Odalys Nanin falls firmly into the second category.
I recently caught up with my friend and Hollywood Times colleague over Zoom to talk about her newest short film, Love and Other Devastations, a romantic comedy selected for this year’s Cinema Diverse: The Palm Springs LGBTQ+ Film Festival.
Odalys introduced herself as a writer, director and producer and proudly shared that Love and Other Devastations is the fourth short film she has written, directed and produced.
What followed was a wonderful conversation about love, loss, Latina lesbian representation, filmmaking and why, despite everything relationships can put us through, Odalys still wants us to believe that love is out there.
Love and Other Devastations did not begin as a film.
The story originated with Odalys’s play Lovestruck, which was later developed into a screenplay. She then decided to create a short film based on the screenplay as a way of introducing and promoting the planned feature.
“It’s about love and loss,” she told me, “And it’s about…the ups and downs of our relationship that we all go through.”
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But unlike her earlier award-winning film A Leap of Faith, which was more dramatic, this story gives Odalys a chance to have some fun with romantic comedy.
Visually, she wanted that unmistakable Southern California feeling.
The film was shot at a beautiful Hollywood Hills mansion, complete with a pool and jacuzzi, the kind of backdrop that practically announces Los Angeles before a character ever says a word.
The cast includes Gabriela Ortiz as Laura, Katie Patel as Rachel, Tricia Cruz as Catherine and Lisa Santiago as a waitress, actresses Odalys had worked with before.
What makes the film especially personal to Odalys is its focus on Latina queer women.
This is not new territory for her.
Odalys has been producing Latina lesbian plays since 2000 and founded Macha Theater Company, which she explained stands for Mujeres Women Advancing Culture, History, and Art.
She has also produced Lovestruck at the Odyssey Theatre and created Frida’s Stroke ofPassion: The Immersive Experience, which she hopes could eventually find a home at the Ford.
For Odalys, however, these are not simply productions.
They are part of a mission.
“It’s very important for me to tell these kind of stories, to tell the Latino lesbian experience,” she said. “It’s very close to my heart.”
She added something even simpler and more universal: “Love is love, no matter where, with who.”
That stayed with me.
We talk frequently about representation, but representation really begins when people from communities that have historically been underrepresented are able to tell their own stories in their own voices.
Odalys has been doing that for more than 25 years.
Later in our conversation, she summed up her role rather perfectly.
“I feel like I’m an ambassador.”
I think she is.
One of the most interesting things Odalys revealed is that the short film does something unexpected.
It starts at the end.
Love and Other Devastations is essentially a glimpse at the end result of the much larger feature-length story Odalys wants to tell.
The feature would go back and show us everything that led there: first love, falling in love, the honeymoon stage, moving in together, buying a house and discovering what happens when two people who are very different from one another try to create a shared life.
At the center are two women with very different personalities and cultural backgrounds.
One is Latina and passionate.
The other is more reserved and American.
“They’re very different, they want different things, but yet they’re attracted to each other,” Odalys explained.
I joked during our interview that the situation sounded familiar to a lot of relationships I know.
And that, of course, is exactly what makes it work.
Opposites attracting may be a familiar romantic idea, but the interesting part isn’t the attraction.
It is what happens afterward.
How do two people who feel such chemistry reconcile different personalities, expectations and ways of looking at the world?
That is where the love, and perhaps some of those devastations, begin.
Odalys is also part of the Hollywood Times family as a writer, so I was curious whether interviewing filmmakers and artists had influenced her own work.
She told me that when she interviews another writer or filmmaker, she sees herself as supporting that artist.
“I’m bringing their stories out and supporting their projects in a way,” she said.
Her own writing process, however, is far less structured.
Ideas sometimes come through dreams. Other times, inspiration simply arrives and she follows it.
She described writing almost as a “channeling experience,” where an idea comes to her and eventually becomes something she needs to put on the page. She also stressed the importance of having her work come from a foundation of truth and experience.
That individual voice matters, particularly because, as Odalys pointed out, there still are not many people consistently telling stories about the Latina lesbian experience.
Being selected for Cinema Diverse means much more to Odalys than simply adding another festival credit to her résumé.
For an independent filmmaker, being chosen tells you that someone connected with the work enough to put it in front of an audience.
Odalys described the selection as an honor and talked about the excitement of finally seeing her movie “on a big screen” instead of a tiny monitor.
Then comes another invaluable part of the festival experience: the audience.
There will be feedback, a Q&A and opportunities to meet other filmmakers. For Odalys, those encounters can lead to networking, but they can also provide something equally important, inspiration.
“When you get chosen to be part of a film festival, it’s almost like an inspiration to continue on, that you’re on the right track,” she said.
That sense of community is particularly appropriate at Cinema Diverse, where LGBTQ+ filmmakers and audiences have the opportunity to discover stories that might otherwise struggle to reach a theatrical screen.
I saved my favorite question for the end.
What did Odalys want people to feel after seeing Love and Other Devastations?
Her answer was immediate.
“I hope that they still believe in love.”
And then she expanded on what she meant.
She hopes people don’t give up on meeting their soulmate, not a perfect person, but someone with whom there is that difficult-to-explain chemistry and connection that makes the relationship special.
“There’s this chemistry and connection that makes it very special,” she said. “And I think that’s what love is about.”
Then came her final message:
“Don’t lose hope. There’s love out there for everybody.”
That feels like the perfect way to describe this film.
Yes, the title contains the word “devastations.”
Yes, relationships can be complicated.
People fall in love, disappoint one another, separate, reconnect, change and discover that the person they are attracted to may see the world very differently.
But Odalys Nanin hasn’t given up on love.
And she doesn’t want us to give up on it either.
That creative encouragement can be invaluable, particularly for independent filmmakers who spend so much time pushing projects forward without knowing exactly where the next opportunity will come from.
Cinema Diverse runs September 17–27, 2026 in Palm Springs. Tickets and festival passes are available through the Palm Springs Cultural Center/Cinema Diverse, with All Access and Six Pack pass options also available.
For me, Love and Other Devastations is another reminder of why voices like Odalys Nanin’s matter. She is telling a very specific story about Latina lesbian women while tapping into something nearly everyone understands:
The strange, wonderful, sometimes maddening and completely unpredictable business of falling in love.
And yes, despite the devastations, I think Odalys would tell us it is still worth it.
SCREENING INFORMATION: Love & Other Devastations screens Friday, September 25, 2026 at 12:00 noon as part of the “Shorts: Love and Loss” program in Theatre Three at the Palm Springs Cultural Center. The 74-minute shorts program includes Odalys Nanin’s 15-minute film.
Palm Springs Cultural Center
2300 E. Baristo Road
Palm Springs, CA 92262
Tickets and Cinema Diverse festival passes can be purchased through the Palm Springs Cultural Center/Cinema Diverse website. Cinema Diverse Schedule & Tickets
Cinema Diverse runs September 17–27, 2026.
