MAMITA

Driven by a desire to transmit different perspectives on the stories of migrant populations, I undertook the creation of Mamita in order to give a voice and a singular approach to the collective and unique experience that I wished to represent.

As an immigrant myself, on Quebec soil, of Peruvian origin, I experienced, as a child, a significant event during my first stay in Lima, a few years after my family’s exile. I was able to perceive, even if I did not yet understand the dimension, the sacrificial aspect of this life-changing choice. And this not only for my little nuclear family, but also for the loved ones left behind for whom my parents had become providers. Moreover, during this too short trip, there was question of the imminent marriage of one of my cousins. My mother, like all the other women in the family, was busy with the preparations for the wedding. A strange feeling struck me. It seemed sad that my mother was always working and not fully enjoying the brief time she had with her family. I understood later that this need to lend a hand to those we love, at the expense of quality time without the obligation to work, was an injunction, a heavy injunction.

With a concern for authenticity and realism, adopting a formal naturalistic posture, I immersed myself in the daily life of the protagonist, Mamita, during her return to her home in the community of Laderas de Chillón, inviting the people from this village to participate in the filmic process. In this way, the portrait of this proud and altruistic, but deeply damaged woman, was portrayed in an evocative and singular way, immersed in the unique reality of Laderas.

Mamita is therefore a film about the weight of exile and the heavy feelings that we carry for those left behind; those we leave behind to better support them.