I am very interested to know

Director's statement from the press notes:

I was inspired to make Viva when I saw some drag shows in Havana. A sheet hung up in a suburban back yard and a single light bulb created a theatre and a world of dreams out of nothing. This power of transformation and creation was driven by a desire to express identity in a raw, unabashed passionate voice. It was intoxicating.

I wanted to take that vivid romantic tone and place it in a world of naturalistic cinema. When I discovered the great wealth of Cuban acting talent it allowed me to push that mix of an exuberant emotional tone and an aesthetic of authenticity and naturalism even further.

Screenwriter Mark O'Halloran and I wanted to explore a theme of transformation and the alchemy of connecting to deeper truths through the use of artifice. At the heart of the story is a battle for identity and love between a father and son. The romantic plaintive female voice in Jesus's mother's record collection almost serves as another character and occupies a higher order that inspires the men of the story to become truly themselves. I wanted to tell a story where we find light in a dark place and where what is perceived as weakness transforms to be seen as strength.