A lawsuit filed by former The Real Housewives of New York City star Leah McSweeney against Bravo, producer Andy Cohen and others involved in the hit franchise will proceed in federal court after a judge this week denied a request to move the case to private arbitration.
McSweeney broke her silence on the ruling in an Instagram Story on Tuesday, writing that it has been “emotionally and mentally draining” to discuss the case. She called the decision a “huge ruling” and noted that it has been a long two years since she first filed the lawsuit.
“Reality TV might look like entertainment, but behind the drama, there can be harmful misconduct that should never be normalized,” she said.
The suit alleges discrimination, a hostile work environment and claims that producers “nefariously” pressured her to drink on camera. According to the filing, despite being aware of McSweeney’s struggles with alcohol and mental health, top producers coerced and coaxed her into drinking while filming two seasons of The Real Housewives of New York City and a season of The Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip.
The complaint also targets Cohen directly, accusing him of playing favorites with castmembers who socialized with him.
“[Cohen] engaged in cocaine use with ‘Housewives’ and other Bravolebrities that he employs,” the suit claims, adding that he rewarded those individuals with more favorable treatment and edits.
Cohen has denied the allegations, previously calling the lawsuit a “shakedown” and rejecting claims that he encouraged substance abuse or used drugs with cast members. Bravo, Cohen and the production companies have also argued that McSweeney was an independent contractor — not an employee — and therefore not entitled to certain workplace protections.
McSweeney, who founded the fashion brand Married to the Mob, joined RHONY in 2019 for two seasons. She later appeared on the third season of The Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip, which aired in 2023.
In her filing, McSweeney describes what she calls a “rotted workplace culture” that depended on pressuring cast members to consume alcohol. The suit alleges that producers, with full knowledge of her struggles, “colluded with her colleagues to pressure Ms. McSweeney to drink, retaliated against her when she sought sobriety and intentionally failed to provide reasonable accommodations,” including transportation to AA meetings.
The civil trial centres on a class-action lawsuit filed just before Musk took control of Twitter, which was renamed X.
Published On 17 Mar 202617 Mar 2026
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Closing arguments are set to begin in a trial in the United States pitting Elon Musk against shareholders of Twitter, now known as X, who say the world’s richest man engaged in a pattern of deceptive behaviour that misled investors as he attempted to back out of his $44bn deal to buy the social media platform in 2022.
The arguments are set for Tuesday.
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The civil trial in San Francisco centres on a class-action lawsuit filed just before Musk took control of Twitter, which he later renamed, in October 2022, six months after agreeing to buy the embattled company for $44bn, or $54.20 per share. The price represents a fraction of the Tesla CEO’s fortune, now estimated at $839bn.
Much of the trial focused on Musk’s claims about the number of bots on Twitter. Musk testified, as he has long contended, that Twitter had a much higher number of fake and spam accounts than the 5 percent it disclosed in regulatory filings. He used what he called Twitter’s misrepresentation of the number of fake accounts on its service as a reason to retreat from the purchase.
After Musk tried to back out, Twitter went to court in Delaware to force him to honour his original deal. Just before that case was scheduled to go to trial, Musk reversed course again and agreed to pay what he had originally promised.
Bots and fake accounts
The problem of bots and fake accounts on Twitter was not new at the time Musk negotiated the deal. The company had paid $809.5m in 2021 to settle claims that it was overstating its growth rate and monthly user figures. Twitter also disclosed its bot estimates to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for years while also cautioning that its estimate might be too low.
But Musk claimed the number was much higher, at least 20 percent according to some analysts. Saying the bot number was at least this high was like “saying the grass is green or the sky is blue”, Musk said.
Twitter’s former CFO Ned Segal disputed this claim and said on the witness stand that the number was actually closer to 1 percent.
Asked if Twitter ever filed false filings to the SEC that misstated its spam numbers, Segal said it did not. But he mentioned that the company once restated its finances after it became aware of a mistake in its calculation of daily users. In 2017, Twitter said it had been overstating its monthly user numbers by mistake because it was including users of a third-party app it should not have.
On Monday, the two sides met to go over instructions to the jury. Judge Charles R Breyer noted that many in the jury pool had negative views on Musk. But, he added, a person who is “not universally liked” still deserves a fair trial, and should not be treated in a discriminatory or prejudicial way.
