Lessons From My Mother

The idea came from a love of imperfect characters we are still able to empathize with. I made my rich/upper-middle class protagonists brown because I always wanted to see that growing up, myself. As a brown-skinned Latina, I have experienced and initially believed, the colorism-biased opinions of others based off the content the generations before me were fed. Things like being considered less desireable for being “prieta” (dark-skinned), or experiencing “naca” (ghetto girl) murmurs at a nice restaurant in Mexico for the same reason. I have felt the ugly side of a colorism-led media system engraved within our community and feel the need to begin change there. Which is why, although being Mexican-American, I chose to make mine a Spanish-language film.
Additionally, through this short, I would like to show how impressionable children are to the words of their parents. In Lecciones de Mi Madre, Fer’s impressionableness to her mom’s lessons puts her in cringy situations… But it can get worse in real life. With news of hate crimes rising around the world, it is important to remind people that it starts at home.
My influences are most recently, Miss Lena Waithe. She is achieving goals I have for Hispanics & Latinos in her community by telling stories she would like to see, while breaking the US systemic racism and bringing other issues within her community to light. Additionally, I’m a fan of Guillermo del Toro’s mix of fantasy with realism and Wes Anderson’s quirky unattainable love stories among many!
I take pride in our cinematographer’s use of both natural and artificial lighting which show our characters beautiful brown skin.
My hope for the audience’s response is that they have a good laugh while taking note of the two subtly put issues I feel strongly about.
This film has not been screened.
Thank you for your consideration!