Until April 25, Casa América is screening the film The Invention of Species in its Iberia Room on Fridays and Saturdays. This is the fourth feature film by Ecuadorian filmmaker Tania Hermida.
“I visited the Galápagos Islands for the first time as a teenager. Since then, the image of those volcanic confines of my homeland, where mutation as a survival strategy is visible in every creature, has accompanied my investigations into the oddities of our species, that erratic animal that sings, dances, writes, and kills,” says filmmaker Tania Hermida.
Starring Pancho Aguirre, Jean Carlo Cabrera, Alejandra Camacho, and Ana María Carrión, among others, the film tells the story of Carla, who has just entered adolescence and is grieving when she arrives in the Galápagos with her father, a biologist specializing in tortoise conservation. For seven days, reminiscent of those in the Book of Genesis, she traces the meaning of her journey and meets Harriet, a healer who practices the art of healing through storytelling. Like the iguanas, which mutated into marine creatures to survive, Carla transforms into an island and learns to cling to the stone, submerge, and emerge to tell her story.
Tania Hermida (Ecuador, 1968) is a director, screenwriter, and producer. Her films How Far Away (2006), In the Name of the Daughter (2011), and The Invention of Species (2024) have been screened and awarded at numerous international film festivals. She combines independent film production with university teaching and research. She holds additional degrees in Film Aesthetics and Creative Writing, and a Master’s degree in Cultural Studies. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Arts of the Complutense University of Madrid, writing her dissertation on Screenwriting Poetics.