MADRE Director Faride Schroeder’s Honest and Intimate Creations

MADRE director and writer Faride Schroeder speaks with Little Black Book about the sensitivity that runs through her work, helping underrepresented creators, and incorporating the ancestral healing practice “Temazcal” on set.

“Faride Schroeder is a Mexican writer and director, currently on the roster Stateside at Burbank-based production company MADRE. Her authentic slice-of-life portraiture and stylish cinematography has crossed genres and mediums - ads for the likes of Victoria Beer, a TV documentary with Eva Longoria, short films, and an upcoming feature film.

Growing up in Mexico with Lebanese, German and local indigenous heritage, Faride was surrounded by an international mix of cultural and creative influences - something she is now realising has shaped her outlook as a filmmaker. “It has given me an eclectic way of seeing things - my Mexican heritage has given me a good dose of surrealism and magical realism in my way of seeing things in cinema and audiovisual creation. And both Mexican and Lebanese cultures have deep roots in family and community, and are full of myths and legends.”‘There is a lot of richness, texture and multilayered meanings which have permeated the way I tell stories,’ she adds.

‘It’s also given me a social approach and made me question gender roles in society. From the German side, I’m less immersed, but I notice that I get super precise, demanding, and detail-oriented when working, just like my father and my grandfather, but it’s mixed with the fluidity of my other genes.’”

Read the full feature in LBB!