Private Project

La Pequeña Muerte

In this visual poem set in contemporary Mexico, two lovers share an afternoon of passion as an ancient deity from their dreams performs an orgiastic dance that mirrors their ecstasy.

The spirit visitor, known only as the Little Death, leads the couple on an oneiric journey of transformation and rapture. Heralded by strange, symbolic visions the trio come to an ecstatic climax; as the walls between reality and fantasy collapse. Like orgasm itself, the spirit’s ritual ends where it began in an infinite cycle of love, life and death.

Told through magical realism and Mexican mythology, the film represents a homecoming for filmmaker Pedro Lavín who, with La Pequeña Muerte, returns to his roots to tell a story that is uniquely queer, and singularly Mexican.

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  • Pedro Lavin
    Director
    Sophia, La Pequeña Muerte, A Garden Under The Earth
  • Pedro Lavin
    Writer
    Sophia, La Pequeña Muerte, A Garden Under The Earth
  • Gabriel Barragan
    Producer
  • Pedro Lavin
    Producer
  • Wesley Ensminger
    Key Cast
    "The Little Death"
  • Ernesto Peart
    Key Cast
    "The Lover"
  • Ton Saguilan
    Key Cast
    "The Lover"
  • Jordi Planell
    Director of Photography
  • Maria Fernanda González
    Production Designer
  • Pablo Osorio
    Music
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    La Pequeña Muerte
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Magical Realism, Fantasy, Queer, Dance, LGBTQIA, Art
  • Runtime:
    6 minutes 45 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 7, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    10,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Mexico
  • Country of Filming:
    Mexico
  • Language:
    Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Pedro Lavin

Pedro Lavin (b. 1989) is filmmaker and visual artist from Mexico City, currently living and working in NYC.

His work explores self mythology, ritual and personal pantheons; weaving magical realism and oneiric fantasy with his own lived experience to create story. This aesthetic pursuit is rooted in themes of sex, gender and desire; the metamorphotic power of nature; and the primal link between the sacred and the profane. With an extensive background in creative direction for film, animation and VFX; and an audacious, pioneering embrace of novel tech and AI; Lavin’s multidisciplinary practice unfolds across a variety of mediums including film, concept and generative art.

Lavin’s work has been shown internationally in the Sundance Film Festival, Annecy Animation Film Festival, REDCAT Gallery in LA; JO-HS Gallery in CDMX, collected a Bronze Cannes Lion, won gold at ORION Film Festival; and is a part of Vimeo’s curated Experimental Film Collection. It has been covered by the New York Times, LA Times, Communication Arts Magazine, Fast Company and STASH Media.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Many years ago, I left the city where I was born.

I was fleeing. Seeking a safe place, away from the oppression of a deeply traditional society and an overbearing Catholic church, in which to come into my sexuality. I found my Eden in California, and later New York, where my queerness finally flourished and I collected all the experiences I had previously been denied: a crush, a kiss, sex. And finally love. It was exhilarating, a long awaited completion of a years long ritual.

This same euphoria and newfound freedom, however, curdled the memory of my oppressive early years in Mexico and I grew angry at my country. It became an antiquated and seemingly unnecessary part of me so I shut it away. Tried to forget it.

But, of course, the past never dies.

Among many things ‘La Pequeña Muerte’ is a return to my mother land. A reclamation of my history, and reconciliation of my two halves: a closeted past in Mexico City with a liberated present. With it I examine mythologies from my country and reframe them within a new, queer context. I subvert the ‘machista’ archetypes that surrounded me growing up (the luchador, the matador, the charro, the Catholic priest) and reinterpret them through a queer lens to create my new vision of Mexico. In my fantasy, the ruins of a Catholic chapel become a love deity’s temple; a monarch butterfly escaping from a god's mouth after orgasm recalls ancestral Mexican beliefs that monarchs carried the souls of the departed; and the ‘calavera’ or skull, ever present in the death-obsessed Mexican imagination, becomes a pearlescent, seminal, ritual mask.

Above all ‘The Little Death’ is a story of love: a union of two halves. It’s a cosmic celebration of tender, queer sensuality and savage passion; which is still so seldom seen on screen. The oneiric fantasy and symbology I employed in its creation ultimately serve as visual metaphors for the rare, carnal beauty that is found at the core of love: orgasm. That infinite instant where reality dissolves and, for a moment, the only people in the world are two entwined lovers.