DIRECTOR STATEMENT

Many years ago, I left the city where I was born.

I was fleeing. Seeking a safe place, away from the oppression of a deeply traditional society and an overbearing Catholic church, in which to come into my sexuality. I found my Eden in California, and later New York, where my queerness flourished and I collected all the experiences I had previously been denied: infatuation, a kiss, sex. And finally, love. It was exhilarating, a long awaited completion of a years long ritual.

This same euphoria and newfound freedom, however, curdled the memory of my oppressive early years in Mexico and I grew angry at my origins. It became an antiquated and seemingly unnecessary part of me so I shut it away. Tried to forget it.

But, of course, the past never dies.

Among many things La Pequeña Muerte is a return to my mother land. A reclamation of my history, and reconciliation of my two halves: a closeted past in Mexico City with a liberated present. With it I examine the mythologies of my country and reframe them within a new, queer context. I subvert the ‘machista’ archetypes that surrounded me growing up (the luchador, the matador, the charro, the Catholic priest) and reinterpret them through a queer lens to create my new vision of Mexico. In my fantasy, the ruins of a Catholic chapel become a love deity’s temple; a monarch butterfly escaping from a god's mouth after orgasm recalls ancestral Mexican beliefs that monarchs carried the souls of the departed; and the ‘calavera’ or skull, ever present in the death-obsessed Mexican imagination, becomes a pearlescent, seminal, ritual mask.

Above all La Pequeña Muerte is a story of love: a union of two halves. It’s a cosmic celebration of tender, queer sensuality and savage passion; which is still so seldom seen on screen. The oneiric fantasy and symbology I employed in its creation ultimately serve as visual metaphors for the rare, carnal beauty that is found at the core of love: orgasm. That infinite instant where reality dissolves and, for a moment, the only people in the world are two entwined lovers.

‘La Pequeña Muerte’ behind the scenes.

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written and directed by Pedro Lavín

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Wesley Ensminger as La Pequeña Muerte

Ernesto Peart & Ton Saguilan as Los Amantes

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produced by Gabriel Barragán Sentíes

line producer - Ignacio López Façon

1st assistant director - Ilán Sánchez

2nd assistant director - Kristian Rodríguez

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director of photography - Jordi Planell

1st AC - Leonardo Garay & Tania Reza

2nd AC - Roberto Hurko

staff - Hugo Elías Medrano, Victor Rodríguez Guerrero, Victor Rodríguez Salas & Miguel Herrera García

VTR & DIT - Xavier Peypoch

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art director - María Fernanda González

set decorator - Fernando Callicó

art assistant - Rebeca Olguín

onset - Juan Mora

swing - Alexis Morales

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styling - Chino Castilla & Pedro Lavín

styling assistant - Fabrizzio Obregón & Rebeca Olguín

costume design - Dimitra Petsa, Louis Dorantes, The Love Shell & Pedro Lavín

hair and makeup - Sean Derbees

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post producer - Jodi Kraushar & Nora Zubizarreta

storyboard - Michael Deweese

editing - Loren Christiansen

VFX lead - Briana Franceschini

animation - Pat Porter

rigging - Zed Bennet

compositing - Matthias Bäuerle, Herculano Fernandes, Manu Gaulot, Alexis Jo & Sean Martin

concept design & matte painting - Pedro Lavín

color - Oisín O’driscoll / Harbor Picture Company

graphic design - Fisk Studio & Pedro Lavín

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‘Corazón’ written and performed by Pablo Osorio

produced by Ben Lumsdaine

sound design - Michael Stevenson

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