Marcel Ruiz Premieres 'Summer of Three' at Tribeca
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- Marcel Ruiz wrote and stars in "Summer of Three," a coming-of-age film set in Puerto Rico that premieres at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival, directed by his father Carlitos Ruiz-Ruiz.
- Ruiz worked as a child actor in LA for over 12 years after his parents moved from Puerto Rico when he was 8, but says he "dreaded" acting because it "kept me from doing many other things a child prefers to do" and lacked autonomy.
- Ruiz credits the writing process with restoring his love of acting, saying building characters' arcs and voices from scratch made him "care about them and the story" in a way he hadn't as a hired actor.
- "Summer of Three" draws on Ruiz's own summers in Puerto Rico — sneaking into middle school welcome dances, watching Bad Bunny and Arcangel's "Tu No Vives Así" video, and prepa week in Mayagüez — to represent his generation growing up on the island.
- Ruiz paused his studies at Columbia University, where he was majoring in writing, business, and film, to make the film, despite fearing the collaboration might damage his relationship with his father.
- Ruiz was three years old when his parents' debut film "Maldeamores (Lovesickness)" premiered at Tribeca in 2007; he calls returning to the festival 19 years later with a movie he made with his dad a "full circle moment."
Why it matters: For a filmmaker who publicly rejected the "actor" label because childhood roles robbed him of creative control, "Summer of Three" reframes screenwriting as the missing piece that restored his agency — a shift with concrete stakes for an emerging artist choosing which creative identity to carry forward as he graduates Columbia and steps into adult roles.
