NYWIFT Blog

By Sofiya Saykovska

Myrta Vida is an award-winning writer and independent filmmaker specializing in features, shorts, documentaries, and stage productions. She serves as a producer at 3DMC, the production company behind the John Cassavetes Award-winning feature Premature (2019) and the Sundance Award-winning hybrid documentary The Infiltrators (2019). Since 2010, Myrta has worked as a story consultant and script doctor for independent filmmakers worldwide.

A proud Army veteran from Puerto Rico, she earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and completed a conservatory program in screenwriting at the New York Film Academy, both with summa cum laude honors.

Additionally, she holds a certificate in sketch comedy writing from the Upright Citizens Brigade and was a 2022 Fellow with Third World Newsreel.

Get to know her in our latest interview!

A moment of serious levity at Tribeca. June 2024.

Can you describe your journey into NYWIFT and what initially drew you to join? What aspects of its mission or goals resonated with you the most?

The Big Studio System always made me feel “small” in rooms filled with and dominated by men, who saw me as useful but never as a potential equal. Over and over, I was made to feel like a Latina checkbox and, rarely, as a fellow creative. I was first told about NYWIFT by a male mentor – one of the few allies I’ve found in that system.

After attending my first NYWIFT networking event, my conviction deepened to become an independent filmmaker in my own right. I’ve consistently found community with so many fellow creatives who know what it means to be erased and rewritten. Yet, we’ve remained steadfast in the fight for equality, visibility, and safety via representation in all the roles that support media creation. Having NYWIFT provide us with essential tools to advance with joy and purpose has been such a boon.

How has being part of this organization influenced your professional growth and personal development? Are there specific skills or perspectives you’ve gained that have been particularly impactful?

I’ve had both meaningful, professional growth and joyful, personal development thanks to networking at NYWIFT events. I’ve established a healthy roster of fellow creatives, allies, and clients, while also making some amazing, new friends! Exercising that networking muscle is vital to one’s success as an indie filmmaker, as we often have mere seconds to nab someone’s attention.

Further, being surrounded and supported by my peers has given me a safe space, one in which I can use the shorthand of being a woman who’s survived this industry. This validates my survival, and emboldens me to continue fighting for those who’ve paved the path and/or are currently active with their own projects, and the generations to come.

At Tribeca’s AT+T Untold Stories lounge with SEEN Executive Producer Lauren Bennett, Writer/Director Dhwani Shah, and fellow Producer Rohi Mirza Pandya from RASA Film Group. June 2024

Your career spans a remarkable array of roles from writer and filmmaker to producer and story consultant. How did your journey begin, and what drives your passion across these different creative disciplines?

Nerd alert: I’ve always been a writer, first and foremost. I like to say that “writing is my passion, but production is my mission.” My journey as a filmmaker started almost 15 years ago, while I was working towards my MFA in Creating Writing and teaching a college-level English as a Second Language (ESL) class. A talented student from China asked me to doctor his script. I bought a copy of David Trottier’s The Screenwriter’s Bible, and we were off! Word-of-mouth led the way as I initially developed my roster of clients, all of them Independent Filmmakers too. I’ve now worked with folks from nearly every continent.

Meanwhile, my innate curiosity for all things filmmaking drew me to a wide range of jobs, from once being a background performer for Central Casting, to then working for a Casting Director. Even though I definitely have the “workaholic gene,” I truly never set out to do it all! But as any woman knows, especially women of color, the odds are still stacked against us. So I steadfastly learned to wear all the hats on Set to become a “Juana of All Trades.”

This was out of said curiosity, but also ambition and necessity. And in each role — Writer, Filmmaker, Producer, Consultant — I keep finding ways of helping others and myself in the process towards meaningful expression.

Sneaking a quick selfie on the fast-paced Set of the Proof-of-Concept Horror-Thriller Short Seen starring Kausar Mohammed, Written and Directed by Dhwani Shah, Produced by Myrta Vida. May 2024

As an associate producer for acclaimed projects like Premature and The Infiltrators, what do you find most fulfilling about your role in bringing these stories to life, and how does your background in creative writing inform your approach?

What I find most fulfilling about being an indie producer is the moment when the story that’s buried beneath layers of noise and expectation, finally breaks through. There’s a deep satisfaction in knowing that you helped clear the path so that the story could be seen —not diluted, not compromised, but whole.

