“Memento Mori”

^{︎ AWARDS & RECOGNITION ︎}

_{The Hollywood First-Time Filmmaker Showcase 2023  Best Short Film Winner 
&
Picture's Up! Film Festival 2023  Best Emerging Artist Nominee}

_{HollyShorts Monthly Screenings 2023 - Official Selection
Picture's Up! Film Festival 2023 - Official Selection
The Hollywood First-Time Filmmaker Showcase 2023 - Official Selection
LA Student Film Festival 2023 - Official Selection
LA Latinx Film Festival 2023 - Official Selection
Mystic Film Festival 2023 - Official Selection}

^STILLS

_{Director’s Statement:}

^{I got the idea for this film in the unlikeliest of places: a Calvin & Hobbes comic strip. Hobbes asks:}

<sup>Death is a very interesting thing. I’ve heard it said that the meaning of life is that it ends. I’d even venture beyond that and say that the meaning of life is the cinematic experience itself. It is being in a room and laughing and crying and feeling everything so very deeply, knowing that we will never be here again, and choosing to enjoy ourselves anyway.

Memento Mori, for me, is a byproduct of growing up in a Latino household. One of my favorite aspects of my culture is that it views death as something to be celebrated, not feared. This film is a fantastical, existential, experimental drama in the vein of The Tree of Life (2011) and Soul (2020) which posits that, perhaps, death is the very thing that makes life meaningful.</sup>