IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2017 - 49

WIE from Around the World

The Right Frame of Mind
Cinematographer Cabana fights stereotypes

c

deal for her success. It's through his
magazine that she has been able to learn
and accomplish everything that she has
done so far.
Cinematography is as much about
philosophy as it is technology, and you
might say that Cabana's success is due to
her willingness to put herself out there
and fully commit-to both the project
and the people behind it. She goes into
every project with good intentions, and,
no matter how big or small the job, she
gives it her all. She considers some of
her clients her best friends. It's a bond
that forms through their intense collaboration. "People don't realize that even
though films are business, some films
express much more than just numbers
to the filmmakers," Cabana explains.
"It is an expression of their existence, a
statement they want to put out into the
world, and they're trusting me to help
them make that statement. And that is a
huge responsibility."

Carmen Cabana wouldn't say that she
comes from a particularly artistic family,
but the inspiration for her cinematography career did begin when she was
a child in Colombia. Born with a leg
issues, she had to wear a cast on both
legs for a number of years, so she grew
up enjoying television, paintings, books,
films, and video games. Entertaining
herself was mostly based on watching
things because she couldn't move. She
was an observer.
She doesn't remember any of this,
but her parents tell her stories. And she
knows that even after she was healed, she
didn't suddenly turn into a particularly
active kid. She'd already found a way to
experience the world and was happy.
Cabana loved learning, and as she
grew up, she knew she wanted a career
that would allow her to see and experience new things. She left her home in
Venezuela for Los Angeles, California, to
become a writer for film and television,
but, she'll tell you, as she began writing
she realized she "was terrible at it."
This is when her father bought her
a video camera. She took the camera
home on one of her trips back to Venezuela, and it was there where she met
a street kid named JR. "I was curious
enough about him that I chose to follow
him for three days," she says.

She turned those three days into the
documentary Conversando con JR. It
was screened at Hollyshorts and Digifest
in Los Angeles, where it won the Audience Award. From that success came her
first job offer.
Today, Cabana is a cinematographer
with an impressive resume. She's the
director of photography on the second
season of the Netflix hit show Narcos.
She's shot more than 22 independent features and racked up a long list of awards.
There may not be a film school listed
on her resume, but there is Saul Molina,
circulation director of American Cinematographer. They've never met but
she'll tell you that she credits him a great

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MWIE.2017.2746367

Cabana wore a cast on both legs for a number of years as a child, so she grew up
enjoying television, paintings, books, films, and video games.

Date of publication: 8 November 2017

DECEMBER 2017

Busting Stereotypes
As a cinematographer, she's put a lot
of effort into fighting stereotypes in a

IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

49



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