MARIA Y JUANA

It must have been 2015 or 2016 when I first read an article, (Click on the button to read) while living in

Click Me

Colombia, about several Canadian cannabis companies that were investing heavily in the Colombian medicinal cannabis market. Over $400 million dollars invested in the last 8 years. Why did they do this? As Canopy Growth, one of these Canadian companies, explains it, ¨The Latin American market could be 2 billion dollars annually in the near future.¨ It´s all about money, guys. 💵💲💸 These companies expect Colombia to become the hub in the southern continent for the growth of the plant and the final development of medicinal products.

As soon as I read the article, I was inspired. A bunch of images came to me and I knew I had it! A new idea for a funny story about two potheads complaining about life, about their jobs, about the world, about everything. But when the best opportunity appears in front of them, what do they do? Ignore it, of course. And so, Maria Y Juana came to life. 🤣😂🤣😂 A simple, but funny story.

The writing flowed easily. 10 pages of laughter. I loved it! Now, I have to be honest, I had always wanted to write a comedy honoring Cheech and Chong. Dude, I grew up with these guys. The first movie that I watched of them was ´Still Smoking´, and that was in 1983. I couldn´t believe it. I couldn´t stop laughing. To a 15 year old metal head, these two dazed and lovable dope induced characters were just too cool. So with this in mind, I knew what the style would be like in my story. I had a good idea of what the characters would be like and even look like.

THE TITLE

Another moment of truth; the first script was not named Maria y Juana, it was Andy and Pipe, or some shitty name like that. That´s how strong the influence was from Cheech and Chong. I couldn´t imagine my characters not being two young, stupid dudes sitting in the park talking shit, you know? Thank God for my friend Andrés Valdez who one day came to me and said,

ANDRÉS

I have two comments about the story.

DIEGO

Only two? Ok, tell me.

ANDRÉS

I like the story. It´s funny.

DIEGO

Cool.

ANDRÉS

And two, you should change the title. And I already have one for you.

DIEGO

Oh yeah? Let´s hear it.

Andrés took his time, a smirk on his face.

ANDRÉS

Maria y Juana.

Are you kidding me? I couldn´t have thought of that? That was genius! It made sense. In the era we are living in where women are empowered, well, let me contribute a bit to that, even if it is through a small, simple comedy. Usually when I write a good short, I find the people to direct it. But in this case, this was too personal, too much a part of my youth. I had to direct and produce this one. So first things first; I had to find the actresses to play the part. I also figured they had to be comedians. So I started searching everywhere in Bogotá for female comedians. There weren´t that many actually. I was surprised. This is a big city. 8+ million people reside here. I could only find 20 to 30 female comedians? Crazy.

Now the empowering thing became even more important. I must have spoken to a dozen young women

(age was an important factor). In one of the meetings, one of these girls actually told me, to my dismay, that she had thought about it and the truth is she couldn´t do it because of the perception this kind of character could bring upon her and her future career. I was surprised. For real? Ok, I understand. So I

didn´t give up. I kept on searching and finally I found them, and they were a comedic duo, and they were funny, and they loved to smoke a joint every now and then. Once I told them what my story was about, they fell in love with it. They even said to me, ¨we are Maria y Juana.´ How much better can this get?

TIME TO PRODUCE

Even before I wrote the script I knew where it would be filmed. Right here. El Parque de Usaquén (Usaquén Park).

A very cool, bohemian, old style, old buildings kind of neighborhood that has the relaxed, young and chic atmosphere that the story required. (Click on the picture above and you can see many pictures of the area.)

So location - Check! Actors - Check! Script - Check! Camera man, sound, props - Check! Director - Check! Shit, we were ready. But then, you know how it is, Mr. murphy showed up and fucked everything up. Yup, COVID happened. Everything came to a halt. Colombia and the world were overwhelmed by this epidemic. And that´s that. The dream of making this short died, right then and there.

The next post will continue the Maria y Juana saga. It´s a gonna be a good one! Thanks for reading.