated to the advancement and equality of women in entertainment. For more filmmaker conversations with Diana Means please visit www.visionaryvoicespodcast.com

Alliance of Women Filmmakers is proud to partner with Women Voices Now to present this podcast.

Their annual film festival promotes emerging women filmmakers using social-change films to advocate for women’s and girls’ rights around the world. For more information about WVN including their film selection process please visit The Women's Voices Now Online Film Festival

Editing by Otaku Media