DaVida Sal
DaVida Sal is an independent filmmaker, actress, writer, and multidisciplinary artist born in Tarragona, Spain. After moving to Los Angeles to train as an actress with renowned coaches such as Eric Morris and Bernard Hiller, she turned her focus toward independent cinema, developing her own distinctive voice outside traditional filmmaking circuits. A former palliative care nurse, she left her profession to pursue filmmaking and moved to San Francisco. In 2009, she financed her first short film with her own tax refund, beginning a career defined by creative independence and self-produced filmmaking. Her first feature film, Saving Isis (2012), emerged following the death of her mother, transforming personal grief into an exploration of loss and healing. Her filmography includes The Secret Covenant (2011), Priority Mail (2014), and Death in Tulum (2023). A U.S. citizen since 2016, DaVida Sal has simultaneously pursued a career in art and activism as the creator of Jil Love Revolution and the author of two books. During the pandemic, she moved to Mexico, where she began a new personal and artistic chapter. In San Miguel de Allende, she created Leche Roja, a bilingual film funded by the community and made alongside local actors and professionals. A deeply personal and poetic work, the film blends realism and the supernatural to explore identity, mortality, desire, and redemption.
10/21/20265 min read
Tell us about yourself and how you got started in the film industry.
I was born in Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain, and moved to Los Angeles at 22 to pursue acting. I studied with Eric Morris, author of No Acting Please, and Bernard Hiller.
But my story goes far beyond cinema. Before making strange movies in Mexico, I was an International Artivist whose Love Revolution reached millions around the world, long before TikTok. I've always been interested in challenging people's perceptions and shaking things up.
I'm a multidisciplinary artist, and I like to think of myself as the Spanish DaVida Lynch. I don't make films to fit into the industry. I make them because something inside me needs to come out.
How long have you been making films, and why did you become a filmmaker?
Saving Isis was my first feature, and Leche Roja is my second. I'm largely self-taught, and I've learned by doing things my own way.
I don't wait for permission, money, or someone to discover me. I have an idea, I find a way, and I make it happen. Cinema allows me to create worlds where reality, dreams, and the subconscious collide.
Tell us about Leche Roja.
It's a surreal supernatural drama about a 300-year-old vampire who is tired of killing and comes to Mexico looking for redemption. But escaping your past isn't as easy as changing your address.
Set primarily in San Miguel de Allende, the film explores love, obsession, identity, and the possibility of becoming human again. It's a coproduction between the United States, Mexico, and Spain.
It's dark, strange, symbolic, and deeply personal. And, as I like to say, the real monster doesn't always have fangs.
What inspired you to make this film?
Life did. After a devastating loss in 2019, I changed my name and moved to Mexico to start over. I was trying to reinvent myself, and that experience became part of the film.
Leche Roja is about the desire to escape who you were and discover who you might become. It's a fantasy, but the emotions are real. Sometimes you have to enter a surreal world to tell the truth about the real one.
What were your biggest challenges during production?
I made the film with approximately $30,000, raised little by little through my own resources and crowdfunding. I wrote it, produced it, directed it, acted in it, and edited it myself.
Basically, I was the entire film crew! It took about three years from the initial idea to the finished movie.
Was it exhausting? Absolutely. Would I do it again? I would make another film—but next time, I'd love to have a team!
How did you direct the actors while also acting in the film?
Having studied with Eric Morris and Bernard Hiller, I believe acting is about emotional truth, not pretending to feel something. I want actors to be brave, vulnerable, and authentic.
Directing myself meant switching between being inside the character and seeing the whole picture. It wasn't always easy, but I understood what the actors needed because I was experiencing the same vulnerability myself.
How did you manage the budget?
With $30,000, you learn to be creative very quickly! I had to stretch every resource and contribute my own time and skills wherever they were needed.
The biggest investment was myself. But I've proved I can make a feature film with very little money. Now I want to work with professionals who can help me take my next film to another level.
If you could change one thing about the production, what would it be?
Having a crew! I want to spend more time directing and less time trying to be five different people at once.
I'm proud that I made this film independently, but I also know what becomes possible when talented people bring their own expertise to a shared vision.
What has been the most rewarding part of making Leche Roja?
Knowing that people are connecting with something so personal. When I screened it in San Miguel de Allende, the audience responded enthusiastically. The film has also received festival selections, positive feedback, and a Best Director award from the Beyond Border International Film Festival.
As an independent filmmaker, recognition means a lot. You spend years creating something that comes from deep inside you, never knowing how it will be received. Then suddenly, people start responding. That's incredibly moving.
If you could ask the movie gods for anything, what would it be?
€200,000 for my third feature film! I've already shown that I can do almost everything myself. Now I want a talented crew, committed producers, and the freedom to concentrate on directing.
I'm ready to move from making films against the odds to making the films I envision on a larger scale. Cannes 2028 is my goal. Why not dream big?
If you could direct any movie ever made, which would you choose?
Mulholland Drive. David Lynch created a world where dreams, identity, desire, and reality become beautifully entangled.
I wouldn't remake it. I'd want the freedom to explore that kind of cinematic universe in my own way.
I don't believe every film needs to be a puzzle that must be solved. Life doesn't follow A-B-C-D, so why should every movie? Sometimes you have to stop analyzing and let yourself fall into the dream.
What are your favorite genres and directors?
I'm drawn to surrealism, psychological thrillers, supernatural drama, and science fiction. David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, and Francis Ford Coppola are major influences.
My favorite films include The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, The Silence of the Lambs, The Piano, and The Crying Game. I love cinema that takes risks, breaks rules, and leaves you thinking—or dreaming—long after it ends.
If you could save only three films from destruction, which would they be?
2001: A Space Odyssey, Mulholland Drive, and The Shining.
They represent three dimensions of cinema I love: the cosmic, the subconscious, and the psychological. I once watched 2001: A Space Odyssey in 70mm at San Francisco's Castro Theatre with a live orchestra. It was extraordinary. That's what cinema can be: an experience that takes you somewhere beyond everyday reality.
Do you have other projects underway?
Absolutely! I'm developing my third feature, a more commercially oriented film about a woman everyone thinks is crazy because she believes she's going to give birth to the baby who will save the world.
I'm fascinated by the question of who gets to decide what madness is. What if the woman everyone dismisses is the only one who understands what's coming?
I'm looking for a €200,000 budget and a dedicated professional crew. I've already proved I can make a film by wearing every hat imaginable. Now I want to collaborate with talented people and concentrate on what I love most: directing.
My goal is Cannes 2028. I've reinvented myself before, made films against the odds, and built things from nothing. I'm not planning to stop now.