Local director's film 'Comparsa' to make its New York debut at Woodstock Film Festival

Located about a dozen miles southwest of Guatemala City is Peronia City, or Ciudad Peronia. It was there in 2017 that 41 girls were burned alive and 15 others injured in a fire at a state-run “safe home.” The girls were between the ages of 13 and 17. This is the backdrop of a new documentary highlighting a local community arts center meant to provide a safe place for people to use art to express themselves. Doug Anderson and Vickie Curtis directed the film, “Comparsa,” which brings viewers through the fire and focuses on narrators who are putting together an event protesting gender violence. I spoke with Anderson ahead of the film’s New York Premier at the Woodstock Film Festival on October 16 and 18.  Anderson starts by setting the stage on how the film came to be.