Beneath the labyrinthine salt caves and emerald mangrove forests of Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a different kind of architecture lies buried.
While tourists once flocked to this “open-air geological museum” to get a glimpse of its surreal rock formations, the world’s gaze is now fixed on what lies beneath the coral: Iran’s “underground missile cities”.
As the US-Israel war on Iran erupted, Qeshm has transitioned from a free-trade and tourist paradise to a front-line fortress – and the ultimate strategic prize for US Marines currently being deployed to the strait.
Its sheer size – approximately 1,445sq km (558sq miles) – allows it to physically dominate the entrance to the strait from the Gulf, acting as a cork in the world’s most vital energy transit passage.
These days, the island’s 148,000 residents – primarily Sunni Muslims who speak the unique Bandari dialect – live at the intersection of this ancient natural beauty and modern military tensions. Their lives are still dictated by the sea, which is celebrated every year during the Nowruz Sayyadi, Fisherman’s New Year, when all fishing stops to honour the ocean’s bounty.
But on March 7 – one week into the war – US air strikes targeted a critical desalination plant on the island. The strike, which Tehran branded a “flagrant crime” against civilians, cut off freshwater supplies to 30 surrounding villages.
In a swift retaliatory move, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched strikes against US forces at the Juffair base in Bahrain, alleging the attack on Qeshm had been launched from a neighbouring Gulf state.
Here is what we know about the strategic importance and history of the island.
A general view of Qeshm Island. Years of sanctions on Iran have taken their toll, but on the strategically located island, people can still find goods from major global brands otherwise out of reach [File: Atta Kenare/AFP]
‘Missile cities’ – the fortress in the strait
Today, the island’s modern industrial facade, bolstered by its status as a free trade-industrial zone since 1989, is overshadowed by its role as Iran’s “unsinkable aircraft carrier”.
Located just 22km (14 miles) south of the port city of Bandar Abbas, Qeshm dominates the Clarence Strait, also known as Kuran, and acts as the primary platform for Iran’s “asymmetric” naval power, say analysts.
While exact figures regarding the number of Iranian fast-attack boats and coastal batteries hidden within the island’s subterranean labyrinths remain heavily classified, their strategic intent is clear. Retired Lebanese Brigadier-General Hassan Jouni, a military and strategic expert, told Al Jazeera that Qeshm houses “striking Iranian capabilities” within what is described as an underground “missile city”. These vast networks, Jouni said, are designed for one primary purpose: to effectively control or close the Strait of Hormuz.
This, they have successfully done. Shipping traffic through the strait was effectively halted last week when Iran threatened to strike ships attempting to pass.
Now, only a handful of ships carrying vital oil and gas supplies to the rest of the world are being allowed through, as countries scramble to negotiate deals with Iran for their own tankers and as the administration of United States President Donald Trump attempts to assemble a naval convoy of warships to forcibly open the waterway.
As Qeshm becomes the focal point of a 21st-century energy war, however, its silent salt caves and ancient shrines serve as a reminder that while past empires and military coalitions like those of the Portuguese and British have eventually faded, the geological fortress of the strait remains anchored in the turbulent tides of history.
Iranians collect drinking water at the Tala (Gold) Wells in Laft village on Qeshm Island in February 2001. The area contains 366 wells, the number of days in a leap year, which were dug approximately 2,000 years ago [File: Henghameh Fahimi/AFP]
An island of many names
Known in Arabic as Jazira-al-Ṭawila (the Long Island), Qeshm’s identity was forged by a succession of empires.
According to the Encyclopaedia Iranica, Greek explorer Nearchus referred to it as Oaracta and saw the legendary tomb of Erythras, the namesake of the Erythraean Sea, there. By the ninth century, Islamic geographers were referring to it as Abarkawan, a name later folk-etymologised as Jazira-ye Gavan or “Cow Island”.
The island was deemed so strategically important that the rulers of Hormuz moved their entire court there in 1301 to escape Tartar attacks. For centuries, it served as the “water barrel” of the region, providing vital drinking water to the arid Kingdom of Hormuz on the eastern side of the Gulf.
The island’s wealth was so legendary that in 1552, Ottoman commander Piri Reis raided it, seizing what contemporary accounts described as “the richest prize that could be found in all the world”.
The island’s colonial history is equally turbulent.
