ARTIST STATEMENT

I make films about identity, grief, and the interior lives of women, especially in the in-between spaces. As a biracial Black and Ecuadorian filmmaker, I’m deeply inspired by my mother, an immigrant from Ecuador, whose quiet strength and survival shaped how I see the world.

My work centers women and girls of color navigating pressure, transformation, and the unseen forces that shape us. Whether it’s a teenager straining to belong at a private school or a woman confronting grief and bodily change in the middle of the night, I’m drawn to moments when the image we present to the world begins to crack. These stories are not always loud, but they ask the audience to lean in and listen to what’s unspoken.

I often work in the space between drama and psychological realism, with an eye toward restraint and emotional intimacy. I explore how race, class, and gender live inside us, how they shape our fears, our choices, and our sense of worth.

My hope is to tell stories that feel deeply personal yet widely resonant. To reflect the lives of women and girls who don’t often see themselves at the center. To honor the quiet strength of those who raised us.

My work is rooted in memory and silence. The kind that’s passed down, the kind we carry, and the kind we learn to break.

~ Kira