The Story

Anastasia, a 17 year old girl, must hide and deal with a possible pregnancy while living with her very religious mother. Anastasia confides in her cousin, Lizz, to help her navigate the situation. Anastasia’s mother would prefer that she stay away from Lizz, since she believes her to be a bad influence.

How Our Supporters Are Helping: Post Production

Although I was able to acquire fincances for the completion of the production phase through grants, we now need a new budget for the post production process (a.k.a editing). This includes costs of color correction, digital effects and titles, and professional sound design for the smoothest viewing experience for viewers like you!

We also hope that this film will reach wider audiences accross the U.S. and we plan to do that through submitting to film festivals. We don't just want the converstation to stay within Latinx communities or women identifying communities. We want to reach diverse communities because it is a topic that affects many lives.

Your contribution is helping to finish the post production process and is helping to extend the converstation to wider audiences. You are helping to show the world what latinx filmmakers and women filmmakers are capable of!

The Production

The process began in late August. After I wrote the screenplay, I wanted to work with other women that could help me refine the messages, so I recruited mostly women creatives.

Everyone was so excited to have an all women's crew. Many of my crew members stated that it was unusual, and that they mostly had worked with co-ed crews (mostly lead by white, male identifying directors). Most of them were ecstatic that I would ask for their input which was both heart warming and heart breaking because while I was creating space for their voices to be heard, it was sad to hear that they felt that usually their input was not valued. Nonetheless, I hope to continue influence the industry where women have a seat at the table.

During this pandemic it was difficult to find Latinx actors because some of the Covid limitations included not hiring any off campus actors. Luckily, I met other latinx actresses through being involved in the play, In the Heights, that casted BIPOC students exclusively last year. That is where I saw Darielis Riva's amazing performance as Abuela Claudia for the first time and decided to invite her to audition for the lead as Anastasia. What was even more difficult was finding older Latinx actresses. Especially because Wesleyan doesn't have a lot of women Latinx professors that we could ask or cast. What me and my producers decided to do was ask the Latinx workers on campus to audition for the role, but many of them were rightfullly wary of being in such close contact with students. Fortunately, we met Gloria who plays Anastasia's mother, and who was willing to work with us due to her past involvement with another student's thesis years ago. 

After we overcame the casting hurdle, we had to face the challenges of having limited options for sets. However, I worked with my amazing set dresser Genesis Garcia to make the set look as different and real as possible.

After these difficult hurdles imposed by the pandemic, the production process became more straightforward, and we were able to shoot this film.

Process: Writing the Script

This script was a challenge to write because I had to cover multiple perspectives within the film. I had to cover Anastasia's perspective, who is just a regular high school girl. Anastasia has a bit of culture clash here. She engages in sex as a teenager, which is more normalized in the U.S., but she also has a shame attached to sex and that was instilled by her immigrant mother.

Then I had to cover Anastasia's mother, who like many immigrant parents is well intentioned, and who uses religion and spirituality to teach morals to her daughter. However, she also looks down on Anastasia's cousin Lizz, because of the fact that she became pregnant while being so young. At the same time there appears to be some parallels between Anastasia's mother and Lizz's history. Could it be that Anastasia's mother perhaps is shaming herself as she shames Lizz? 

Finally, there is Lizz. Lizz is relatively the same age as Anastsia, and she is pregnant. Lizz is aware of Anastasia's mother's disdain, but it comes to no surprise. However, Lizz tries to support Anastasia regardless of her aunt's sentiments towards her. 

How these women relate to one another, and how they are all battling their shame instilled by religion and patriarchy is where all of the nuance of the story is. It isn't easy to compermentalize their womanhood, spirituality, and relationships with one another, and that is where the beauty of this story lies. 

This story was crafted with a lot of effort and love. I drew upon the stories of women that I grew up with. I hope the more nuanced messages of this film can become clear once you've all seen it.