The Portuguese built a massive stone fort on Qeshm in 1621. And a year later, a combined Persian and English force expelled the Portuguese from that fort in a battle that claimed the life of Britain’s famed Arctic navigator William Baffin.
By the 19th century, the British had established a naval base at Basidu (Bassadore), which remained a hub for the British Indian Navy until 1863. It was not until 1935 that the British coaling station was finally abandoned at the request of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the then-shah of Iran.
A museum under fire
Beyond the military watchtowers and the IRGC’s underground silos, Qeshm remains one of the most ecologically diverse locations in the Middle East. It is home to the Hara mangrove forest, a vital breeding ground for migratory birds, and the Qeshm Geopark – the first of its kind in the region to be recognised by UNESCO, an honour it attained in 2006.
Two women on paddleboards are seen relaxing in the quiet waters of Hara mangrove forest on Qeshm Island [File: Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images]
The island’s landscape includes:
The Valley of Stars: A complex network of canyons and rock pillars carved by millennia of erosion. Local legends claim the valley was formed by a falling star that shattered the earth.
Tourists visit the Valley of Stars, one of the sightseeing centres on Qeshm Island in the Gulf off Iran’s southern coast [File: Atta Kenare/AFP]
Namakdan Salt Cave: One of the world’s longest salt caves, stretching for more than 6km (3.7 miles). Its crystalline formations are hundreds of millions of years old, containing some of the purest salt in the Gulf.
Chahkooh Canyon: A deep, narrow corridor of limestone and salt, where vertical walls create a natural cathedral of stone.
A view of Chahkooh Canyon, which attracts domestic and foreign tourists, located on Qeshm Island in Hormozgan province [File: Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images]
Applause Entertainment, the Aditya Birla Group content studio behind “Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story” and “Criminal Justice,” has struck an exclusive partnership with Indian microdrama platform Story TV to co-produce and distribute a new slate of short-form content for mobile audiences.
The collaboration will span multiple genres, with Story TV also acquiring rights to Applause’s romantic-thriller series “Hello Mini” to adapt into a vertical microdrama format.
Launched in July 2025 by the Eloelo group, Story TV has grown rapidly in India’s nascent microdrama sector. The platform, which publishes episodes roughly one minute in length, says it has drawn more than 50 million users and built a catalogue of over 1,000 titles in the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages. Sensor Tower data cited by the company places it second among entertainment apps by global downloads.
“As an early entrant into microdramas in India we are at the forefront of blending storytelling and technology to expand this emerging format into mainstream territory,” said Saurabh Pandey, founder and CEO of Story TV. “Our partnership with Applause Entertainment will further expand the audience of microdramas with a focus on premium storytelling that is yet to be seen in the India microdrama and entertainment industry.”
Prasoon Garg, chief business officer at Applause Entertainment, described the tie-up as a measured entry into a format the studio is still evaluating. “As newer storytelling formats like microdramas gain momentum, we see value in engaging with them through meaningful collaborations,” he said. “Our unique partnership with Story TV enables us to explore this emerging space alongside a platform that has demonstrated strong understanding of the format and its audiences, while we continue to assess its creative and viewer potential.”
Applause, led by media veteran Sameer Nair, has established itself as a premium drama producer for platforms including Netflix, JioHotstar, Prime Video, Sony LIV and ZEE5, with credits including “Black Warrant,” “The Hunt” and “Undekhi.” The studio has also moved into theatrical films and documentaries, and recently launched a children’s animation channel, “ApplaToon,” on YouTube.
Hed: AI, Cross-Border Collaboration and Global Content Strategies Explored at FilMart Forum Dek: Industry executives from Huace, Youku and TVB discuss cross-border storytelling, technology integration and shifting audience dynamics. Art: 0317 Forum@ FilMart
Industry executives and producers gathered at Hong Kong FilMart for the Forum on International Communication Cooperation and Innovation for a New Vision, held on the market’s opening day. Organized by the International Cooperation Department of China’s National Radio and Television Administration and co-hosted by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the session focused on strategies for expanding content distribution, scaling production and positioning Asian projects for international audiences.
Karen Fu, CEO of Huace Group, addressed the growing role of artificial intelligence in film and television production, noting that while Hollywood continues to prioritize a content-driven model, Asian creators may benefit from combining Eastern and Western storytelling approaches as they develop more globally oriented strategies.
