La Hembrita


This projects expands on my working relationship with Dominican filmmaker Laura Amelia Guzmán. A relationship where film development, production, and design have gone hand-in-hand for the past nine years.


︎︎︎





In La Hembrita (little girl), Dominique — a well-to-do middle-aged Dominican woman — finds herself alone after her sons move out of the family home. One day, Dominique’s housemaid brings home her granddaughter and, shortly after, inexplicably disappears. The little girl re-awakens Dominique’s maternal instinct — but neither her relatives nor her friends support her desire to keep the child.




Poster Design ︎︎︎




While the film is ostensibly about Dominique, la hembrita is the object of her affection.

Whether Dominique truly cares for the girl or only the idea of her remains unclear in the few days they spend together. I wanted the poster to reflect this uncertainty through the little girl’s tentative look. Is the flower Dominique offers the girl an empty promise? An ill-fitted band-aid to an empty nest? Or is it the promise of real motherly (or grandmotherly) devotion? By leaning heavily on the color pink, I also wanted to express Dominique’s stereotypical idealization of what having a daughter or granddaughter would be like.




End-Credit Sequence ︎︎︎





︎︎︎ © Ana Valeria Castillos, 2023   —  ︎︎