2021 Nevada Women Filmmakers of the Year: Constanza & Doménica Castro
Constanza & Doménica Castro sat down with Dr. Heather Addison in 2021 for an in-depth conversation about their childhoods in Mexico City, their time at UNLV Film, making features in Nevada and starting their own production company, 271 Films, in Los Angeles.
Constanza and Doménica Castro are sister filmmakers from Mexico City and founders of 271 Films, a film, television, and commercial production company based in Los Angeles.
271 Films tells stories that bring meaningful perspectives to an audience, that connect them to their humanity and their emotional intelligence with a focus on stories from underrepresented communities.
The sisters exemplify Latinas in Film with the intention to highlight the ways women have transformed the film industry and have broken glass ceilings. They were named the 2021 Nevada Women Filmmakers of the Year and continue to excel and revolutionize Hollywood by elevating underrepresented stories and voices both in front and behind the camera.
They partnered with Lena Waithe’s Hillman Grad Productions to Executive Produce and co-run the Indeed Rising Voices initiative, which invests in and mentors the next generation of BIPOC directors. The twenty films that make up Seasons 1 and 2 premiered at the Tribeca Festival. Season 1 is now streaming on Amazon Prime and Season 2 theatrically released preceding Jordan Peel’s, ‘Nope’ during opening weekend for a week.
Their work has garnered over 2 billion views, and has screened theatrically across the 6 qualifying metro areas, as well as played on HBO, Amazon, Mubi, The New Yorker Screening Room, Nylon, Vice, BET, MTV, and festivals such as Sundance, AFI Fest, Tribeca, Palm Springs, Atlanta. Calgary and Nashville Film Festival.
They have produced content for clients such as Indeed, Gillette, Facebook, Instagram, T-Mobile, Under Armour and New Balance.
Inspired by their own experiences as ambicultural women, through 271 Films they bring stories that push boundaries, provoke, inspire and entertain a global audience.
‘We Are Here’, their co-directorial debut, world premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival has played at over 20 festivals including DOC NYC, Palm Springs ShortFest, and qualified for the Oscars after winning the Animated Shorts Jury Award at the 2022 New Hampshire Film Festival.
Their feature film project ‘Huella’, written and directed by Gabriela Ortega was chosen as a 2022 Sundance Producers Lab Project with Doménica in the program and they recently produced Season 3 of Taco Chronicles on Netflix. The sisters are developing film and TV projects that they plan to produce, write and/or direct.