Borderland filmmaker releases latest film, 'The Empty Space'
Leah Romero
LAS CRUCES – “Everything’s gonna be OK.”
Characters uttering those four words is how Borderland’s Andrew Jara’s latest film, “The Empty Space,” begins and ends.
“The Empty Space” is a horror film that tackles grief and anxiety depicted by the film’s main character, Aimee, after a fatal attack on her boyfriend.
The making of ‘The Empty Space’
The 78-minute-long film was written and directed by Jara, originally from El Paso, who is a New Mexico State University graduate and currently works as a film liaison for Film Las Cruces. The movie stars Valerie Alene as the lead, Marlon Lewis (“The Hound”), Rachel Olsen (“Billionaire Boys Club,” “Dinner for Six”) and Joe Sinclitico (“Borderland,” “Big Boy’s Big Brawl”).
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Jara explained that the film was inspired by his own personal struggle with anxiety.
“I guess I always had anxiety … and it took me a long time to admit that I had anxiety,” Jara said. “One of the reasons was because the depiction that I saw in movies and on TV, it was like someone who had been, you know, they’re always in their room like just under the covers.”
He said once he got a better handle of his mental health, he wanted to channel his experience creatively. Jara said it took about a year and a half to write and tweak the script and another 18 months to raise the money for production.
When filming finaly started, Jara said he chose areas in El Paso and Las Cruces for the background. Viewers will recognize Downtown El Paso and Las Cruces’ Coas Bookstore in particular.
Filming took place over 24 days in 2018 and postproduction took about six months. Jara said the team was just about to join the film festival circuit with the movie when COVID-19 shut down all planned events across the country.
“We just took that year off. And then the second year, they were starting to come back but as we were talking to these festivals, they were saying that … they weren't doing feature films that year there was only shorts because they were used to having two weeks and (the event) was bogged down to like a weekend,” Jara said.
However, “The Empty Space” did win Best Feature in 2020 at the Sacramento Horror Film Festival.
BayView Entertainment went on to acquire the film in 2022 but waited to formally premiere the movie in May 2023. Jara explained that the company also distributed his previous short films.
Film debut, release in Las Cruces
Jara was finally able to share his feature film with his borderland community when it premiered at the Rio Grande Theatre on May 21. He said about 200 people turned out.
“I had a lot of faith in this one,” Jara said of his film. “This one, it was the first one where I felt that we really hit something hard.”
He added that he has received a lot of positive feedback from reviews and viewers alike. He said he has heard from many people who said the depiction of mental health struggles “hit home” for them. One woman even got up and stepped away during the premiere, which Jara did not take as a bad sign.
“As a horror director, the fact that you can scare someone so bad that they have to take a moment to leave, that’s like the badge of honor right there,” he said.
“The Empty Space” has since been released on DVD and video on demand. People can physically purchase it at such places as Walmart, Amazon or Barnes & Noble or can find it streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Vudu. It will become available to stream elsewhere in the coming months.
Taking a risk with the entertainment industry
Jara said he grew up with a father who would show him just about any movie he wanted, from “Alien” and “Predator” to “The Godfather.”
“It kind of showed us that you could do so many different things,” he said.
Filmmakers such as Robert Rodriguez (“Spy Kids,” “Machete,” “The Book of Boba Fett”) and Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Hellboy,” “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”) were especially impactful role models for him.
However, Jara added that his strict Mexican family always emphasized the importance of having a stable job and not taking too many risks. He entered NMSU as a biology major, but switched to filmmaking halfway through his studies.
“I realized biology is also a risk, because I don’t know what anyone’s saying right now. So might as well just risk it with something I really want to do,” he recalled.
After graduating in 2012, Jara relocated to Los Angeles where his anxiety escalated and he began having anxiety attacks. He said he did a lot of personal assistant work, but the lack of connections and steady work brought him home after two years.
He was formally diagnosed with anxiety and started looking for a treatment that worked well for him. He said he found that he did not like the way he felt on certain medication, but exercise and healthier eating habits have helped him.
When it came to his film, he said he wanted to make it clear that anxiety affects everyone differently and treatments will have a different impact.
He joined Film Las Cruces three years ago to remain affiliated with the film industry but is also working on new film productions of his own. One project involves a story where a woman is stalked online by one of her fans and explores the ramifications of people being dehumanized online. He said he also lost his grandparents during the pandemic and wants to explore the process of moving through grief in the Mexican culture.
People can follow Jara’s creative career on YouTube under the handle @jarafilms.
Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on Twitter.
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