Riverhead filmmaker and photographer provide free photographs and movies at downtown ‘Media Pop-Up’

Riverhead residents Rosario Rodriguez and Carlos Gonzalez are inviting group members to step in entrance of the digicam Friday night throughout a free “Media Pop-Up” at Victoria’s Helado on East Main Street.

Visitors can have knowledgeable portrait taken or document a brief video for gratis. The drop-in occasion is meant to present residents, households, mates and native artists entry to professionally produced pictures whereas creating an area the place individuals from totally different components of the group can meet and join.

Rodriguez, a 28-year-old filmmaker who has lived in Riverhead for about two years, stated the occasion displays her bigger curiosity in utilizing visible storytelling to characterize individuals and communities whose experiences are sometimes neglected.

“I want people to feel connected. I want people to feel united,” Rodriguez stated. “Really, I want them to feel special.”

Rodriguez will shoot the movies, whereas Gonzalez, her cousin and a fellow Riverhead resident, will take images. They plan to arrange a backdrop and their gear inside Victoria’s Helado. Participants could pose alone or with mates or household, and musicians and different artists are welcome to document brief clips they will use on social media.

Afterward, Rodriguez and Gonzalez will edit the movies and images and supply individuals with hyperlinks to their completed pictures.

No advance registration is required. People could cease in throughout the occasion and wait their flip if others are already being photographed or recorded.

Rodriguez, who grew up in Greenport after immigrating from Guatemala along with her household as a toddler, stated she turned eager about filmmaking as a result of she not often noticed Guatemalans and plenty of different communities represented in widespread media.

That curiosity expanded right into a broader need to inform the tales of individuals whose lives and work typically stay unseen, she stated, together with farmworkers. Rodriguez’s father labored for greater than 20 years in East End vineyards.

Rodriguez describes her work as specializing in “docu-narratives” that inform tales about individuals’s abilities, struggles and accomplishments.

“I focus on being able to share the stories of those that are untold,” she stated.

She started working in movie in 2017, when she acquired a scholarship to review directing by means of the Manhattan Film Institute. Since then, she has labored on films, commercials, documentaries and editorial initiatives.

Gonzalez, who grew up in Southold, has just lately begun pursuing images extra critically. The cousins have identified one another since childhood and determined to mix their associated pursuits for the pop-up undertaking.

The pair beforehand held a smaller outside media session close to the Peconic Riverfront, the place individuals posed for particular person and household images. Rodriguez stated some had been initially hesitant however turned extra snug because the session continued.

“They actually felt really great afterward when they left,” she stated.

Friday’s occasion is the second pop-up and the primary being held in partnership with a downtown enterprise. Rodriguez stated Victoria’s Helado welcomed the undertaking and its purpose of bringing individuals collectively.

She hopes to finally maintain comparable classes in partnership with different native companies and create further alternatives for younger adults and rising artists throughout the East End.

Professional images and video providers may be financially out of attain for working households and younger artists, Rodriguez stated. The pop-up provides individuals a chance to create one thing memorable with out worrying about the price.

It may additionally present aspiring musicians, performers and different creatives with a professionally produced picture or video that helps them promote their work.

Rodriguez stated younger adults on the East End ceaselessly lack reasonably priced actions and alternatives to attach after graduating from highschool or faculty. She hopes the pop-ups can finally change into a part of a broader inventive tradition that offers them one thing to take part in and stay up for.

“When I was a kid, something like this media pop-up session — we never had something like that,” she stated. “I want to bring opportunities to people, to new generations and the youth, so that they know that they are represented and that they also feel like they’re part of something.”

The undertaking can be rooted in a practice of sharing no matter assets can be found, Rodriguez stated. She recalled that her grandfather would distribute corn he harvested in Guatemala to different members of his group.

“With the little that you have, you share,” she stated. “I have this equipment, and I want to be able to provide a service to my community on the East End.”

Rodriguez stated the occasion is beginning small, however she hopes it could develop and encourage extra interplay amongst individuals who may not in any other case meet.

“Unity is a lot stronger than division,” she stated. “Even though we’re different, we can connect on the human aspect of it.”

The free Media Pop-Up will happen from 4 to 7:30 on Friday, July 24, at Victoria’s Helado at 37 East Main Street in downtown Riverhead. No registration is required.