The Next Spielberg?

When Luz Perez says she’s going to do something, you can write it down. Just 25, the second-year grad student at the University of Miami’s film school already has a track record of making her dreams come true.

"I'm very big on birthday candle wishes and random things of that sort,” Perez said. “Funny enough, every single birthday candle wish I've ever made has always come true. My first, I wanted to go to University of Florida. That was my birthday candle wish. I wanted to go to UF and I got in. But of course, all of these wishes are within my reach. They come with hard work as well. I got into UF. Oh my gosh, I was so happy. I wanted to be a drum major. That was my wish. For four years, I wanted to be drum major. Four times, that was my birthday candle wish. And I ended up achieving that goal. I was like, ‘Wow, what am I going to wish for next? Oh, I want to go to film school. I want to be accepted to film school.' I was accepted to two film schools, which was amazing. I didn't get into NYU’s film school, but everything happens for a reason. Now after I got into film school, I was like, ‘Well, what else is there to wish for?' I wanted to wish for a very specific award at a very specific film festival. And that was Best First Year Grad Student at the University of Miami Film Festival. And that was the one that I won. So, my birthday recently passed, and I did come up with a very good wish. But that one we don't say it just yet.”

Currently, Perez is working on her second documentary on the Bargain Basket, Marco Island’s wildly successful thrift store, a ministry arm of the United Church of Marco Island. Her first documentary about the Bargain Basket premieres January 19 with a private showing. Her mother Alejandra, a Bargain Basket volunteer, encouraged her high-achieving daughter to take on the challenge of telling Bargain Basket’s story.

“It's all because of my mom,” Perez said. “My mom is my best friend. All little girls say that about their mom. But it's very true when it comes to her. I hope to be a third, a little bit, of the person that my mom is. I always tell my mom that one day I'm taking you to the Oscars. We always make jokes about that. Our first red carpet together. But I always tell her, ‘Oh, it's going to happen.’ I was thinking about what summer projects I wanted to pursue in order to build my resume and eventually build my website with all of my work. And my mom's like, 'I think that you should make something about Bargain Basket.' My mom comes home every day with lots of stories about the Bargain Basket volunteers. And it intrigued me a lot. Stories about their lives growing up.

"One woman there was part of the Clinton administration. And Mrs. George Anne Draper, the librarian, intrigued me a lot. Bargain Basket is what it is because of the volunteers. It's a melting pot of a whole lot of different lives. I think the people are very humble there. It's very interesting to learn about people in that way. We have people who were nurses in New York and worked in emergency rooms and all of these very successful careers. That's not something that they would just tell somebody outwardly. I think it should be recognized a little bit more, so I'm hoping that that's what we get to do with the documentary.

"They always tell me that Bargain Basket is their happy place, and I don't think it fully hit me that it was a happy place until we were shooting the documentary and seeing the way they interact with customers, and then seeing the way that they work behind the scenes in the back. I didn't realize how much it's like the North Pole. It's like Santa and all his elves working back there. All the volunteers are very, very selfless people, dedicating so many hours to benefit the community."

Bargain Basket manager Bill Johenning, who Perez calls Mr. Bill, has had a profound positive influence on the young filmmaker.

"I talked to Mr. Bill about wanting to make a documentary highlighting their stories,” Perez said. "Mr. Bill has been very instrumental in helping me grow my portfolio. I feel very mentored by Mr. Bill. I think what makes him so special is that he took a chance on me. And I don't think he realized that he was taking a chance on me as I am a very new filmmaker. So, I'm very grateful for that. And the relationship I have with him now has become more casual. I see him more as a mentor and friend for my family and I. He knows us very well. The Bargain Basket documentary was the first doc that I have ever shot. I wasn't super sure how I was going to do it. But he and all of the volunteers were very patient with me, with how I was going to manage things. He helped me a lot with planning out the questions I was going to ask, what we wanted to make the story about. We made a documentary highlighting the stories of volunteers here and why people love Bargain Basket and what it means to them. So, it is a very sweet documentary. Now he's given me the opportunity to make a second documentary about the expansion of Bargain Basket, which is a little bit less story-based, less narrative, and more about following the timeline of the expansion of Bargain Basket. We started with the groundbreaking and we're going to interview some of the construction men.”

For his part, Johenning is flattered that Perez views him as a mentor.

"I didn't know that, but that's awesome to hear,” Johenning said. "I feel like she's got such a wonderful career ahead of her. She's so talented. I feel like we're super blessed to be in her company and having her support us. So, it's wonderful to hear that she sees me as a mentor to her. I see her great talent with the ability to really create this wonderful material that's heartwarming and connects with the viewer emotionally. It's really good stuff to see. She is an aspiring film student at Miami and came to us with an idea for a summer project. We're going to premiere the documentary at our annual meeting. It'll bring a tear to your eye. She did such a wonderful job with it. It really is completely amazing. And from that, I just reached back out to her, I said, ‘Hey, you know we've got this construction project going on. And how wonderful it would be if you could help us by documenting the process we're going through, because this will be lasting beyond our lifetimes.' So, we're just super blessed again to have her say that she would help us with this. I’m so excited to see the outcome of it. I know it's going to be wonderful. My role with her, I feel, is just to give her freedom. I feel like she's got wonderful creativity and vision, and I don't want to stifle that. So, I feel like my interaction with her is just to give her the broad perspective of what we're looking for and let her see the vision and bring it to life. She did such a wonderful job with the first film. I have complete confidence that she will do it again with this one. I'm more here just for information for her and guidance as far as the technical side of it and the informational side of it. The creative side is all her. Just kind of letting her run with it and giving her that freedom to do what she sees fit."

Perez feels the Bargain Basket plays an important role in the Marco community on many fronts.

