Mexican filmmaker Michelle Garza will be making her feature film debut with her horror film Huesera. Filming has been completed and it is heading into post now. It was also just announced this week that Huesera will be part of Blood Window's showcase at Cannes next month.
Valeria dreams of becoming a mother but the day her pregnancy is confirmed a sinister entity begins to pursue her: la Huesera. Valeria's obsession with this curse affects her domestic life and puts her pregnancy at risk.Valeria plunges into a world of urban witches to confront La Huesera and reconnect with her past, when she was a young punk who did not want a traditional family.
As the film heads into post-production Garza was kind enough to pass along a selection of production stills and behind the scenes shots to make up a killer gallery. I am especially tickled by that last image of Garza with mi padre de terror Pablo Guisa, the director of the Morbido Film Festival. Huesera was written by Garza and her cowriter Abia Castillo. Garza's cinematographer is Nur Rubio Sherwell. This is her second feature film and she has a number of short films currently in post too.
Director's statement:
Throughout my childhood, my grandmother had an image of “unnamable witch” because she was a woman who decided to leave her family. One day I dared to ask for the first time, who was she? What was her story? This is how HUESERA emerged: from the intention of observing my grandmother without the moral judgments that stubbornly condemn, silence and even erase from the map the women who dare to openly doubt their maternity. Once again, I confirmed the power stories hold to change people’s perspectives.
If you're a burgeoning filmmaker yourself and want an idea as to what is involved before you even shoot your movie Garza gave us the rundown of all the prep that was done years ahead of production.
HUESERA won the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE) stimulus for its writing in 2017 and won both the FOPROCINE 2019 and the EFICINE 2020 funds for its production in 2021. The project won Peru’s National Contest of Minority Co-productions of the Directorate of Audiovisual, Phonography and New Media of Peru (DAFO) and was also selected to participate in several markets and labs: Blood Window Lab 2019 in Buenos Aires, Argentina (Ventana Sur/ Marché du Film Cannes) where the project won the B.I.G/NAFF award, the screenwriting residency Cine Qua Non Lab 2020 (Supported by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts/Oscars) in Michoacán, Mexico, the Co-production Market in the Guadalajara International Film Festival FICG 2020, it was selected for the Fantastic 7 program of Marché du Film Cannes 2020 and recently for the Blood Window Showcase at the Marché du Film 2021.HUESERA is produced by Disruptiva Films and Machete Producciones in co-production with Señor Z from Peru and Maligno Gorehouse.The main cast is: Natalia Solián, Alfonso Dosal, Mayra Batalla and Mercedes Hernández.We have started our post-production phase and we hope to have the finished film during the first trimester of 2022.
We thank Garza and her producers, Paulina Villavicencio and Edher Campos, for sharing all this with us. We will keep tabs on Huesera in the months to come and share it all with you, when it happens.