.artist's statement
As a first generation Mexican immigrant, woman, an aspiring academic and filmmaker, the guiding force behind my work is a need to understand cultural marginalization, particularly as it is influenced by gender and sexual norms. Reflecting upon my own marginalization makes me interested in representing the experiences of the transplanted and displaced. My artistic motivation has thus been to create a filmic record of underrepresented communities in Mexico and the U.S. In future documentary and narrative films, I will continue reimagining the individual psyche that has resulted for Mexicans and Mexican-Americans from traditional notions of masculinity, femininity, and national identity.
work sample
.narrative, documentary, and animation
Excerpts of films included: Noche sin luna (Moonless Night, 2010), Maria Desaparecida (Missing Maria, 2007), Duermen de Día (Day Sleeper, 2001), Retrato de Noa (Noa's Self-Portrait, 2008).
Maria Desaparecida(Missing Maria) is a short drama inspired by the tragic rapes and murders of hundreds of women and girls whose lifeless bodies are found near the U.S/Mexico border since 1993. (2007, Spanish, 11 min.)
Noche sin luna (Moonless Night) Oscar Rodríguez, an introverted handsome gay professional wrongfully accused of killing his friend Julio. Guilty until proven innocent, Oscar is taken to the police precinct and is pressured by Inspector Sánchez to confess to Julio’s murder or else. (2010, Spanish, 15 min.)
Maria Desaparecida (Missing Maria) is a short drama inspired by the tragic rapes and murders of hundreds of women and girls whose lifeless bodies are found near the U.S/Mexico border since 1993. (2007, Spanish, 11 min.)
.director's statement
Maria Desaparecida marked my entry into narrative film, was inspired by historical events. In this film, I draw from current events in the City of Juarez where since 1993 hundreds of women and girls have disappeared and turned up dead in the Mexican-U.S. border. The film explores how the crimes are affecting intergenerational relationships among surviving women. The film's grainy, aged look is an attempt to convey the desolation of the shanty towns on the outskirts of a industrialized city. This film is unique in its treatment of the widespread murder of women in Juarez: it positions the viewer in the intimate psychological space of a small family where the two generations remaining struggle with the very gender-enforced silences that enable the violence to proceed outside their home.
Set in the 1970s, Noche sin luna (Moonless Night) is the story of Oscar Rodríguez an introverted handsome gay professional wrongfully accused of killing Julio, an engineer, family man and Oscar’s love interest.
Noche sin luna (Moonless Night) is an exploration of the secrecy and silence surrounding homosexual life in Mexico City following a conservative backlash in the 1970s against homosexual communities in the city. The film investigates how traditional Mexican notions of masculinity conditioned public and private expressions of homosexuality in this period. Through the story of two closeted men romantically involved with one another, the film investigates relations between homosexual men and the communities in which they are embedded. Stylistically, the film is a fusion of film noir, with its social criticism and its pessimistic sensibility, and la nota roja (“red crime” narrative), a tradition in Mexican photojournalism and cinema in which spectator and community are central to recreating the story of crime.
La Boda (The Wedding)
In the midst of national controversy, two Chicana women wed in a traditional wedding and share the day with their families.
Correspondence, a love letter.
An experimental short film that utilizes found footage film of Mexico City. The film explores the long distance relationship between two people and the need to connect to someone in one of the biggest cities in the world.
(2009, 2 min.)
