Daniel Eduvijes Carrera is a writer and director who is most notably known for his award-winning short film “Primera Comunion”. As a first generation student coming from a family of Mexican immigrant, Carrera started his film trajectory by leaving his Southern California home to attend the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a bachelors in Film Studies and then moving to the East Coast for Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts, obtaining his Masters in Filmmaking. In addition to his film work, Carrera has taught film courses at Columbia University and been awarded the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts Entertainment Scholarship.

Carrera introduces what film, stating, “MÍSTICOS is a feature-length film, it would be my debut feature. It explores the idea that I have been researching for some time exorcism in rural Mexico.” He also mentions what he found when conducting research on exorcism for his film. “I started to find that a lot of the young people that were going into those spaces were actually queer young people, who are going there for a certain sort of...I guess it was sort of becoming a gay conversion therapy but through the church,” Carrera says. “It’s a fictional story that explores the intersection between queer identity, sexual identity, spiritual identity, and all of that within the Latino experience.”

Pushing for inclusion has been a challenge for Carrera but he is motivated by seeing the need to continue to break barriers. Carrera does this, “by creating work that is uncompromisingly Latino. I create work that is uncompromisingly Mexican. I create work that crosses the border. I create work that speaks to who I am as a young Chicano. And I create work that speaks to being a child of immigrants.”

When speaking of NALIP as an organization he expresses, “NALIP has been incredibly instrumental in the formulation of my career. Through NALIP I have met my greatest friends and strongest collaborators.” NALIP has served Carrera with opportunities that he would not have received anywhere else, saying, “how great to be able to participate in an organization that not only looks out for your best interests but is also going to connect you with potential collaborators to create their work?”