In the absence of their moms, two foster siblings slowly fortify a sisterhood in Los Mosquitos, Nicole Chi’s lushly atmospheric brief. Made as a part of her graduate research on the University of Texas at Austin, the movie facilities on ladies throughout the native Honduran group—which Chi has carefully labored with prior to now—and is basically composed of a solid of non-professional actors. This contains protagonists Abby (Abigail Hernandez), a rebellious 15-year-old, and Nata (Natalia Rodríguez), her youthful cousin who’s freshly arrived within the US.
As the women navigate this stark change of their dwelling scenario, tensions naturally come up: Abby begins to envy Nata’s skill to right away appeal the adults round them, whereas Nata can’t fairly grasp why her mom would ship her away within the first place. Feelings are inevitably harm, however the technique of therapeutic turns into certainly one of refined magic.
Los Mosquitos is certainly one of 5 winners of the 2025 Student Short Film Showcase, a collaborative program from The Gotham, Focus Features and JetBlue that’s accessible to stream through Focus Features’s YouTube channel and provided within the air as a part of JetBlue’s in-flight leisure choice.
Chi responded to some questions over electronic mail, shedding perception on her in depth analysis course of, making room for improvisation on set and the function movie she is at the moment engaged on.
All interviews with all the sixth annual Student Short Film Showcase winners are printed here.
Filmmaker: How has attending The University of Texas at Austin formed your progress as a filmmaker?
Chi: I believe finding out at UT Austin, and being a part of the Austin movie group, was essential to me as a result of I discovered collaborators and assist from school which have actually inspired me in my filmmaking journey.
I began college after which we bought hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that was extremely laborious for somebody who was simply beginning to reside overseas and getting used to this new atmosphere. It was very difficult to make movies like this! But due to it, I discovered this unbelievable, beneficiant and type group of pals who’ve grow to be my biggest collaborators. They are simply individuals I actually admire and respect. I additionally suppose that in that point of experimentation, I actually discovered a approach of creating movies that I really feel enthusiastic about, and located like-minded individuals that might be part of collectively to make issues occur.
Filmmaker: Tell me concerning the technique of enmeshing your self within the native Honduran group the place you discovered your solid.
Chi: I had met Magda, the older girl within the brief, a couple of years again after I had freshly arrived in Austin by way of a non-profit home employee’s group referred to as MISMA. We have been doing a documentary at the moment with the co-writer and producer of Los Mosquitos, Fumiya Hayakawa. We turned very concerned with the group, and I turned pals with all these fantastic ladies. Since I’m from Costa Rica, we had quite a bit in widespread, they usually have been actually type to ask me to their events and hang around. I used to be lacking house quite a bit and thru these informal conferences I turned inquisitive about how the expertise of being within the U.S. was for them.
I turned near Magda, so I formally requested her if I might begin visiting her and observing her every day life. I believe it was essential to grow to be intentional and clear about what I used to be doing after I visited them. A little bit after that, I met Aby and Nata by likelihood at a household gathering and it began to come back collectively. I interviewed them as analysis for the script I ended up writing. I wasn’t positive at first if the movie was going to be a documentary or a story brief, however as I shared extra time with them, I spotted {that a} form of empowerment and freedom might stem from the expertise of creating this movie collectively.
When we reached pre-production, we held a proper casting name with a mixture of skilled and pure actors, and I invited the three of them to take part. It all ended up being an performing workshop for them, nevertheless it was actually key for me as a director to know find out how to work with them on this course of and thru rehearsal.
Filmmaker: I actually loved the naturalistic manufacturing, make-up and costume design. What was the steadiness of permitting your solid to characterize their very own characters versus your crew scouting places and refining the movie’s visible cohesion?
Chi: This was an important consideration, as a result of their characters characterize a mixture of their very own experiences, different individuals’s and my very own creativeness. So it truly is a fictional world, nevertheless it positively echoes a few of what they’ve lived by way of, or individuals they know. From the get go, it was important to actually separate their precise selves from their characters. It was very intentional that we shot some other place and never their precise houses, and that we introduced in new garments for them to put on. We felt the set atmosphere ought to really feel considerably acquainted to them, however truly there needed to be particulars that reminded them these characters weren’t truly them. The solely factor they couldn’t do was cease calling one another by their names, and though we made up new names in rehearsals, as we approached the shoot they requested me to simply use their names as a result of it distracted them.
In phrases of the visible cohesion, my collaborators immersed themselves on the planet too. We did loads of analysis and visited many houses of the ladies from the group to get a way of the way it ought to really feel and what parts have been key. I additionally gave Aby a disposable 35mm digicam, and requested her to shoot her every day life. This was a part of analysis for the script too, however I additionally handed alongside these stills to get a glimpse of her life and the issues she preferred to the cinematographer, Carlos Estrada, and the manufacturing designer, Teresa Guerrero.
Filmmaker: You mentioned that you simply didn’t give your lead actresses traces to memorize. How did you encourage improvisation whereas making certain the overall storyline you conceived would stay intact?
Chi: That was truly so scary for me as a director! Previously, I had shot one other brief, Comadre, with the same method, nevertheless it was just one pure actress and it felt extra contained when it comes to dialogue. So truthfully, it was simply loads of rehearsal! Not actually for them, however extra for me to learn to direct them. We reviewed the entire story collectively, however I by no means wished them to recollect traces so I by no means gave them the script. I believe the magic of working with them was their spontaneity and the best way they really communicate and go about themselves, and the way they might make no matter was written higher and extra actual.
I carried round my famous script whereas on set. All my notes got here from the rehearsals, however I had very clear notes in daring purple to remind myself what the essence of every scene was, just like the one factor they did need to do or say to construct up the story we’re telling.
Aby, Nata and Magda are simply such good actresses, so, finally, their belief within the course of and their creativeness was important to creating all of the improvisation work with the story.
Filmmaker: You’re at the moment working in your function El Sol del Oro, a couple of Chinese-Costa Rican, which you’ve teased as a magical realist thriller. How are you getting ready to shoot on location? Any different particulars you possibly can share?
Chi: I’m making an attempt to observe the same method to my shorts when it comes to growth of the story. I’m doing analysis and spending time with the group. I’m observing and asking questions, and that helps my technique of writing, on the similar time that I begin taking a look at attainable places and even solid. Since it’s set in my hometown, I’m observing and fascinated with the movie on a regular basis, and it truly is making me pause and take into account life right here, the best way issues have modified and in addition haven’t since I used to be younger.
Although I’m a part of the Chinese-Costa Rican group, I’m third era, so my experiences are totally different from first and second gens, and much more so in modern Costa Rica, so it’s opening up an entire world. I’m very excited concerning the venture, and hoping some funding will come by way of so I can proceed the method as properly—and that I can proceed to go on about it on this approach!
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