El Lamento de la Hacienda is a Puerto Rican gothic horror short film that explores grief, family silence, and the terrifying cost of refusing to believe survivors. Set during a wake inside a family hacienda, it turns mourning into a reckoning.

This story is personal to both of us because we are survivors of sexual abuse.

A few years ago, with his therapist's help, Erik sat down with his parents and told them. He braced for the worst, for that sentence that cuts the air, mejor no hables más de eso. What came back were tears, love, and their arms around him. When he started opening up to friends who had lived through similar things, his chest tightened as he listened. Their stories were closer to horror, with parents who told them to be quiet, friends who stopped speaking, and family who called them liars. One friend told him each word she heard cut deeper than the last. Another said the rejection felt like being burned alive.

Laura's silence took longer to break. Some experiences leave a mark without ever being named, and for years, that was hers, living in the body and in how she moved through rooms. When she finally spoke about it, someone else decided to share her experience publicly, without her consent. That betrayal gave her the conviction to build spaces where these conversations can take place without re-victimizing the people inside them.

When Erik shared the script with Laura, we recognized each other right away. We are making this film with care, alongside collaborators who know how to hold this kind of work, and with a clear responsibility to anyone who recognizes their own family in what they see.

- Laura Alemán & Erik Francisco Medina