Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina

The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC)

Making good credit gripping

Author: Danny Hooley; Staff Writer

Edition: Final
Section: Arts & Entertainment
Page: G1

DURHAM--Dilsey Davis, director and producer of the educational Spanish-language soap opera "Nuestro Barrio," tried her best not to appear unnerved as a quick series of little disasters ate up precious seconds.

Cast, crew and extras had arrived at the Latino club Montas Lounge about 8:30 on a Sunday morning for the 11th day of a 12-day shooting schedule, all of it on weekends. That's all the time they had to film three new episodes.

The Montas scene centered on an aspiring young deejay named Federico (played by Rida Perez Saldazar) and his boss and future benefactor, the manipulative club owner Salvador (Jan Notzon). Davis' photography crew began the shoot with some "cutaway" dance and performance shots for the scene featuring local singer Angelica Vargas.

Frustrations began to pile up. First, a group of dance extras wouldn't pipe down to hear Davis' directions ("Quiet!"). Then the CD skipped. Then the sound system was too loud. After one last trip to the deejay booth to fix the latest problem, Davis brushed off a friend's attempt to give her a shoulder rub.

"I seem to be having trouble communicating today," she said before turning her attention back to two playback monitors.

But 15 minutes later, they had nailed the scene, to Davis' great relief: "We're all great!"

"Nuestro Barrio" looks and feels like a telenova, one of those popular sexy melodramas on Spanish-language TV. But Davis, a non-Spanish speaker whose scripts are translated, uses the format to educate Hispanics about home ownership, credit and predatory lending. The lessons are doled out with what her director of photography Alton Chewning called "the lovey-dovey stuff."

"Since Spanish-language soap operas are so big, she chose to do it with a soap opera," said Chewning.

The story centers on a restaurant inspired by the Latin Grill in Downtown Durham, where footage for much of the first four episodes was shot before it closed a couple of weeks ago. Some of the lovey-dovey stuff comes in when the two grown sons of restaurant owners Manuel and Marisol fall in love with Dr. Maria Hayden, who is in the midst of a divorce. Oh, yeah -- the estranged husband still hangs around, and he's still in love with her. Of course.

"Nuestro Barrio" premiered on Time Warner Cable channel 24 in April. The pilot episode dealt with housing issues: Hayden, a newly single woman trying to buy a home, is steered away from a particular neighborhood because of her race.

Outside the Triangle, the episode aired on a handful of other North Carolina cable channels and at fair housing conferences around the United States. Mortgage underwriting company Freddie Mac got wind of "Nuestro Barrio" and offered to fund three more installments. Davis said she intends to shop those around among distributors such as Telemundo as a way to continue the series.

If that happens, she hopes to rebuild the Latin Grill set, probably in a vacant warehouse in Research Triangle Park.

Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable 24 will begin airing the three new episodes by spring 2005. Those will also be available next year in DVD form, complete with guide books addressing all the topics. And in March, they'll premiere as a "movie" at Durham's Carolina Theatre.

Unusual credentials

Davis, who is "in her early 30s," graduated in 1994 from Duke University as a pre-med student before catching the "acting bug," which led her to study in New York and appear in films including 1998's "Target Earth," a staple of The Sci-Fi Channel. She also has a master's degree from the UNC School of Public Health, where she watched a lot of educational videos on health issues.

"They were very boring," she said. "PowerPoint presentations on film, is what I call them. If I'm in the health field, and I can't stand to watch this, imagine what the average lay person feels when they're watching this stuff."

So she set out to make an educational series that people would want to watch when she began working a couple of years ago as director of media advocacy for the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina (CRA-NC). Located in downtown Durham, CRA-NC is a nonprofit organization that monitors the lending practices of financial institutions and promotes building wealth in minority communities.

One of Davis' early efforts, "Payday Lending: The Musical," was, for the most part, a rap video.

Davis said "Nuestro Barrio" was inspired in part by the friendly atmosphere at Latin Grill. Other Triangle locations for the series include a North Durham home, a bank, Boyette Automotive on U.S. 70, J&R Garage on Durham's Rigsbee Avenue, Duke Hospital and Montas, on East N.C. 54 in Research Triangle Park.

Pilar Montas, co-owner of Montas, lets Davis and crew use her place free. Montas, who volunteers as a translator for a consumer protection agency, said many Latinos fall prey to shabby treatment when buying cars and homes because they are not aware of protections.

"The abuses are totally outrageous," she said, "because they don't know what their rights are."

Art as activism

Some of the actors also are motivated by social concerns. Rida (pronounced Reh-za) Perez Saldazar, 19, came to the U.S. from Argentina about six years ago. Thanks to the encouragement of a drama teacher, he began acting in plays at Jordan High School in Durham before he could even speak English.

After graduating in 2003, Saldazar went to work for a nonprofit organization that helps Latino youth stay in high school, stay out of trouble and gangs, and avoid unwanted pregnancies. Next year, he's off to New York to study acting.

Saldazar said he is still learning about his character Federico. Basically, he's an energetic, well-meaning young man who goes overboard with credit, buying watches, clothes and drinks at the club for his friends.

"He doesn't really know how a credit card works," Saldazar said. "He's just spending and spending and spending ..."

Jan Notzon, 53, a veteran actor who has appeared on "Another World" and "Search for Tomorrow," said he approves of the show's intent but that he was actually drawn to it artistically. People will get the point, he said, because they are paying attention, not because the messages are heavy-handed.

"This is well-written," said Notzon, who does local theater and voice-over work, and directs commercials. "The characters are not cardboard at all."

Caption:
Neal Sugg, left, and Alton Chewning, seated, film Angelica Vargas for an episode of 'Nuestro Barrio,' a locally produced soap opera that uses drama to spread lessons about good finances and warnings of predatory lending to Spanish-speaking audiences.

Staff Photos by Sher Stoneman