The origin of our production was nearly six years ago, when Director Amanda Strickland & photographer Allie Jordan met Bacila in the remote pueblo of Yaxhachén. Immediately entranced by Bacila’s wisdom & charisma, Amanda enthusiastically said “Yes!” when Bacila asked her to record her story. Bacila didn’t want the tradition of midwifery to end with her death…

 

Nearly three years after making this promise, Amanda located funding & joined hands with Yucatecan producer, Oscar Estrada. Together, we put together a tri-lingual crew in the true spirit of independent filmmaking. We lived in the pueblo for two months, sometimes without running water, always without cell phone service.

 

This low-budget grit helped us to achieve our one common goal: empowering Bacila & the people of Yaxhachén to tell their story in their own words. After our production, we had 57 hours of viable footage. Over the course of six months, Amanda made story alongside Irán Sánchez Ruiz in Mérida. At this time, we made a one hour & 40 minute cut, which we took to Mexico City for color grading with Imagu Studios & sound engineering with Juanjo Rodriguez.