By Natalie Taylor
No, you don’t need to have grey hair and be retired to live and love San Miguel de Allende! Carly Hopkins is a young cinematographer from Los Angeles who has found a great environment in the city and is hoping to have her feet in both the United States and San Miguel as she fashions her film career.
She was born in Boca Raton, Florida, feeling like the child of a quarterback and a cheerleader—parents whom she describes as “hot.” That claim is evidenced by her own appearance. She was the oldest of three children: two daughters and a son. Growing up, she was mostly taken care of by her mother and maternal grandmother, with her lawyer-father rather distanced because of his heavy workload. Despite that, she considers her childhood happy and has always been close to her siblings.
I was curious how she felt about growing up in Florida. Hopkins said that as an artist, the environment was very inspiring—“the humidity makes people a bit bonkers and brings out creative ideas.” The state has a reputation for being a bit “crazy”—a bit on the wild side. She also appreciated the great diversity and the rich history in the state.
Hopkins is very open about her life and it’s no surprise that she has already written, starred in, and produced a film based on a part of her life. It is about her involvement at 17 with a man 12 years her senior, a recovering heroin addict, with whom she became romantically involved for five years—she likes to call him “L.” Although the relationship was problematic, he did help her decide on a career in cinematography because he himself was a screenwriter, and they collaborated on a film. He also prodded and helped her make her decision to go to the Pratt Institute in New York, a prestigious private university with an excellent arts program. Her experienced at the school was wonderful because it challenged her and gave her a vision of “what is possible.” The professors were very supportive, encouraging her ideas and telling her that “whatever you want, we’ll help you out.”
Hopkins’ senior thesis was an eight-minute film in which she starred, playing herself. The title is “On the 99th Night,” an experimental film on toxic relationships, loosely based on Roland Barthes’ book “A Lover’s Discourse.” Like the book, the film is composed of fragments, not necessarily in chronological order, about the beginnings, decline, and death of a love affair. It is a very serious theme and well presented in such a short movie. The film is available on YouTube.
Eventually, she broke up with “L” and met another filmmaker and general free spirit—“S.” It was through him that she found her link to San Miguel. The family of “S” is from the United States, but many years ago, they were ready to settle elsewhere; they were on their way to Argentina when they made a stop here, in the heart of Mexico, and never left. S was only 2 years old at the time and still has family here. When they met in Los Angeles, he invited her to live with him, collaborate on a film, and brought her to San Miguel about a year ago. Although their relationship is not firm, Hopkins has become entranced by our city. She has made many friendships with artists in the community and finds the environment stimulating and conducive to a productive film career. Her current project is another film, again based on her experiences of dating an older man as a teenager and explores emotionally abusive relationships. She says it’s more about the nuances of abuse and hopes that laying this out will lead toward helping others recognize and deal with it. There are no social resources to help people deal with the subtle ways of abuse—yes, there are remedies for physical abuse, but the hidden layers are much more difficult to understand and cope with. You first must recognize when you are the victim and to take action because, as a therapist told her, “The takers will never stop.”
The title of her new movie is “Local Girl,” and Hopkins is currently in L.A. looking for a sponsor. But she is anxious to return to San Miguel and ready to have her feet in both places, taking advantage of the best in both worlds.
Natalie Taylor has a B.A. in English Lit and Journalism from Loyola University, Chicago, 1995, and a M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Vermont College, Montpelier, VT, 1999. She is a published writer, editor, and journalist and a Spanish teacher in the U.S. and English teacher in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as well as a translator. Contact: tangonata@gmail.com and www.natalietaylor.org.