The session, titled “Dual-Track Breakthroughs in Content,” brought together speakers from TVB, Youku, Trinity CineAsia and other media companies to discuss evolving industry dynamics.
Panelists pointed to a shift from traditional cultural export toward more integrated global content ecosystems, where scale, audience reach and platform traffic are increasingly tied to long-term value. Co-production models and technological integration were highlighted as key to building sustainable international partnerships and expanding storytelling possibilities.
Across the discussion, speakers also emphasized the importance of emotional resonance in cross-cultural communication, noting that successful international storytelling depends on identifying shared human experiences while navigating differences in cultural context.
Lina Zhang, chief editor at Youku, said the use of artificial intelligence is currently most effective in optimizing production workflows and technical processes, but emphasized that content remains the primary driver.
“As long as the story is strong, AI can support creators in connecting with audiences,” she said. Cedric Behrel, director and co-founder of Trinity CineAsia, the leading European distributor of Asian cinema, added, “Audience behavior has changed significantly since the pandemic. Screen consumption now extends beyond film and TV to gaming and social platforms, reshaping how we engage audiences.”
Denon is addressing an omission in its current turntable lineup: Bluetooth streaming. With the new DP-500BT, the company combines refined design, analog sound and high-resolution wireless connectivity. With its semi-automatic operation and switchable phono preamp, this model has the features to suit beginners and experienced vinyl listeners alike.
The DP-500BT has a belt drive system, a balanced S-shaped tonearm and an aluminum die cast platter. There’s also a pre-installed moving magnet (MM) cartridge with a CN-6518 stylus and a built-in preamp that can be disabled in favor of a more robust external unit or powered speakers. Semi-automatic operation combines auto lift with playback stop to simplify the listening process for both novice and advanced vinyl lovers. This feature also protects both the stylus and your records.
In terms of design, Denon says it took inspiration from its DP-3000NE turntable for the DP-500BT. The similarities are clear, but more importantly, this decision gives the new $899 model a much more refined look compared to the company’s more affordable record players. The DP-3000NE is a $2,799 turntable, after all.
Bluetooth streaming is what sets the DP-500BT apart in the Denon lineup. Here, you’ll have the option of aptX, aptX HD and apt Adaptive when you need to streaming wirelessly to speakers or headphones. This turntable also works with the company’s HEOS amplifiers and Home speakers, which allow for multi-room audio while listening to that record collection.
The DP-500BT is available today from Denon and other retailers for $899.
With risk appetite recovering in global financial markets, Bitcoin ($BTC) has surpassed the $75,000 level for the first time in a long time. Major altcoins, including Ethereum (ETH), are also showing signs of recovery. Ethereum rose 6.2% in the last 24 hours to $2,330, while XRP increased by 9% to $1.56.
While this increase is attributed to strengthened risk appetite stemming from a combination of factors in the market, such as the recovery in the Nasdaq index and the fall in oil prices, 10x Research CEO Markus Thielen shared his latest analysis.
According to the analyst, the rise in $BTC is due to increased put option sales and liquidations in the options market.
According to Markus Thielen’s analysis, Bitcoin’s recent upward trend was triggered by options traders closing their put positions.
According to CoinDesk, Thielen believes the rally was influenced by a structural shift in put options trading between $55,000 and $60,000.
“The recent rise is largely due to the closing of put options with strike prices of $55,000 and $60,000, as their probability of being realized at expiry has decreased.”
Put options are a hedge against price declines, and investors typically buy them when they expect a market downturn. In this context, a decrease in put options also signals a decrease in expectations of a market decline.
In this context, Thielen noted that during the sharp decline in February, investors heavily purchased put options to hedge against downside risk. However, as the market stabilized, the probability of these options being in the money at expiration decreased, leading investors to close their put positions.
Thielen argues that this process creates upward momentum, as closing put options reduces selling pressure from market makers managing their risks, forcing them to buy $BTC to rebalance their positions, which could ultimately push the $BTC price higher.
Bitcoin and altcoins are experiencing a significant recovery amid the ongoing US-Iran conflict. Bitcoin has surpassed $75,000, and the effects of this rise are also being seen in Ethereum and other altcoins.
