Help A Latina Filmmaker Highlight Love, Family In New Movie

Aurora Guerrero is a movie writer and director who has a lot to say — but she needs your help.

The Latina filmmaker, daughter of Mexican immigrants and San Francisco Bay area native is currently working to create her first feature-length film, “Mosquita y Mari,” but is fundraising on the website Kickstarter to fill in some of the funding gaps on her project. The film is a story of two Latinas coming of age in Los Angeles in working class and immigrant neighborhoods and families.

Guerrero graduated with a Master’s in Fine Arts in 1999, worked on a few short films that were successful in film festivals like Sundance, assisted directed on both “Real Women Have Curves” and “La Misión” and now is excited to be working on her first 90-minute film. Thus far she’s raised much of her financing from a grant of Latino Public Broadcast, but the Kickstarter page is designed to fill in the extra $80,000 in the next month.

But, Guerrero the self-anointed “mandona” notes, any little bit helps. “We got to turn to the community to make this happen,” she said.

The plan is to hopefully raise the funds, begin production in Los Angeles this summer, and then eventually take the movie on the road to have community screenings. Guerrero says, “The film is a story about friendship, family, community, I think a lot of people will be able to see themselves in this film.”

Yolanda and Mari, the two protagonists, are growing up in Huntington Park in Los Angeles who deal with the obstacles of teenage life in immigrant households differently. For more information or to donate visit the Kickstarter page.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD