Set Life: Cafecito Productions’ Erika Miranda and Caitlin Hargraves celebrate and create everyday magic

by Carol Badaracco Padgett

Magical realism. The term is an oxymoron. And like the best of them, it emphasizes with exactitude an oftentimes concealed truth.

That is, the magic in life is everywhere, in the everyday, in the real. And oftentimes, it’s missed until someone points it out to you.

Erika Miranda. (Photo by Jennifer Gionfriddo)
The founder and owner of Atlanta-based Cafecito Productions, producer Erika Miranda, alongside producer Caitlin Hargraves, are creatives devoted to storytelling that shows that magic — yanking off the cloak and allowing viewers to notice and observe the real and the raw.

Miranda describes the day-to-day work at six-year-old Cafecito Productions this way: “Most of our work has been in Atlanta, where our roots began, with collaborators we’ve found in the Atlanta scene.”

Their first film, Mi Casa, was adapted for the screen from a theatrical play written by Jocelyn Rick.

“We were fortunate to license it to HBO. And it features two ghost sisters, Caitlin and myself,” Miranda says of the actor hat both have worn throughout the years, first onstage and then on-screen.

Currently, Cafecito Productions has a film on Roku, Trailer [Trash] Magic, which is Miranda’s directorial debut, written by Keatyn Lee.

“It’s about Mexican American witches who live in a trailer park in Appalachia. So you see the magical theme there,” Miranda describes.

Read in full at ARTS ATL