As a writer, I sprinkle everything with the pixie dust of analogy and metaphor. I can’t help myself! This pushes my production approach into weaving territory: I’m the one who helps gather the threads, pulls them together, and makes sure nothing gets lost in the telling. I make sure the loom is strong, the threads don’t fray, and the design developed by the writer and director isn’t changed by outside hands who want to make it more “palatable.” My job is to help protect the authentic beauty of the story.

Congratulations on the recent nomination of your short documentary Second Responders at the 21 Islands International Short Film Fest! Can you tell us about the inspiration behind the film and its journey from concept to completion?

Thank you! Welp, at the horrible height of the pandemic, Julissa Delacruz, a fellow filmmaker and dear friend, asked about my experiences as a Veteran. (I proudly served Active Duty in the Army during 9/11.) She asked about PTSD symptoms, as she was concerned that her father, the Head of Security at a hospital, had become increasingly withdrawn. Turns out the hospital was St. John’s Episcopal, where the first reported case of COVID in NYC had been announced.

This sparked many a conversation about how doctors and nurses were praised – and rightfully so– as first responders. However, hospitals also have a complex ecosystem of staff and providers who were experiencing the horrors of the pandemic too: the janitors, the chaplains, the logisticians, and the security guards having to turn away aggrieved loved ones to protect everyone’s health, among others. Where were these people’s stories? Where was the lifeline and recognition for them?

We reached out to the hospital, and they were spectacularly cooperative and kept us safe. We stitched the story together over almost a year of heart-wrenching edits –maxing out our credit cards in the process! Another dear friend heard about my fear the story would not see the light of day, they reached out to their network, and connected us to Dr. Abigail Disney. Warm and supportive, Dr. Disney generously bestowed us with a merit grant that funded our multiple award-winning film festival run. Julissa and I are so proud of our “time capsule” documentary, and we’re ever grateful to all responders.

It’s a wrap! With Cast and Crew on the Set of the Spanish-language Dramedy Short Toda la verdad, Starring Pilar González, Written and Directed by Alex Vasquez Escaño, Produced by Myrta Vida. Feb 2024

Your work often intersects with social and cultural themes. How do you balance storytelling with advocacy or commentary in your projects, and why is this intersection important to you?

As a woman, as a child of the Puerto Rican diaspora, as a veteran, and especially as a creative, my life has always been marked by the ways the personal and the political intersect. I can’t see them as separate. The stories I tell are not just mine, they belong to my ancestors, to my people, to those who came before and those who will come after.

Because of my lived experience, I believe that storytelling and advocacy rely on each other. When I create, I’m not thinking, “How can I make a point?” or “How can I stick it to The Man?” The socio-political commentary is already in the air I breathe, in the way I’ve had to move through this world.

That’s why I also fiercely believe that the camera is a tool for truth. And the truth, especially for those of us who come from and live in the margins, is always tied to struggle. But it’s also tied to beauty, to resilience, to the unspoken connections within our intersectionality that keep us whole. When I tell – or help tell– a story, I’m honoring those connections. I’m not just shining a light on injustice, I’m also enthusiastically illuminating the fullness of our lives —the joy, the complexity, the love that is so often overlooked when people want to reduce “the other” to just our pain.

At NYWIFT’s FinanceHER event with NYWIFT’s CEO Cynthia López, and some founding members of NYWIFT’s and (Louis E. Perego Moreno’s) Prime Latino Media’s Estela Institute. June 2024

Looking forward, what are your aspirations for the future of your career, and are there any genres or themes you’re eager to explore next?

In terms of themes, I’m always drawn to the idea of “home” —what it means, where it is, who gets to claim it. There’s a difference between “wanting” to leave vs. “having” to leave one’s home. I want to explore what home looks like when it’s been fractured, when it’s been stolen, when you’ve had to build it out of pieces of you. And I want to explore “memory” —the way it shapes us and the way it can hold our trauma and joy, all at once.

My aspirations are not just for me but for the ones coming behind me, the ones beside me, the ones whose stories are waiting, pressing against the edges of the zeitgeist. I want to help create a space where those stories can come through, where they don’t have to fight for air, don’t have to twist and bend to fit someone else’s vision of what they should be. At the risk of sounding oh-so-dramatic: I want the doors off their hinges, and to blast open the gates! #NoMoreGatekeeping

…Also, conversely, an Oscar or two wouldn’t hurt

Connect with Myrta Vida on Instagram at @myrtavida and on LinkedIn. 

For more about Second Responders, click here.

Click for more on the horror-thriller proof-of-concept Seen (2024), currently in the Film Festival circuit.

For more on Myrta’s upcoming projects, click the respective name: Ruthie Joins A Deathcult (2025), and The Fruit Of Our Womb (2026).