Princesita (2018)

“Do you think you'll still be the chosen one, no matter what you do?” — Miguel

Once upon a time, in a far away land, a little girl lived deep in the woods. They called her Princesita.

If this sounds like the introduction to a quaint, Disney-style fairy tale, it is anything but. Inspired by real-life accounts of secretive cults and the harm they can inflict, Marialy Rivas’s 2018 feature film Princesita twists the princess trope into a dark and dreamy bildungsroman. The follow-up to 2012’s Joven y Alocada (Young and Wild), a film about a young woman in Santiago with strict, religious parents and a scintillating blog, 2018’s Princesita centers on Tamara, a 12-year-old girl who was born into an isolated cult in the south of Chile. Tamara’s world is fueled by magic, myth, and the edicts of charismatic cult leader Miguel – until it isn’t. The film explores themes of purity, power, and patriarchy with a formidable deftness, presenting the story from the perspective of a child who is slowly but surely coming of age and emerging into the light.

It is this idea of light and dark that is explored in Princesita’s gorgeous end credits sequence designed by Santiago-based studio Smog, also responsible for the titles of Rivas’s previous film. Smog Creative Director Pablo González and his team take an experimental approach that uses stock footage, string and hooks, rotoscoping, and digital effects, bringing together imagery of neon lights and sparks, hand tools, and the quiet, lush imagery of the forest.

The glowing names of the cast and crew, created with string that was filmed and then digitally rotoscoped, is a real highlight. Its movement is delicate and awkward, bumbling into the shapes of names as stars spin, dust swirls, ants tumble, and ferns unfurl.

We talk to Rivas and González about the journey to making Princesita, the creation of the end title sequence, and how the film industry in Chile has changed in recent years.

A discussion with Princesita Director MARIALY RIVAS and Title Designer PABLO GONZÁLEZ.

Marialy, before you were a filmmaker, you worked in advertising. Tell me about that. How did you transition into film?

Marialy: This is the thing! From a young age I was into the arts but I didn’t watch TV until I was 20. I used to go to the movies three times a week, so I fell in love with the movies – deeply. The only thing I wanted to study was cinema. We didn’t have a cinema school at the time because they closed everything under the…

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from Art of the Title http://bit.ly/2DjO3jz