$ETH surged to $2,350, while other major altcoins saw daily gains of up to 10%. With a bullish sentiment prevailing in the market, cryptocurrency analytics company Santiment recently revealed the most popular altcoins in the crypto world.
According to Santiment, investors showed strong interest in altcoins such as Bitcoin ($BTC), Ethereum ($ETH), Solana ($SOL), Bittensor ($TAO), Fetch.ai ($FET), and Nexo ($NEXO).
Bitcoin led the trending cryptocurrencies in the last 24 hours, surprisingly followed by $ETH, $SOL, $TAO, $FET, and $NEXO.
According to social media data, the most popular cryptocurrencies driving market trends on social media were:
Bitcoin: Trending due to large-scale, institutional $BTC accumulation, as reported by MicroStrategy.
Ethereum: Trending due to institutional staking and spot ETF inflows linked to recent product launches and large company acquisitions. BlackRock’s launch of its $ETH staking ETF, increased ETF inflows, staking yields, large $ETH purchases by miners and firms, and the resulting price increase are fueling discussions.
Solana: Solana is trending due to high-profile NFT issuances, increased on-chain activity, new DeFi protocol launches, high yields compared to Ethereum, and lower fees.
Bittensor: Trending due to its revamped AI token narrative and price increase. Social media posts promote $TAO as an open-source and independent/enterprise AI infrastructure.
Fetch.Ai: Like $TAO, it’s trending due to its revamped AI token narrative and price increase. Weekly percentage gains reaching double and triple digits are fueling the conversation.
Nexo: With cryptocurrency company BlockFills filing for bankruptcy, Nexo is listed as a creditor with $4.746 million in unsecured promissory notes. This is a major focus of discussion, raising concerns about transparency regarding the status of $NEXO token payments.
Producer Macdara Kelleher has been basking in the glow of his homeland’s successes this past week, as a diverse range of Irish filmmaking talent shares the spotlight around the Academy Awards.
The founder of Dublin-based Wild Atlantic Pictures served as executive producer on Richard Linklater’s critically acclaimed biographical drama Blue Moon, helping facilitate both the use of locations around the city and the facilities at Ardmore Studios in Wicklow, about an hour from the Irish capital.
Kelleher has been in town to support the film‘s star Ethan Hawke, nominated for Best Actor for his portrayal of lyricist Lorenz Hart, and best original screenplay nominee Robert Kaplow. Joining him for the big night were Jessie Buckley, who would go on to win best actress for Hamnet; VFX artist Richard Baneham, who took home a statuette for Avatar: Fire and Ash; and the team behind The Retirement Plan a nominee in the best animated short film category.
Best animated short Oscar nominee The Retirement Plan.
Screen Ireland
In a call ahead of the ceremony, Kelleher pointed to the 2022 nomination of Colm Bairéad’s The Quiet Girl (An Cailín Ciúin) — the first Oscar-nominated film in the Irish language — as a watershed moment, and credited systematic state support for what’s followed.
“We’re on a run,” he says. “We’re probably one of the most fortunate countries in Europe in terms of the level of support we have. That support is really about taking you from that first film and — if you’re lucky — taking your filmmaking beyond that.”
He cites director Lee Cronin, with whom he’s currently developing a remake of The Mummy at Warner Bros., as a case in point. “Screen Ireland supported his first film,” he says, referring to 2019’s The Hole in the Ground. “And now here we are in Hollywood at Warner Bros. working on a blockbuster. They’re a vital lifeline.”
The awards season has put a very public face on what’s become known as the “green wave” of Irish cinema — but back home, the industry appears to be in rude health regardless. Screen Ireland reports that last year saw a record-breaking €544 million ($624 million) in production spend invested in the Irish economy, a 26 percent year-on-year rise. Between 2021 and 2024, the organization itself invested more than €120 million ($138 million) across film, TV drama, animation and documentary, supporting more than 116 feature films, 64 TV series and 120 short films.
“In Ireland, the arts and culture are so highly valued and we have a depth of creative talent across so many different art forms — certainly cinema, but also literature, music, theatre,” says Désirée Finnegan, chief executive at Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland. “That individual creative talent, that kind of craft and artistry, has been central to the success in recent years. The screen art budget has also significantly increased over the last five years thanks to sustained government investment, and that has definitely enabled us to increase our investment levels across the board in talent development.”
