The event was held as part of the agenda for Communications Month.
By Institutional Communications
What began as a creative exploration more than a decade ago has become an internationally recognized film production. This Island (2025) is a film project that portrays the resilience of two young Puerto Ricans in the face of the violence they experience on the island. The project was the focus of a discussion held with students and faculty at the Ferré Rangel School of Communication during Communications Month.
The event featured Lorraine Jones Molina and Cristian Carretero, co-directors, co-producers, and co-writers of This Island, as well as Kisha T. Burgos Sierra, co-writer and professor of Audiovisual Production and Film at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón. During the session, they addressed the creative process behind the project, the research involved in writing the screenplay, and the challenges of filming.
Jones Molina, who is also a Sagrado alumna, spoke about how the original idea emerged around 2013, when she and Carretero began exploring the narrative concept of the “coming-of-age” as a framework to engage with issues facing contemporary issues in Puerto Rico. A year later, the project premiered as a short film, serving as an experiment that helped determine filming locations later on and to refine the development of the rest of the story.
Student of Audiovisual Production and Film
As part of the project’s development, the co-directors highlighted their participation in the Tribeca Works in Progress program as a key opportunity to receive industry feedback while the project was still underway. Since its premiere as a feature film, This Island has been recognized at the Tribeca Festival with awards for “Best Cinematography in a U.S. Narrative Feature” and “Best New Directors,” as well as a “Special Jury Mention for Best U.S. Narrative.”
In addition to the creative and production processes, students also showed interest in topics such as the challenges of film distribution in Puerto Rico—an area that Jones Molina and Carretero are actively navigating for their own project. Carretero explained that the distribution process has evolved, noting that “the cinema experience will have to change to become one that brings people together in an exchange of ideas,” rather than simply competing. Meanwhile, Burgos Sierra concluded by emphasizing the importance of supporting Puerto Rican artists in “an industry that is being built through self-management.”
Those interested in supporting the project can now watch Esta Isla in theaters across Puerto Rico, as well as in the cities of Chicago, Miami, and New York.