Lorena Lourenço: Showing Up Unapologetically On Set, At Festivals, and In Life

Lauren Lourenço has been backed by Film Independent, Series Fest, and the Orchid Project. She's directed festival-winning shorts, an MTV music video for Anitta, and she's currently developing her first feature, Whatever Happened to Rosa Elena? — a queer horror comedy set in Palm Springs. She's also, somehow, terrified of horror films.We met at Sundance, had lunch, and I immediately understood why people find me intimidating. In this episode, we get into endometriosis (the real version, not the "heavy period" version), why Lorena started writing comedy, her hot take on where Sundance is heading, the small festivals actually worth paying attention to, candles as a gateway drug to full woo-woo, and what it means to make work that's specific without feeling like homework.Also: aliens. Probably among us. Probably fine.Follow Lorena on Instagram at @lorenaMMLTopics covered:Warby Parker and the big head problemEndometriosis, emergency surgery, and writing a pilot on morphineLa Chupacabra and Whatever Happened to Rosa Elena — yes, we're on the same wavelengthSundance: what it is now vs. what it was, and the smaller festivals doing it betterInside Out (Canada), Cascadia, Julien Dubuque, La Leff, River RunHot Cakes: the 60-second rapid fire roundAliens: living among us, and Lauren's friend who might actually be oneHouse of Intuition candles: cute or too much?Therapy as an oil change, but for your brainHosted by Ilse Zacharias Rivera. Say hi / follow along here: @ilsezachariasMentioned in this episode:Thank you to our sponsor, Joel Maisonet Photography: maisonetphotography.com