Some people might hear the name Javiera Balmaceda and think of her younger, more famous sibling, Pedro Pascal. But Javiera, the Head of Originals for Latin America, Canada, and Australia at Amazon Studios has been making a name for herself for years and making the kind of impact that means something in our communities.
Balmaceda has, after all, played a pivotal role in creating innovative and impactful content and in bringing our communities’ perspectives to the world. In 2023, Balmaceda oversaw Argentina, 1985, which won a Golden Globe and was the only Latin American film nominated for an Oscar that year. Late last year, another one of her projects, Pimpinero: Sangre y Gasolina, made its debut as part of the official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
Next, Javiera is behind the Prime Video Original The House of the Spirits (“La Casa de los Espíritus”), an 8-part series based on Chilean author Isabel Allende’s iconic novel. The novel has over 70 million copies worldwide and is widely considered one of the most influential novels of the 20th century.
Balmaceda, who left Chile when she was only three years old with her family and went into exile, spoke to Remezcla about making the adaptation relatable to a new audience and what we can expect from The House of the Spirits. “I read the book for the first time, I think I was in high school,” Balmaceda shared with us. “And right before we started the process, I reread the book and it was really different to me reading it as a 15-year-old and now reading it as a 50-year-old. I think it hits really differently.”
So, the question was how to bring that to the screen. “How do we take all of those elements and showcase the richness of that storytelling so different generations and people at different times of their lives can take away the beauty of that storytelling?”
For Balmaceda, what this new adaptation brings is something “really grounded and relatable,” even if it’s still magical realism. “Those moments of magic feel real, and part of your life.”
“What we’re trying to do here is ground all of those elements in the everyday life. And politics are a part of everyday life now, as it was in the seventies and the 1800s. So, it’s about how different generations interweave those things. And I think that’s very Latin American.”
There are many magical realism books, and a long list of authors to possibly adapt. Why The House of the Spirits. Why Isabel Allende? Balmaceda had a clear answer. “There was a movie done in the early 90s, with beautiful work by an amazing Hollywood cast, but nobody was from South America, right?”
“So, I think we found an opportunity with these young writers, young women to kind of do an adaptation of The House of the Spirits that feels very true to Isabel Allende’s vision of the storytelling, but also kind of a retelling in a way that we hope to bring a younger audience and a point of view that feels very today and very feminine.”
There’s no release date yet for Prime Video’s The House of the Spirits.
