• A short film
  • about a young girl
  • a migrant camp
  • a risky plan
  • and a twist

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Synopsis

A family of migrant workers send their 12-year- old daughter and her outlaw cousin into the night on the promise of a stranger. Selling Rosario is the story of a young girl growing up in a migrant labor camp and her parents’ risky plan to get her out of an unsafe, squalid environment. They believe almost any place else would be better for her to grow up. We meet Rosario and her family on the day this plan will either succeed or fail.

As Rosario is driven into the night, we hope the audience is making all of the wrong assumptions about her fate. Expect to be surprised.

Director's Statement

While filming a public service campaign on a farm in California’s Central Valley, we stumbled across a spooky and ramshackle building with an eviction notice stapled to the front door. Curious, we walked in to discover an empty migrant labor camp. Only days before, its residents had been removed by the owner and police. Fragments of their lives remained, frayed blankets covered the windows, a worn doll rested on the floor, a straw hat sat like a still life on a half-made bed, a bible lay open. We were mesmerized. Making our way through that camp, so recently full of life and now so eerily empty, we wondered what stories it could tell. On the way home from our shoot, our minds reeling from that at-once sad and beautiful experience, we imagined Rosario into existence.

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Trailer

Rosario's Crew

Emily Miller
Producer

Emily is an independent, award-winning producer of fiction and non-fiction films. For the past decade, she has produced narrative, documentary, and commercial work on six continents. She is a founding member of Panem Pictures, a filmmakers collective. Currently, she is developing a Dutch narrative feature and an Irish documentary feature.

Iana Simeonov
Co-Director, Co-Writer

Iana, a former art critic and columnist, completed her art history studies in Paris. Over a 10-year career in the arts she worked in Milan, Berlin and New York, ultimately founding an art dealership focused on developing young collectors and producing over 50 exhibitions. Iana is now a researcher and digital health innovation consultant at the Public Health Institute where her work focuses on technology in underserved and immigrant communities.

Michael Winokur
Co-Director, Co-Writer, DP

Michael has worked as a journalist, photographer, and commercial director. His first narrative script, Selling Rosario, draws on experiences he had photographing an in-depth piece on legal immigration. His photography, focused on people and portraiture, has been featured in a variety of publications and received awards from the prestigious Graphis and American Photography annuals and from American Photographic Artists.

Rey Godoy
Assoc. Producer & Assistant Director

Rey is a San Francisco Bay Area independent, award-winning writer, director and producer of short films. He started his journey in filmmaking as a writer but soon turned to producing, which he found aligned well with his strengths. Rey is an Advisory Board Member of Bay Area Digital Arts (B.A.D.A), an academically rigorous learning community. He currently has numerous projects in various stages of production.

Elida Avina
Associate Producer

Elida has over sixteen years of experience producing and directing commercials, industrials and educational videos. With Selling Rosario, she took on her first short film as associate producer. Over the years she has worked closely with migrant communities across California, conducting research and helping shape messaging around workplace safety, worker rights and health care. She is also a Spanish-bilingual/bicultural research strategist and focus group moderator working with high-profile national brands […]

Ronald Bacardi
Composer

Ronald Bacardi (a pseudonym) has composed for film, TV, web and theatre.  Films he has scored have  appeared at a variety of film festivals, and several high profile websites have featured material using his music.  He is a past winner of a BMI national student composer award.  Ronald has three degrees from Harvard University and has studied composition and orchestration at The Julliard School (Evening Division) and Paracademia.

Cast

Mia Xitlali (Rosario)

Mia is a Los Angeles native born into a musical family. As a small child she began studying classical piano, Japanese Taiko and Mexican regional music. Although early in her career, Mia has made numerous appearances on stages in and around Los Angeles, including The Hollywood Bowl. Her first acting role as Rosario was quickly followed with a role in the MGM feature film MAX (in theaters June 2015) where […]

Robert Renderos (Otilio)

Robert is a Los Angeles based SAG Actor/Producer. He can be seen on television (True Detective 2016 season, The Bridge 2014 season) and film (Captured 2015/16, Counter Clockwise 2016 and Selling Rosario 2014). Robert has a Meisner background from Playhouse West and is a member of TAN (The Actor’s Network) and NALIP (National Association of Latino Independent Producers) www.robertrenderos.com

Cristina Valle (Isabella)

Cristina was born and raised in Ecuador. She started her career as a model in Guayaquil and as a contestant in the Miss Ecuador pageant. Cristina first drew praise for her role in Riansex, a comedy television show co-produced by “el Turco” from the famous Argentinian TV program Video Match. After several more stints on hit Ecuadorian TV shows, Cristina fell in love with acting and moved to the U.S. […]

Alma Martinez (Tia)

Alma’s acting career spans 40 years in film, television and theatre. Most recently, she had a recurring role in the premier season of F/X’s The Bridge. On film, she can been seen in Cake, Strike One, the award winning short Selling Rosario and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016. Ms. Martinez holds Ph.D. in Drama from Stanford University, an MFA in Acting from USC and is a member […]

Laurels & Awards

Behind The Scenes

Press

CINE: ‘Vendiendo a Rosario’

El trama del cortometraje toma un giro inesperado.

