Sebastián Leyva Save (’22) talks filmmaking and MAGIC HOUR with The Daily Wildcat

The cast and crew of “Guadalupe’s Last Chance.”
Mira French for The Daily Wildcat

University of Arizona School of Theatre, Film & Television senior Sebastián Leyva Save (BA, ’22) was recently interviewed about his filmmaking journey by The Daily Wildcat. Sebastián discussed how his love of filmmaking started, his path to university, and his final school project that will debut at MAGIC HOUR, a short film called Guadalupe’s Last Chance.

The film, which was co-written and produced by Sebastián with fellow TFTV student Sean-David Ta, is a romantic comedy centered around the title character Guadalupe, and her journey to confess her feelings to her best friend before it’s too late. “My goal of the film is to hopefully have a story that a lot of queer people of color resonate with,” Ta said.

The films leading actors are TFTV theatre student Melanie Moreno (BA, ’22) and local actor Amanda Lopez-Castillo. “It was probably one of the best college auditions I’ve ever done because they were just so prepared and knew what they were looking for … It was great. [Leyva Save], he’s such a visionary,” Lopez-Castillo said. “He had such a plan and knew what each character should be like and sound like.”

“Now that I’m about to graduate, I feel very confident with what I learned,” Leyva Save said. “I really want to get into the Mexican film industry … I grew up in Mexico and I was lucky enough to be able to go into this film program. … I really want to expand and grow the film industry in Mexico.”

Guadalupe’s Last Chance will premiere at MAGIC HOUR on May 10th at 7pm at The Loft Cinema. This is a free screening event.