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EQUINOX (Subtitulado)

In the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza, an inexperienced Priestess steadies her nerves against a skeptical crowd and her own inner doubt to summon Kukulcan, The Feathered Serpent, so that he may bring spring into the world through the Equinox ritual. Her efforts are foiled by an overzealous intruder, stalking from the shadows, who attacks and derails the ritual to summon his own god of darkness, Xolotl, aiming to destroy the serpent once and for all.

The Priestess searches deep within, finding the strength and courage to fight back against her inhuman foe, vanishing both him and his dark god away from the city. As the sun sets, Kukulcan finishes the ritual and spreads his gift through the land, leaving the confident priestess to enjoy the embrace of a cheering crowd.

  • Elisa Gimenez Valdes Fernandez Posada
    Director
  • Elisa Gimenez Valdes Fernandez Posada
    Writer
    Oniden
  • Elisa Gimenez Valdes Fernandez Posada
    Producer
  • Elisa Gimenez Valdes Fernandez Posada
    Key Cast
    "Apprentice"
  • Elisa Gimenez Valdes Fernandez Posada
    Key Cast
    "Elder"
  • Javier Cortes Martinez Celis
    Key Cast
    "Narrator"
  • Elisa Gimenez Valdes Fernandez Posada
    Background, Character, and Prop Design
    Oniden
  • Harini Uma
    Animation Colorists
  • Jihoon Choi
    Animation Colorists
  • Megan Chen
    Animation Colorists
  • Tiffany Makdissy
    Animation Colorists
  • Elisa Gimenez Valdes Fernandez Posada
    Animation Colorists
  • Elisa Gimenez Valdes Fernandez Posada
    Animation
  • Elisa Gimenez Valdes Fernandez Posada
    Compositing
  • Elisa Gimenez Valdes Fernandez Posada
    Editing
  • Diego Sudarsky Cabral
    Original Score and Sound Design
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Fantasy, Action, Animation
  • Runtime:
    3 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    May 16, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Hand-drawn 2D animation
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Laguna College of Art + Design
Director Biography - Elisa Gimenez Valdes Fernandez Posada

Elisa Gimenez is a born-and-raised Mexico City writer, artist, and filmmaker. Raised amongst a lively gaggle of aunts and cousins, she moved to Los Angeles in 2016 to pursue her filmmaking dreams, where she earned her Associate’s Degree in Computer Animation, and later to Orange County where she graduated with honors from the Laguna College of Art + Design, earning her Bachelor’s in Traditional Animation with a Creative writing minor, producing, designing, and animating the short fantasy film EQUINOX along the way as her thesis project and directorial debut.

Elisa has previously worked as a storyboard artist, character designer, visual developer, and background painter artist in a variety of student-led and professional projects, as well as participating in screenwriting competitions and workshops including the "Netflix: Writing for Animation Masterclass" in 2021.

Elisa will be returning to Mexico in 2022, this time to sunny Cabo San Lucas to begin production of her newest short film and establish her fantasy and magical realism focused animation studio.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I wrote and directed EQUINOX as an ode to the beauty and the so-far untapped potential of mesoamerican civilizations in film. We've grown far too used to seeing stick huts and tribal groups lost in the jungle in media, maybe an occasional raw stone structure, sun-bleached and plain against the greenery. That's not who the Maya were. You can see it today in their clothing, in their food, in their artwork. The Maya were, and are, a society of color. Life exploded through the walls of these ancient cities through intricate murals and reliefs. The people who walked those streets laughed, cried, celebrated, loved, they lived! Just like us.

I think we're all growing a little tired of dragons and orcs. I want to see gods, brave ones, petty ones, kind ones. I want jaguars and quetzals, and hummingbirds carrying the sun across the sky.

I want to see Mesoamerica alive in the most fantastical ways, and if no one else is up for it, I'm more than happy to bring it back to life myself.