Cinematic OGs: Mosquita y Mari

  • 2 girls on a bycicle

Filmmaker Aurora Guerrero in conversation with curator Vero Majano.

“An unassuming indie jewel.” — Stephen Holden, New York Times

Set in a predominately Mexican, immigrant neighborhood in Los Angeles, MOSQUITA Y MARI tells the story of two 15 year old Chicanas growing up in H.P. —Huntington Park. When Yolanda Olveros (“Mosquita”) meets her new neighbor, Mari Rodriguez, all they see in each other are their differences. As a sheltered, only-child to her older, immigrant parents, Yolanda’s sole concern is securing her college-bound future. Street-wise Mari hustles to help her undocumented family stay above water. But despite Yolanda and Mari’s contrasting approach to survival, Yolanda and Mari are soon brought together when Mari is threatened with expulsion after saving Yolanda from an incident at school involving Yolanda’s boy-crazed friends. Determined to call it even, Yolanda convinces Mari to let her tutor her after school to prove to the administrators that she’s more than a delinquent. Mari and Yolanda forge a friendship that soon proves more complex and sensual than anticipated. Pushed to the edge, Yolanda and Mari are faced with taking hold of their own lives.

Preceded by Aurora Guerrero’s short film En la Madrugada (1999, 15 min)


Aurora Guerrero is a queer-identified Chicana born to immigrant Mexican parents and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her B.A. in Psychology and Chicano Studies at UC Berkeley. Later, she obtained her M.F.A. in film directing from Cal Arts and has over 15 years experience as a writer/director. Guerrero has made award-winning short films and has worked as an assistant to directors on films such as Real Women Have Curves and La Mission. Guerrero’s first fiction feature film, Mosquita y Mari, about a budding love between two 15 year old Chicanas from southeast Los Angeles, traveled top-tier U.S and international film festivals including Sundance, Melbourne, Goteborg, Sao Paolo and Guadalajara, garnering multiple awards including Best First Narrative Feature and Best Leading Actress at Outfest and earning a 2013 John Cassavetes Spirit Award nomination. Mosquita y Mari was theatrically released in Europe and New York City where it received critical praise. Since, Guerrero has directed on prestigious television shows including Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal’s Oakland set Blindspotting.

Vero Majano is a multi-disciplinary artist born and raised in San Francisco’s Mission District. Her practice includes live cinema, archival and experimental film, performance and collage, to preserve and include untold queer Latinx narratives in a greater San Francisco history.


Curated by Vero Majano, the Cinematic OGs series gives props and acknowledges the work of filmmakers who came up in 1990’s San Francisco. A time when there was a special creative energy in SF The city was our art school…

Presented by Mission Love and RoxCine, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Runtime
1h 41m
Year
2012
Director
Aurora Guerrero
Format
Digital
First Showing
October 28, 2024