Avem
About the Film
When Andrés, an undocumented immigrant living in the United States, receives a call from home announcing his grandmother’s death, he is confronted with a loss he cannot properly mourn. Unable to return and increasingly disconnected from both his homeland and the country he inhabits, Andrés begins a painful and uncontrollable transformation into a bird. The sudden arrival of his cousin Carolina intensifies the rupture, as each processes grief and displacement in opposing ways—pushing their fragile reality toward chaos.
Director: Luis Quijano
Producers: Luis Quijano, Gabriela Ono
Mexico, United States // 2025 // Horror // Los Shorts
17 minutes
About the Filmmaker
Luis Quijano is a Mexican director, producer, and screenwriter from Mérida, Yucatán, currently based in Los Angeles. In 2022, he founded Balché Films, a production company dedicated to sociocultural stories set in Mexico and the United States, primarily within the horror and fantasy genres.
His work has been showcased internationally in over a dozen countries. He is a two-time NALIP Emerging Content Creator Fellow (2019, 2022) and a participant in the Hola Mexico Film Festival’s Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Todayprogram, presented by HBO and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. In addition to his narrative work, Quijano has written, directed, and produced music videos, commercials, documentaries, and web series for companies and institutions including Funko, Love XO, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Yucatán.
He is currently in post-production on his feature directorial debut, Me Gusta Más Crudo (co-directed with Fabio Colonna), and developing his sophomore feature, Caminante, Caminante, based on his short film of the same name. His most recent short films, AVEM and Caviar Star, are currently screening at festivals.
More information: www.balchefilms.com