"I think it's become one of those super well-known places,” she said. "It's honestly like a tourist attraction. Think about the highlight places for a tourist coming to Marco. Like, where should you go? You should go to the beach, you should go to the movies, or you should go to the Bargain Basket. It has definitely become one of those highlight top hits of Marco. Bargain Basket is growing because people are seeing this place as a highlight of Marco. And I think it's going to continue growing.”

Perez admires how the Bargain Basket helps the needy in the community. Perez recalls Bargain Basket helping her family while she was growing up.

“I would say growing up, we were definitely on the lower income side,” Perez said. “Definitely. I think it's probably very common for first-time parents with two young girls to struggle with money. It wasn't something I realized at the time. Probably until I got into middle school, high school age, I became more conscious of the world around me. I started to realize that my life was a little different than, say, my American friends who had families who came from a lot of money, especially here on Marco. I feel very, very lucky at the end of the day to have grown up on Marco. You don't choose where you're going to be born. You don't choose where you're going to live and what path your life is going to take the second you're born. But I'm very lucky that somehow the universe placed me here on Marco because it has given me the opportunity to connect with people at Bargain Basket, which has really helped me propel forward in my career and what I eventually want to do. My mom and I have been coming to Bargain Basket since I was a little, little girl. My mom would take us because we needed clothes. That was our space where we would get clothes growing up. This is where my mom would get our stuff. And it really, really helped us. I just have very fond memories with Bargain Basket. I have a lot of respect for this place, because this is the place that helped my parents financially. I mean, look at me now. I'm at UF and UM, and these are places that I'm able to afford thanks to the financial help that we got from Bargain Basket and the wonderful scholarships that I got growing up. Very fond memories. I always tell the volunteers here that I owe so much to the Bargain Basket because my childhood teddy bear, that I still have today, is from Bargain Basket. That's why we titled the documentary, Bargain Basket, Our Happy Place.”

As the years have passed, Perez has seen her parents’ lot in life improve. She knows that’s where she gets her drive to succeed.

“Definitely from my parents,” she said. "My dad's business, Octavio Boat Details, is growing and growing. My dad was very driven when I was a little girl, especially with his business, which he started from nothing. Now he has this great business with amazing clients. Boat detailing is a great career here on Marco Island. I help my dad out a lot with that. My sister and I are like his secretaries. We speak with his clients for him, making those appointments for him. It's like a family business. My mom spends a lot of time volunteering here at Bargain Basket.

"My parents are immigrants from Mexico, which is something I'm very proud of. And I think it feeds into why I'm so ambitious. The whole American Dream is very big for me. I think it's very common for children of immigrants to grow up with that driven background because we want our parents' sacrifices to mean something. That's something that heavily encourages me whenever I'm doing my schoolwork. I always think about all of the sacrifices and all of the efforts that my parents made financially, emotionally, everything in order for me to be at great schools like Florida and UM. I wouldn't be able to do any of that without my parents' support.”

Perez said her parents’ story motivates her.

“That's always in the very forefront of my mind,” she said. "I want to do it for them. I want to accomplish the life that maybe they couldn't have when they were younger because they were busy raising us and busy trying to find where our next meal was going to come from.

"I want to be the next Steven Spielberg, and it's going to happen. I always tell people it's not that I hope to do it. I know. I’m one of those people who, when I say I want something, I will get it. I'm very big on manifestation. I want it. I want it like I am that. So, I always tell people you'll see me at the Oscars. One day I will be there. I will be accepting an Oscar one day. So, yeah, that's me. I'm very inspired by female directors like Greta Gerwig. Directors of color like Jon M. Chu. I absolutely love the new Wicked movie. So, I'm inspired by stories that I resonate with."

Perez is not sure where she developed the belief in herself.

“That belief,” she said, "I don't know where it came from. I've always been a very big dreamer, a big manifester. My end goal is to work at a major studio like Netflix, Disney, Paramount, A24. Really, the first opportunity that I get, I'm going to grab it. Whether that's an editor, an assistant editor, a screenwriter, I have all of these different specialties that I’m working towards and whatever the first one is, that's going to be it. But my end goal is to work at a major production studio as an editor, a screenwriter, a director."

It was perhaps her time as drum major for the Pride of the Sunshine, the University of Florida’s marching band, that lit the fire for her desire to direct.

"I actually worked my way up to becoming the drum major, so I conducted the marching band,” she said. "I got to wear the nice uniform, and the whistle, everything. I was in the front. It was a great time and a great experience. I miss it dearly. It was incredible. I think I manifested that position very much. I remember getting accepted to UF and telling my whole friends and family, 'I'm going to be the next drum major. Watch me. In four years, that's going to be me.' But it was great. I developed a really great connection with the two directors. It was very surreal to conduct a 400-person marching band. I think it helped me a lot. The rehearsals and everything. It's, you know, I tweet and they go. I'm not necessarily in charge, of course, it's the directors. But I was the one in front of directing everybody. I think it helped me a lot, especially with what I want to pursue in the future. I'm very driven, determined, ambitious.”

Being drum major for the University of Florida band certainly developed self-confidence in Perez, whose kind, humble demeanor belies the fire that undoubtedly burns within her.

“Yes, it did,” Perez said. "Especially in the football games, it was go, go, go! We worked a lot with TV officials over the headsets. I didn't realize how choreographed and coordinated the football games were until I became the drum major. Having to coordinate when we play songs to line up with the commercial breaks and we can't play while they're actually filming on TV. It was a really interesting time. I really, really enjoyed it. It really makes sense as to why I'm going into this career, why I want to be a director, because I like to be the person that is in control of a production. That's like my favorite. I really enjoy being the one in charge. I liked being the one that is the leader, having the voice representing others.”