by: John Rodriguez
Inspiration can come in various forms, ranging from a painting to a piece of music or something spoken by someone. For 39-year-old Director and Writer, Macdara Vallely his recent film entitled Babygirl was inspired by something he witnessed while riding the No. 2 train. While on the red subway line, Vallely describes witnessing a 20-something year old man flirt with a young woman who when she didn’t show any interest in him the young man turned his attention on to the girl’s mother.
Vallely describes this incident he witnessed two summers ago as “an everyday thing we all see in New York,” and like most New Yorkers who are witnessed to certain things, “wonders what happened next? I was trying to find some sort of meaning. There was something interesting in the relationship between the mother and the daughter.”
So, what’s Babygirl about exactly?
Set in the Fordham Road area of the Bronx, Babygirl tells the story of a teenager named Lena (played by Yainis Ynoa) and her rocky relationship with her mother Lucy (Rosa Arredondo) because of the men in Lucy’s life. Tired of witnessing her mother’s endless series of deadbeat, no-good men entering their lives, Lena decides to set up her mother’s current beau Victor (Flaco Navaja). Opting to use herself to reveal how Victor is no different from the prior men her mother has dated, Lena finds herself falling into a strange love-triangle between her mother and Victor. The result of her scheme leads Lena down a road where she is faced with a realization that she most confront her mother and the difficulty she has living at home.
Predominantly a Latino cast, Vallely–a native of Northern Ireland–was at home filming the project because he has been “living in the Bronx for seven years,” and is married to “a Puerto Rican girl, and I speak Spanish, so I engage more with the Latin culture than other people who don’t speak Spanish.”
With a background in theater, Vallely is also an credited director, writer, and producer. Utilizing his training and his experience living in the Bronx, Vallely shot the film in the Fordham Road area of the Bronx giving the film a real Latino sense by accompanying the shots with a Latin musical score. “When you live in the Bronx, what stands out for me are the people,” Vallely says talking about the New York borough and it’s community, “It can be very intense…but the Bronx is also a very beautiful place; the architecture is very beautiful, and it’s got more parks than other boroughs, so you have a contrast between the natural and the manmade.”
Along with utilizing one of New York City’s highly populated Latino boroughs, the film also depicts some of the growing Latino talent rising in both New York and Hollywood. The film’s lead actress Yainis Ynoa is a prime example of being one of the next Latino stars to rise. A high-school student while playing the role, Vallely mentions how Ynoa was discovered, “We had decided we weren’t going to make the movie unless we found the right actor to play the lead role. Yainis Ynoa walked in second to last on our last open-call, two weeks before we were due to start shooting. That was an interesting moment.” And from there, Babygirl was made.
Babygirl is Vallely’s second feature film and was screening at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and has been screened at other film festivals.