Jorge A. Argüello in El Prensa / Excélsior

Film review: Selling Rosario–a fresh vision on the film festival circuit

A beautifully crafted short film. Newcomer Mia Xitlali is stunning as Rosario, balancing innocence and burgeoning womanhood.

Jennifer Oliver O’Connell review in Examiner.com

10 Most Intriguing Short Films of 2015 (so far)

Selling Rosario delights in wrong footing the audience … The narrative is stylistically imaginative and elegantly constructed, and newcomer Mia Xitlali is vastly impressive.

— Ben Cooke Review in WhatCulture

Rosario’s Twist

I really enjoyed Selling Rosario. I felt as though [the film] embraced the nature of the short film medium, by adding that twist at the end, but it was a twist that subverted our expectations of the story, rather than just being clever.

— Anders Wright San Diego Union Tribune

Dances With Films Fest 2015 ‘Short Film Reviews’

Loved both the style and sound design of this stunning short. Not to mention that the story involving the fate of a young girl proves to be more clever than the audience imagines – I’m sold. – 4 stars 

— Jason Coleman review in Star Pulse

Pitch Perfect

Iana Simeonov and Michael Winokur, shared one of the awards in 2013 and went on to make an award-winning short film, “Selling Rosario,” that won both the Jury Prize and Audience Award at the NVFF 2014.

— Tim Carl in the Napa Valley Register

Artist Profile: Michael Winokur and Iana Simeonov–freshman filmmakers score big

If Michael and Iana were not filmmakers before, they certainly are filmmakers now. The experience, as well as the magical nature of Rosario’s story is begging for a fuller telling.

— Jennifer Oliver O’Connell profile in Examiner.com

Interview with Michael Winokur and Iana Simeonov

We wondered who had been here and what dreams had brought them to this place. We imagined a young girl and her parents’ hope for her future.

Vanessa McMahon on FilmFestivals.com


PDF Press Kit

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Credits

Rosario Mia Xitlali
Otilio Robert Renderos
Isabella Cristina Valle
Tia Alma Martinez
Lucia Julieta Ortiz
Luis Carlo Zapata
Juicy Jules Flemming
Music Professor Scott Parkin
Professor’s Assistant Shelley K. Booker
Deadbeat Arnoldo Bojorquez, Jr.
Girl in Alley Kelsey Fleet
Man with Package William Guirola
Loan Shark Izais Santiago
Dancer Janalise Gregor
Waitress Yesenia Hernandez
Men in Camp Otilio L. Pesina
Arnulfo Cervantes
Emanuel Quezada
Roman Anthony
Emilio Pesina
Benito Bustamante
Producer Emily Miller
Executive Producers Michael Winokur & Iana Simeonov
Director of Photography Michael Winokur
Production Designer Iana Simeonov
Editors Michael Winokur, Bara Jichova
Associate Producer Rey Godoy
Elida Avina
Composer Ronald Bacardi
Casting Director Yvonne Armstrong
Assistant Director Rey Godoy
2nd Assistant Director Luther C. McGill, Jr.
Costume Designer Anna Elledge
Key Hair & Makeup Artist Veronica Sjoen
Hair & Makeup Artist Claudia Sjoen
Camera/Steadicam Operator Timothy Dolan
1st Assistant Camera Misael G. Audelo
Grip & Electric Blare Media
Little Giant Lighting & Grip
Gaffer Ian McAleece
Key Grips Ryan Najibi
Blake Hooks
Location Sound Brandon Loulias
Studio Teacher Shelley Booker
BTS Videographer Steven Krebs
Audio post-production services provided by Berkeley Sound Artists, Inc.
Sound Design Jamie Branquinho
Sound Consultant James LeBrecht
Re-recording Mixer Dan Olmsted
Music Recorded at Ex’pression College for Digital Arts
Recording Engineer Daria Karpova
Camp Loop Group Alvaro Portillo
Andy Lopez
Boris Escobar
Color Carey Burens/Spy Post
Title Design Kevin Stokes
Graphic Artist Sky Winchester
Stills Retoucher Chrysta Giffen
Storyboard Artist Andrew Statmiller

Music

“Weedpatch Mariachi”
Written by Ronald Bacardi
Performed by Ronald Bacardi & Ari Micich
 –
“Little Mohee”
Courtesy of the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin migrant workers collection (AFC 1985/001), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
 –
“Yo Soy Quien Soy”
Written by Jose Luis Maldonado Ramos & Christina Lopez
Produced by Alexander Puente for 110 South Music
Performed by C-Kan featuring T. Lopez
Courtesy of Mastered Trax
 –
“Voy Por El Sueño de Muchos”
Written by Jose Luis Maldonado Ramos
Produced by Ness Beats
Performed by C-Kan
Courtesy of Mastered Trax
 –
“Violinista Mexicana”
Written by Ronald Bacardi
Performed by Kay Stern

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