Private Project

Mandi, The Little Cockroach

Mandi, The Little Cockroach is a love story, music is its language and laughter is its fuel. One morning, while cleaning her house, our heroine finds a small treasure and fantasizes the best way to invest it. The social pressure that surrounds her around marriage leads her to imagine herself as a jury of a "reality show" that will help her discover what she really wants.. A modern adaptation in cardboard of Rogelio Sinán's story, " La Cucarachita Mandinga" (Little Mandinga Cockroach).

  • Martanoemí Noriega
    Director
  • Martanoemí Noriega
    Writer
  • Tomás Cortés-Rosselot
    Writer
  • Tomás Cortés-Rosselot
    Producer
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    La Cucarachita Mandi
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Short
  • Genres:
    Animation, Short, feminism
  • Runtime:
    9 minutes 10 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 8, 2017
  • Production Budget:
    3,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Panama
  • Country of Filming:
    Panama
  • Language:
    Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1:85:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Festival de Cine Pobre Panalandia
    Panama City,
    Panama
    February 9, 2017
    Best Animation, Best Art Direction and Public Vote
  • aluCINE Latin Films + Media Arts Festival
    Toronto, Ontario
    Canada
  • Festival de Cine de Animacion Anima Latina
    Buenos Aires
    Argentina
  • Philadelphia Latino Film Festival
    Philadelphia
    United States
  • New York Latino Film Festival
    New York
    United States
  • Panamanian International Film Festival
    Los Angeles, California
    United States
  • Kinosmena
    Minsk
    Belarus
  • Festival Icaro
    Guatemala
    Guatemala
  • Festival Icaro Panama
    Panama
    Panama
  • Banaba Festival Derechos Humanos
    Panama
    Panama
    Honorary Mention - Category: Short Film
  • Filmfest Dusseldorf
    Dusseldorf
    Germany
  • MIRA
    Bonn
    Germany
  • Arica Nativa Rural FilmFest
    Arica
    Chile
  • Festival Internacional de Cortometraje El Heraldo
    Tegucigalpa
    Honduras
  • Buenos Aires para Panama
    Buenos Aires
    Argentina
  • HAYAH International Film Festival
    Panama
    Panama
  • The Americas Film Festival
    New York
    United States
  • Premios Excelencia 2017
    Panama
    Panama
    Mejor Cortometraje de Ficción
Director Biography - Martanoemí Noriega

Martanoemí Noriega is a visual artist, born in Panama in 1985. Professionally, she develops social and cultural projects, nationally and internationally since 2004. Noriega has taught painting workshops in England, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Malaysia, and has painted murals in several countries of Latin America and Europe. Has worked as screenwriter in the theater industry in Malaysia (The Actor's Studio and Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center, Malaysia) and also in Panama, Colombia and Argentina. Founder and director of the cardboard publishing house, "Ediciones Pelo Malo", which promotes the rapprochement of people to the literature through image and play. It participates actively in projects committed to opening spaces for reflection on themes such as historical memory, women and identity ". Is currently directing animations
In Carton and 2D illustrations as his most recent work, La Cucarachita Mandi with the production company ANIMAL.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I have known the work of writer Roald Dahl since a long time. He takes the classic stories and crushes, twists, disarms and rebuilds them in an irreverent and sometimes acidic way. I always felt the result of this process much closer to me than the original story.

Later I learned that those "classic" stories, those "old" tales I knew, were "new versions" of even older stories...

... and it is that the stories are alive, they are changing, they are evolving and they cook in the sauce of those who count them, they are spicing up in the capricious memory space that reminds them and it is a game in which it is worth questioning them , Dress them differently and imagine them in other contexts with different decisions and endings.

That is what master Rogelio Sinan did with the oral tradition tale "La Cucarachita Mandinga" and it is precisely what we (smooth and daring) are doing now.

We wonder what would happen if our heroine decided to invest her treasure in another way? Which leads us to a story that while sharing the same trigger, ends up taking us to another place.

There are three very important things that we are inheriting from the version of Rogério Sinán, first is the humor, second is the need to portray our way of life, our identities, and at last is music, which in both Sinan's and in Mandi's story, is an essential ingredient.

"La Cucarachita Mandi" is a love story, music is its language and laughter is its fuel. There is a heroine, a brave rescue and a reality show.

This story is for those who have felt the pressure of entering a mold in which they do not fit, it is for those who sings that song at the disco at all costs and has never noticed the denigrating and violent lyrics that they repeat cheerfully, is for those who want to escape and don't know it and for those who know it and do not escape, for those who play music on Sundays to clean the house, for that aunt who has a furniture that can't fit no more family portraits and that Keeps countless reminders of "quinceañeras", baptisms and weddings. Is for anyone who believes that it is preferable to disappoint others than to disappoint oneself.