In the search for new and attractive ways to spread our message and promote social change on a mass scale, we have observed that soap operas and TV series are widely accepted and consumed throughout Central and Latin America. Viewers often become engaged with the characters and their stories, and soap opera episodes are common topics for household conversations.

That’s where we saw an opportunity! We imagined what could happen if we presented on TV ways to confront domestic violence and unequal relationships and construct more egalitarian relationships, using a colloquial, familiar and entertaining format.

We decided to rise to the challenge and produce our first TV series, mixing a commercial format (soap opera) with stories that encourage our mass audiences to question their realities and take action for social change. That’s how Sexto Sentido (Sixth Sense) was created.

Sexto Sentido

This was the first youth soap opera filmed and produced in Nicaragua. From a feminist standpoint, the series presents a whole range of quotidian situations that addressed a number of controversial and taboo issues that affect Latin America’s youth.

Issues such as homophobia, family relations, sexual abuse, falling in love and having sex for the first time, HIV, racism, abortion and drugs, are embedded in the character’s stories. Throughout the series’ 80 episodes, these characters discover their internal strength and the importance of solidarity, mutual support and collective action to change the reality which often times traps them.

Having earned numerous international prizes, this soap opera captured 70 percent of TV audience during its broadcast hours. It has also been aired throughout Central America and in TV channels in the United States, Mexico and Bolivia.

See episodes with english subtitles

Contracorriente

This is our second fiction production. Using a TV series format, this series will show the life of a working class family and its struggle to maintain unity in the face of the challenges of the economic crisis, household conflicts, and unexpected changes that occur in daily life.

The stories in this series will address issues such as commercial sexual exploitation of teenagers, young female labor at sweatshop factories, the role of religion in daily life, family money management, sexual abuse and its effects, sexual identity, amongs others.

This series will promote the importance of mutual respect, communication and using negotiation to solve interpersonal and family conflicts, and the importance of social safety nets.

Contracorriente be broadcasted during the final months of 2011.