Format: 16mm optical sound film, color
Length: 17 minutes
Year of production: 1998

La Llorona (The Weeping Woman) delves into the Mexican folk character and tale of the same name. Through ancedotes, images, and sound fragments, La Llorona investigates how myth has the power to frighten, protect, and provide guidance. In revealing the anguish, condemnation, and reconciliation La Llorona embodies, the film cites the importance this ever-changing narrative possesses for all who learn of it and convey it.

La Llorona (The Weeping Woman) has screened for diverse audiences -- from primary schoolchildren to film festival viewers. Filmmaker Trina Lopez narrates the film, asking this mysterious figure, who haunts riverbanks in search of her drowned children, why her story leaves and indelible impression with those who know of her. La Llorona illustrates the gravity and wealth of cultural value with which it is instilled.

• Honorable Mention, Short Form Film -- Arizona International Film Festival -- Tucson, AZ -- April 1999

• April 1999 -- Arizona International Film Festival -- Tucson, AZ
• April 1999 -- Arizona International Film Festival's "Festival in the Schools" program (2 screenings -- third-grade and high school classes) -- Tucson, AZ
• April 1999 -- Images Festival of Film and Video -- Toronto, Canada
• June 1999 -- Cine Las Americas -- San Antonio, TX
• September 1999 -- Festival Cinema Latino! -- Berkeley, CA
• October 1999 -- Mill Valley Film Festival -- Mill Valley, CA
• March 2001 -- Cinequest 11 -- San Jose, CA
• March 2001 -- International Student Original Film Art (SOFA) Festival -- Watsonville, OR
• September 2001 -- Foreign Cinema -- San Francisco, CA
• September 2003 -- Cinesol -- McAllen and Harlingen, TX
• March 2005 -- Nuestras Raices Literary Arts Festival -- Tucson, AZ
• June 2005 -- Cuauhtemoc Pan American Film Festival, Houston, Texas
• La Raza Studies courses, San Francisco State University

Director's Statement:
Through La Llorona, I wish to convey the awe, respect, and appreciation I have for my native land of southern Arizona and its wealth of tales, moods, and textures. In investigating the culture and geography of the Sonoran Desert through the tale of La Llorona, I reconnected myself to my home after my departure from it, and began to see how my new surroundings in northern California might reveal her presence in their own ways.

How does La Llorona extend beyond the boundaries of my knowledge of her and touch the everyday lives of people throughout the United States, Mexico and beyond? How does her horrific yet protective force make her such a powerful character? What do her various portrayals say about the people who sustain her existence? I hope that La Llorona will inspire curiosity in those who do not know of her, will renew an appreciation for her in those who already do, and will encourage viewers to recognize the value of the stories they tell that weave themselves through generations and lands.