Modern Languages and Literatures presents "Boca Chica" is a film by Gabriella A. Moses from the Dominican Republic.

SYNOPSIS

Desi's days unfold in the delicate balance between the vivid dreams of becoming an artist and the subdued reality that frames her daily life.

Beautifully juxtaposing the realities and expectations of a young girl approaching womanhood in the Dominican Republic, "Boca Chica" shines a light on the insidious child sex trade and the lives it seeks to destroy.

Director Gabriella A. Moses exposes the community’s complicity by way of 12-year-old Desi who is constantly exposed to unwanted advances and crude comments from older men. She works at the family restaurant alongside her mother Carmen, who encourages the behavior, in a once serene beachside town now bustling with foreign tourists.

Music is Desi’s escape. She dreams of parlaying her nascent musical talents into a full-fledged singing career. When she stumbles across a group of local rappers that set themselves apart from the scene, her passions begin to boil to the surface.

"Boca Chica" explores themes of identity, family, codependency and truth, exposing how local social norms present the sexualization of very young girls as a path to survival.