We Would All be Kings
A reality of prison life is invisibility.
The Puerto Rican documentary "We Would All Be Kings" recovers the voice and humanity of a marginalized community and captures the beginning of a rehabilitation process, through the participation of 7 inmates in a creative writing workshop.
The motivation and transformation witnessed in the participants are the driving force of a documentary that intertwines their testimonies with fiction short films based on the autobiographical stories they wrote.
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Márel MalaretDirector
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Márel MalaretWriter
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David MoscosoWriter
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Márel MalaretProducer
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Edna BenitezProducer
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Arí Maniel Cruzco-directorsBefore the rooster crows
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Álvaro Aponte-Centenoco-directorsThe silence of the wind
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Alba Gómezco-directors
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David Moscosoco-directors
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Aníbal Santana MercedKey Cast
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José Armando Torres RiveraKey Cast
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Luis Serrano RodríguezKey Cast
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Juan A. Velazquez RiveraKey Cast
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José Delgado DonesKey Cast
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Joel García CarrazquilloKey Cast
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Emmanuel Torres SuárezKey Cast
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Project Title (Original Language):Todos íbamos a ser reyes
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Project Type:Documentary
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Runtime:1 hour 12 minutes
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Completion Date:January 15, 2020
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Country of Origin:Puerto Rico
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Country of Filming:Puerto Rico
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Language:Spanish
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
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Philadelphia Latino Film FestivalPhiladelphia
United States
June 4, 2020
North American Premiere
Official Selection
Distribution Information
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Vandenbunder LLCCountry: Puerto RicoRights: Theatrical
Márel Malaret Badrena is a Puerto Rican director and producer of documentaries. Since 2003 she has produced more than eight documentaries. For 15 years, she was a co-producer and director of various episodes of the documentary series, PROHIBIDO OLVIDAR (Never Forget) transmitted by the Puerto Rico Corporation for Public Broadcasting. More than 190 episodes were produced. Two episodes directed by her were nominated for the Regional Suncoast Emmy Award.
Márel’s work is mostly focused on the social and political issues of Puerto Rico. Her endeavor has received multiple awards like Best Documentary prize in Memorimage, (Reus,Catalunya in 2012) and the Silver Punt Award, as best documentary at the Cambridge Film Festival, (Cambridge, England in 2014) for her production A POEM IN EXILE: EL PESEBRE BY PABLO CASALS AND JOAN ALAVEDRA, a documentary directed by Alba Gómez Escudero.
Márel also works as part-time faculty at the University of Sagrado Corazón and the University of Puerto Rico, where she teaches screenplay writing, film history and production.
In 2012 she produced and directed her first short documentary ANÍBAL.
WE WOULD ALL BE KINGS is her first feature documentary as director.
At the end of a script-writing workshop that I taught at the Correctional Institution in Puerto Rico, Guayama 945 between the years 2011 and 2012, the participants asked me if they would ever see any of their writings on the big screen. That was the beginning of WE WOULD ALL BE KINGS, a project developed with the collaboration of Professor Edna Benítez.
Our primary objective was to make the voice of the participants the driving force of the documentary. And at the same time, we wanted to collaborate with four filmmakers who believed in the importance of giving this marginalized community the opportunity to tell their story outside the walls of the prison. Interlacing the documentary and the fiction, we managed to present the testimonies of the workshop participants with scenes from the short films they wrote. The directors used the stories written by the participants to recreate in some way the life experiences; crimes or innocence, regrets, long sentences and hopes. WE WOULD ALL BE KINGS is not just a writing effort on the part of the inmates, but the conviction of many people that change and transformation of human beings through words and cultural enrichment, is possible.