Aby, a 15-year-old Honduran immigrant, navigates life in the US alongside her newly-arrived cousin. On Thanksgiving Day, Aby's rebellious spirit clashes with her caregiver's expectations, intensifying her desire to escape her home life.

Interview with Writer/Director Nicole Chi and Writer/Producer Fumiya Hayakawa

Congratulations! Why did you make your film?

NICOLE: Fumiya and I have been friends with the Honduran family featured in this film, who have played a fictional version of themselves, since 2019. We wanted to make a film that approached the experience of settling in the United States with tenderness, and without entering into the details of the political landscape we are living in. By spending time together with Magda, Abby and Nata, we realized how much they wanted to talk about their experiences, and so this film started to take shape.

FUMIYA: We thought by making this film, we could have people identify with the intimate hardships of the migrant community. At the same time, we wanted to touch on the topic of motherhood and family, which we feel are universal themes that can allow an audience to identify with our characters, even if they haven't gone through a migration process before.

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?

NICOLE: This is a film we made with a lot of love and heart. All our cast is composed of natural and first-time actresses from the family we worked with. I think there's something very special in seeing them perform a fictional version of themselves and having a window into the construction of a new family dynamic and the attempt to feel less alone in a new place.

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?

FUMIYA: The idea of the floaters and seeing these little dots and lines with your eyes opened and closed actually come from Nico's childhood experiences, and her thoughts on loneliness and isolation. As writers, it's very difficult not to include your own experiences and ideas, and so for both of us, as migrants ourselves living in the US, understand the difficulties of settling into a new place, struggling with language and creating new bonds with people.

NICOLE: The details of those experiences we have shared and that intersect with Abby, Magda and Nata's nurture many of the details in the film. As we progressed in the writing process, we understood that this specific experience highlighted the more universal themes of motherhood, and the longing for a family or companionship, that all of us yearn for.

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?

NICOLE: As I mentioned before, we worked with natural and first-time actresses who played a fictionalized version of themselves. Since they didn't have any previous acting experience, the more we talked and rehearsed parallel situations or moments that weren't in the script, we discovered details and revelations about the characters we were constructing. They knew what the film was about, but they never read the script we had written, or memorized lines, so basically, the film and their lines were really fresh each day of the shoot.

FUMIYA: The overall structure of the film is the same as the one in the script, but Nico worked a lot with the actresses in rehearsals and she kept changing dialogues and interactions in the scenes we had written.

What type of feedback have you received so far?

FUMIYA: It's been very positive! We have only screened at SXSW so far, which was our World Premiere, but people were very moved by the story and by our actresses' performances.

NICOLE: We were super lucky to screen at SXSW because as it takes place in Austin, and our shoot was here too, our actresses were able to attend the festival. It was great to have them talk with audiences after the screenings, and I think we could really feel how people identified with them and connected with the heart of the film.

Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?

NICOLE: I'm always surprised to have people approach me to say how they have been moved by the film, or how it touches an emotional fibre in their hearts. It's a good kind of surprise, like I can't believe we were able to touch someone in the audience in that way, and it fills me with happiness to have folks from different backgrounds and cultures emotionally connect with this Honduran family.

What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?

NICOLE: We'd like to have more people interested in seeing the film, and find other opportunities to showcase it in the US and around the world.

FUMIYA: We also cherish sharing about our process of making the film, and to further make connections with like-minded people.

Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?

NICOLE: We'd love to have buyers, distributors, and film festival directors so we can continue our festival route and find other opportunities to share the film with more audiences.

FUMIYA: We'd like to connect with journalists too, so we can talk more about the process of making the film and further make visible the topic of migration of the Latinx community, in particular from Central America to the US.

What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?

NICOLE: We'd love this film to inspire individuals to have more meaningful conversations about our struggles, especially when we're feeling isolated. This film is a tender reminder that sometimes we are able to create bonds and connections, to feel a bit less alone.

What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?

NICOLE: Can you describe what's the moment you've felt a deep connection with someone else? That moment when after all differences, you feel bound to each other?

Would you like to add anything else?

NICOLE: The process of making this film was really challenging and took a lot of time. We didn't take lightly the vulnerable position we knew we would be putting our cast in, and so, the whole production team was amazing in creating a set environment that felt familiar, and friendly to everyone. My producers, Edna and Fumi, in particular, were incredible in finding a diverse crew that understood well the struggles of the migrant community, as the great majority of them belonged to the Latinx or Asian diaspora, and shared those experiences with our cast.

FUMIYA: At the same time, Nico put a lot of time, and thoughtfulness into introducing the filmmaking process little by little, and removing anything that felt intimidating or aggressive about being on a set. She also created these rituals and exercises in the rehearsals and during the shoot to have our cast create limits between their characters and their personal lives. Working with natural actresses is an incredible experience, but it does require a lot of thought to make it a good and safe process for everyone. It has to be a conscious decision to work in this way.

What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?

FUMIYA: We like to keep working together, so we're working on a new short film called The Night We Met, about a Japanese boy who after witnessing his dad's attack at a small grocery store in Texas, starts to process the event by seeing a creature from Japanese folklore, an Oni. This time, Nico is producing along with Edna Diaz, the other producer of Los Mosquitos, and I'm in the directing role.

NICOLE: I'm also currently continuing distribution of my first feature-length documentary Guián about my identity as a Chinese-Costa Rican, and writing my first feature-length film, The Tired Version.

Interview: March 2024

We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela

Los Mosquitos

Length: 14:12

Director: Nicole Chi

Producer: Fumiya Hayakawa, Edna Diaz

Writer: Nicole Chi, Fumiya Hayakawa

About the writer, director and producer:

NICOLE CHI is a Costa Rican-Chinese director of narrative and documentary films. Her first feature-length documentary, Guián (2023), premiered at Visions du Réel in the Burning Lights Competition. Her narrative short films Comadre (2022) and Los Mosquitos (2024) have screened at festivals like the Telluride Film Festival, SXSW, and Cinélatino Rencontres Toulouse. She’s been recognized with awards like the Director's Guild of America’s Student Film Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement.

NICOLE CHI and FUMIYA HAYAKAWA are Austin-based directors, who frequently collaborate as co-writers and as a producer/directors of each other's work. Nicole is a Chinese-Costa Rican and Fumiya is Japanese. Their intercultural relationship and experiences living abroad provide them with insight to write very observational and intimate films about the communities they belong to and are interested in.

FUMIYA HAYAKAWA is a Japanese producer, currently based in Austin, TX. He has produced films that have screened in major festivals, including the Telluride Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, and BOGOSHORTS.

EDNA DIAZ is a Mexican-American producer based in Texas. Her work centers on the experiences of women and the humanity of underserved communities. Edna is the recipient of the 2023 LPB Latino Emerging Filmmakers Fellowship and the 2023 NOFS Southern Producers Lab.

Key cast: Abigail Hernandez (Abby), Natalia Rodríguez (Nata), Magdalena Álvarez (Magda)

Looking for: distribution, film festival directors, buyers

Facebook: Nicole Chi

Instagram: @nicolechiii

Website: www.nicolechifilm.com

Other: IMDb

Funders: Self-funded, UT Austin, Austin Film Society, New Orleans Film Society