A lot of hullaballoo has been made about the golden age of television over the last few years, but even with so many groundbreaking series populating our Netflix queues, can we call something “art” that’s so bound up with ratings and market reports? For writer, director, and “artivist” Ricardo Gamboa, the short answer is no. But rather than merely complaining about the sanitized representation of people of color and the LGBT community on shows like Fresh Off the Boat or Modern Family, Gamboa has offered a solution in the form of his upcoming web series Brujos.
Taking place in Gamboa’s native Chicago, Brujos describes itself as a mix between Latin American novelas, American sitcoms, and critical theory. It should come as no surprise that Gamboa is currently working toward his PhD in American Studies at NYU, especially when the show is billed as an alternative to “a world codified and conditioned by Western primacy of reason, capitalist logics of risk and profit, and hetero-patriarchal white supremacy.”
But beyond the academic language, Brujos is just a show about four gay grad school homies who also happen to be witches engaged in battle with a secret cabal of witch-hunters descended from the original settlers of the New World. Sounds pretty dope, right? After years in development, a new teaser featuring two unreleased scenes finally gives us a sense of what this will all look like. Shot in a familiar low-budget style, the teaser is a little rough around the edges, but we can definitely appreciate Gamboa’s desire to explore more radical themes within a familiar televisual language.
No firm dates have been set for Brujos’ release, but we will certainly be following this ambitious series as it makes it’s way to a small screen near you.
Make sure the Brujos series has the funds it needs to start shooting this year. Donate via their IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign here.