Vampire Horror Flick Garnering Accolades For SEDT Alumni
When Jonathan and Michael Cuartas failed to quench their love for cinema through their film projects at the School of Entertainment & Design Technology, they started shooting anything they could.
Armed with a Canon 7D, the duo took to the streets of Homestead filming along Krome Avenue.
“We just wanted to create more things, even if it was cheap,” Jonathan said. “It was just [a] way to learn.”
Ten years later, the brothers’ hard work is paying off. Their most recent creation—My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To—has been available on Amazon Prime, Shudder, Peacock, Tubi, Vudu and Plex since Dec. 14.
The one-hour and 30-minute horror flick delves into the story of two siblings, Dwight and Jessie, who are forced to kill strangers to keep their ill younger brother, Thomas, alive.
“We’re all family-driven,” said Jonathan, the director of the film. “That’s why we decided to use vampirism as a way to talk about codependency and the cycle of sacrifices that families make for one another in being tied by blood.”
The film was born after the death of their paternal grandmother—Teresa Nury Cuartas—in 2016 and the tension that dealing with her deteriorating health caused on her 10 children.
“All of these things coalesced into this idea of the dichotomy, tension and love that families have when they’re trying to accept or face the impending death of a loved one,” Jonathan said.
The first draft of the script was written as Jonathan’s thesis project for his production workshop class at SEDT. Originally named Kuru, the film told the story of two siblings who took care of their younger sibling who was a cannibal.
In 2017, the brothers, who graduated from Miami Dade College with bachelor’s degrees in Film, Television and Digital Production from SEDT, shared the idea with filmmaker Kenny Riches.
“I knew that they [were] a very talented duo,” said Riches, the producer of My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To. “I felt like it was a really creative angle to make a film that was essentially a family drama, about dealing with a sickness. I love it.”
For more than a year, they workshopped and developed the film through the independent film studio Riches co-owns, Dualist.
While they were in pre-production, Riches played the song I Am Controlled By Your Love by Helene Smith and told the brothers that he had always wanted to use that song in a movie.
After hearing the track, Michael, the film’s cinematographer, knew the song was a perfect fit for the script. It plays several times during the movie but reaches its apex during a haunting karaoke scene featuring Dwight.
The film was mainly shot in Salt Lake City and the areas surrounding it, like Great Salt Lake and Heber City. But Jonathan and Michael paid homage to their hometown, Miami, in the film through Dwight’s ongoing desire to escape to Miami Beach.
They recruited their father, Rodrigo Cuartas, to help with production and design.
“It’s amazing to see both him and Michael on set,” said Rodrigo, who graduated from MDC in the mid-80s with an associate’s degree in graphic design and commercial arts. “They’re incredible with the people. And it’s quite an experience. It was beautiful just to be part of it.”
My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City in June of 2020. It was part of the United States narrative competition and it received a special jury mention for the film’s cinematography.
Four months later, the film was featured at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain. Jonathan received the Citizen Kane Award for Best Directorial Revelation and the film was awarded Best Feature Film in the Noves Visions category.
The following month in Barcelona, Spain, the film garnered Michael the best cinematography award at the Molins Film Festival. Last April, at the Cleveland International Film Festival, Jonathan won the new direction competition award.
“I feel humbled and honored,” Jonathan said. “It feels surreal that we made something that we deeply cared about and it’s resonating not just in the United States but in different countries. It’s been very fun just to see the reactions and the reception that the film has gotten.”
