GOOD TALK WITH MICAELA SAXER

Micaela Saxer was born in Iquitos, Peru, on the legendary set of Werner Herzog's "Fitzcarraldo" (1982). In the 2000s Micaela worked for casting director Shaila Rubin in Rome. During that time she collaborated with Mrs. Rubin on productions such as: The Talented Mr. Ripley (Anthony Minghella), Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Doug Liman), Titus (Judy Tamor), Hannibal (Ridley Scott), The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson), La Vitaè bella (R. Benigni). After Rubin's death in 2006, Micaela decided to leave Rome and the film industry and take a year off in her birthplace: Iquitos, Peru. In 2007 she opened the Hotel - Restaurant "La Casa Fitzcarraldo" in the building where the production of "Fitzcarraldo" was housed between 1977 to 1982.

Micaela now lives between New York and Iquitos, where she works in independent film production. She has frequently collaborated as an associate producer with Nadia Szold's Cinema Imperfecta production company, Quentin Andre's Junk Productions, Pressman Films and recently with Radical Media in NYC. In the city of Iquitos, Micaela founded the production company Yacumama Films E.i.r.l. In 2019 she won the DAFO 2019 award for the Conservation of Audiovisual Works with the project "Sepa, Nuestro Señor de los Milagros". This documentary directed by her father Walter Saxer in 198, is the only audiovisual document about the Sepa penal colony.

Currently, Micaela is developing a documentary project “Down By These Rivers - Gloria” about the relationship between mother and daughter, focusing the camera on her own mother and maternal grandmother, both from the Peruvian Amazon. The project is co-produced with Felicitas Raffo's Argentinian production company CEPA Cine.

Micaela's most ambitious project is to transform "La Casa Fitzcarraldo" into a unique audiovisual creation and education center in the city of Iquitos. The objective of this project is to promote intercultural dialogue between Amazonia and the world through the use of film. Being the daughter of a Peruvian woman and a Swiss man, Micaela focuses all her work searching for dialogue between cultures, unpacking the difficult knots created by colonialism still very present today. Micaela believes that film can help heal ancient wounds through the use of the power of narrative.