Filmmaker Statement

I remember it being a cold winter night. The moon was full and as bright as can be. “Míjito...” called my Aunt Olga. I turned. Her red hair was illuminated by the moonlight. She wrapped a blanket around my shivering body and began, “ Érase una vez..." My eyes beamed as she painted worlds out of thin air. She was the kind of storyteller who could lift you into the night sky and you'd just soar. As a little boy, I never thought that someone so special could be ripped away from me. On the morning when I learned that she had passed away, I was suddenly reckoned with how to protect the magic she had created. That's what inspired La Bruja. I wrote the film as a way to honor her spirit. She made me believe that my imagination could make anything possible and that the stories we tell and the life we live can exist on the same plane. Her legacy, intertwined with the magical worlds she captivated me with, lives on as I carry forward the torch of storytelling, offering healing to those who