Boca Chica

(Boca Chica)
Gabriella A. Moses | Drama, Fiction

2023 | 97 minutes | Dominican Republic

Desi's days unfold in the delicate balance between the vivid dreams of becoming an artist and the subdued reality that frames her daily life.

Synopsis

Beautifully juxtaposing the realities and expectations of a young girl approaching womanhood in the Dominican Republic, Boca Chica shines a light on the insidious child sex trade and the lives it seeks to destroy.

Director Gabriella A. Moses exposes the community’s complicity by way of 12-year-old Desi who is constantly exposed to unwanted advances and crude comments from older men. She works at the family restaurant alongside her mother Carmen, who encourages the behavior, in a once serene beachside town now bustling with foreign tourists.

Music is Desi’s escape. She dreams of parlaying her nascent musical talents into a full-fledged singing career. When she stumbles across a group of local rappers that set themselves apart from the scene, her passions begin to boil to the surface.

Boca Chica explores themes of identity, family, codependency, and truth, exposing how local social norms present the sexualization of very young girls as a path to survival.

Reviews

“Sparked by the light of Camilo’s performance, alongside daily life in the Caribbean, Boca Chica is a quiet film that finds impact in bitter truth and hopes unbound.” — Sherin Nicole, AWFJ

“Its arresting performances, working-class setting, and partial hip-hop soundtrack are reminiscent of Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank and Alice Rohrwacher’s The Wonders. A tale of growing up in a cruel world and family secrets, Moses’s quietly magnetic debut urges us to question the dreams we want to pursue and the façades we may live.” — M.J. O'Tool, Hammer to Nail

“Catches the uneasy intersection that can trap females, of an exuberant culture, curious tourists, and service businesses sustained through remittances of diaspora relatives. This strong sympathy for a Caribbean girl is refreshing.” — Nora Lee Mandel, Maven's Nest

“Gabriella A. Moses and her woman-led crew crafted the film to explore young womanhood and deferred dreams in the Dominican Republic. With its: ‘so crisp it feels like being there’ cinematography and a sense of terrible things lingering at the periphery, Boca Chica compels us to question what is happening and where things went wrong.” — Sherin Nicole, AWFJ

Citation
Main credits

Moses, Gabriella A. (film director)
Rondón, Mariana (screenwriter)
Ugás, Marité (screenwriter)
Ramírez, Sterlyn (film producer)
Camilo, Scarlet (actor)
Cruz, Jean (actor)
Chapman, Lia (actor)

Other credits

Cinematography, Micaela Cajahuaringa; editing, Cecilia Delgado; music, Cresencio "El Prodigio" García.


Citation
Cataloging
Keywords
Boca Chica,Gabriella A. Moses,Dominican Republic,latinx,latinx filmmaker,drama,coming-of-age,coming of age,identity, family, codependency,music,social class,spanish,Scarlet Camilo,Lia Chapman,Jean Cruz,Richarson Díaz,Cindy Lou Howard,Juan Hughes,Eliseo Antonio Paredes,Sterlyn Ramírez,Xiomara Rodríguez,Pedro Salamanca,prostitution,economic,girlhood,sexuality,tourism,latin,caribbean,latin/caribbean global relations,lgbtq+,Afro-Latin,afro latin america,black latin america,afro latino,afro latinx,afro latina,black latino,black latinx,black latina,afro latin,afro-americanism,afro-brazilian,afro-cuban,afro-haitian,afro-colombian,afro-dominican,afro-mexican,afro-puertorican,afro-honduran,afro-bolivian,afro-argentinian,afro-chilean,afro-peruvian,afro-nicauraguan,afro-guatemalan,afro-caribbean,diaspora,slave trade,economics,social class,money,capital,capitalism,class,economy,prejudice,intersectionality,inequality,poverty,income gap,wage gap,class warfare,elitism,snobbery,bourgeois,poverty,upper class,middle class,lower class,nouveau riche,culture,identity,identity politics,culture wars,left wing,right wing,intersectionality,identity groups,civilization,literacy,humanism,cancel culture,online culture,cultural revolution,cultural diffusion,culture shock,popular culture,pop culture,material culture,cultural capital,cultural assimilation ,caribbean studies,the caribbean,caribeean sea,caribbean island,antigua and barbuda,bahamas,barbados,cuba,dominica,dominican republic,grenada,haiti,jamaica,saint kitts and nevis,st lucia,st vincent and the grenadines,and trinidad and tobago,anguilla,aruba,british virgin islands,caribbean netherlands,bonaire,sint eustatius,saba,cayman islands,curaçao,guadeloupe,martinique,montserrat,puerto rico,saint barthélemy,saint martin/sint maarten,turks and caicos islands,us virgin islands,gender,sexuality,gender roles,gender identity,sexual orientation,gender equality,gender pronouns,gender studies,gender spectrum,gender norms,gender roles,gender stereotypes,sexual selection,sexualization,sexual awakening,puberty,pubescence,labor studies,employment studies,workers rights,workers’ rights,organizing,labor unions,trade unions,unions,industry,employment law,working class,labor rights,labor equity,employment,union organizing,labor organizing,labor rights movements,employment rights movements,workers’ rights movement,workers rights movements,family,kin,fellowship,household,immediate family,extended family,multigenerational family,multigenerational household,kinfolk,family tree,genealogy,nuclear family,modern family,family tree,sociology,anthropology,psychology,sociological,sociological perspectives,conflict theory,human conflicts,sociological thinking,conflict perspective,topics in sociology,sociology topics,sociology studies,social studies,people and cultures,human relations,human relationships,cultural studies,culture studies ,women,womanhood,gender,girl,girlhood,mother,motherhood,female,cis woman,cis female,trans woman,trans female,women’s rights,women’s issues,lady,ladies,gentlewoman,madame,miss,missus,mrs.,dame,damsel,ingenue,lass,maid,maiden,belle,gal,ladyfriend,girlfriend,dear,darling,widow,matron,dowager,gender,gender equality,gender pay gap,women’s liberation,women’s rights,latinx,latin american,latino,latina,latin american people,hispanic,hispanic people,hispanic people,chicano,chicana,latine,latinx heritage,afro-latinx; "Boca Chica"; Pragda Films
Clips
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Festivals

Tribeca Film Festival; Nora Ephron Award; Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival; Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival; El Festival Internacional de Cine de Santiago (FIC SANTIAGO); Loft Film Festival; Atlantic International Film Festival; Cine Sin Fronteras; New York Latino Film Festival

DIRECTOR: Gabriella A. Moses

NATIONALITY: Dominican Republic

YEAR: 2023

GENRE: Drama, Fiction

LANGUAGE: Spanish; English

COLOR / B&W: Color

GRADE LEVEL: High School, College, Adult

SUBTITLE/CC: AVAILABLE

AUDIO DESCRIPTION: NOT AVAILABLE

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