On the incentives side, Ireland’s Section 481 scheme offers a tax credit of up to 32 percent on eligible Irish expenditure. This year’s budget also introduced a new 40 percent relief rate for productions with a minimum of €1 million ($1.1 million) in eligible VFX spend — a nod to one of the industry’s fastest-growing sectors. Recent beneficiaries have included Marvel (WandaVision, Spider-Man: No Way Home), Netflix (The Irishman) and HBO (Game of Thrones). Local production companies have also partnered with Disney (Disenchanted), Netflix (Wednesday), Universal (Abigail) and Sony (The Pope’s Exorcist). To help facilitate co-productions, Screen Ireland opened its first U.S. office, in Los Angeles, in 2019.
“We’ve always maintained that our true resource is the creative talent we have here in Ireland,” says Finnegan, “and that’s definitely often cited by the studios that come here and the key decision-makers in explaining why they come to shoot in Ireland or co-produce with Ireland.”
That talent pipeline has been deliberately built. Screen Ireland’s various training and development initiatives placed more than 18,000 people in jobs between 2021 and 2025.
“These schemes that Screen Ireland have set up to develop the talent have an enormous impact — it’s not happening by accident that the Irish film industry is getting this level of success,” says Julianne Forde of Dublin-based Tailored Films, whose credits include the Ali Abbasi-directed The Apprentice, which received two Oscar nominations last year.
This week, Forde and her producing partner Ruth Tracey traveled from Dublin to the U.S. for the world premiere of Damian McCarthy’s horror film Hokum, starring Adam Scott, which screens at SXSW on March 14. The film was shot entirely in Ireland.
Adam Scott in Hokum.
Screen Ireland
“Something that a lot of Irish projects have in common is that we’re quite commercial leaning in terms of the approach,” says Forde. “And Screen Ireland is a fantastic funder because they’re aware of the commercial realities of trying to finance a film and they will finance films that have a lot of commercial money in them too. They’ve really put in the work, and I think the success of the nominations at the Oscars this year is an overnight success that’s been 20 years in the making.”
Co-directors Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig mix cinema vérité, Super 8 footage, and stylized scenes into a cocktail where machismo and queerness come together.
“We meet macho cowboys who have come out of the closet and a flamboyant diva who effortlessly takes the bull by the horns,” notes the CPH:DOX website, calling Jaripeo “a sensual exploration of performative masculinity, secret desires, and the longings that breathe beneath the surface of a rodeo show.”
Cinematography for the film was handled by Josué Eber Morales and Gerardo Guerra, editing by Analía Goethals, and the sound by Maria Rojas. Music is courtesy of Emilia Ezeta and Marton Radics.
The co-directors and producer Sarah Strunin spoke to an appreciative Copenhagen audience after a screening early this week.
Mojica was asked about their use of Super 8 footage, sharing: “I’ve always loved film and its texture, and once we talked about making the film, I just ordered a little Super 8 camera online, for something like 20 bucks.” They described is as playing the role of a “magnifying glass” for the queer eye. “That camera was in my hand the entire time,” they said. “I hope you notice it’s not actually a queer rodeo, but a very traditional macho rodeo. And the function of the camera is to show you the details, this coded language that exists, and all the gay [stuff] that’s happening.”
Jaripeo’s stylized, almost music video-ish, sequences also fulfill a key purpose. “It was a way to portray the queer subconscious,” Mojica explained.
Zweig emphasized how the visuals allow to bring out the mix of a “celebration of queerness in this film, but also a lot of hidden desire,” adding: “These things are happening on the margins of of this very straight place.” The filmmakers goal: “To embody this experience, these emotions, without doing it in an exploitative way, but doing it in a way where people felt empowered by the scene.”
With Jaripeo focusing on the male queer experience, the creative duo was also asked about a potential queer female perspective. “We are also friends with all the lesbians in town, and they were in the shoots and they are in some of the footage,” Zweig explained. But the film team didn’t want to superficially incorporate the lesbian experience. Concluded Zweig: “I actually have thought a lot about going back and going into their stories in a separate project.”
Mojica shared that they originally didn’t plan to expose their personal life as much as they did for Jaripeo. “I definitely did not expect to have my personal story be a part of this,” they shared. “I really didn’t want to be in the film at first, but then listening to the process – we took four years to make this film – and listening to what it means,” they did end up doing so.
