Fried Fish & Plantain

This project came about after the heartbreak of losing my paternal grandmother right before the pandemic and my maternal grandmother entering palliative care during the pandemic. Both important forces of love and identity in my life.

With the simultaneous birth of my nieces, new Corgi puppy love, and some break ups during a tumultuous period of global grief - I grappled with different forms heartbreak and healing while trying to make sense of myself.

These situations made me reflect on the importance of the different forms of love and loss, whether through romance, family, sense of home and how they all intersect and affect one another.

My prior films came from a place of anger against the things that hurt or "took away" from what I love. I felt like I was losing myself in that anger and hatred, and needed to pivot. So instead of attacking what hurts me/my loved ones, I wanted to "protect" and sit with what I care about. I wanted to create from a place where love and heart comes first.

Fried Fish and Plantain is a celebration and a thank you to all the people, places, and things that I've loved and that have gotten me through the grief of loss.

Director. Paul-Daniel Torres

is a writer, actor and community worker, born in the heart of Toronto. He grew up between the apartments next to the Jane and Finch Mall, St. Judes on Weston Road, and next to a dumpster in Thornhill. He was raised by his parents Mery and Paul, Ecuadorean immigrants (a cleaning lady and a superintendent, both with university degrees) who’d take him to the movies every Tuesday and Blockbuster every Friday.

This upbringing shines through in his visually and sonically eclectic style, inspired by the multicultural mosaic of Toronto and the Latine diaspora. Through his work he explores the pros and cons of the “immigrant dream”, being a child of immigrants on stolen land, race, class, education, mental health, identity, community and how these all intersect within neo-colonial systems. Ultimately, how it affects our ability to love and connect with one another. However, at his heart, he’s an entertainer, who wants his films to teach and enthrall.

Outside of film, Paul-Daniel Torres is also an installation artist featured at the Bata Shoe Museum (2020) and the Whippersnapper Gallery. As well as a Canadian League of Poets member; and most importantly is helping to take care of his ailing grandmother and his young nieces Serena and Celeste, who he all loves dearly.