Creative production company ALTERED.LA has added Barcelona-based director María De Castro for representation spanning commercials and branded content in the U.S. and Colombia. This marks her first foray into the U.S. market.
De Castro began her career in 2015, when she founded her own commercial and content production company, Mediano Films. Her debut into directing was with the short film Taste, which she wrote, directed and produced. The story follows a woman who unexpectedly loses her sense of taste and embarks on a personal exploration of memory. The film was a Vimeo Staff Pick and had a successful festival run, being selected at Caniff, Milanofff and was shown in the Directors’ Fortnight at the Hammer Museum L.A. Another one of her notable projects, The Misfits, is a fashion film for Metal Magazine which was shot entirely in 35mm.
Throughout the years De Castro has worked with global agencies including McCann, BBDO and DDB, and brands like Audi, Volkswagen, Futbol Club Barcelona, Vueling, Asus, and Saba (“Libresse en Us”) to name several.
Passionate about telling character-driven stories, De Castro is currently developing the script for her first feature film La Oportunidad (The Opportunity), which will be produced by Frida Films and was recently selected for the prestigious Torino Film Lab program.
Marcos Cline, founder and executive producer at ALTERED.LA, commented, “We’ve been following María’s growth as a director for a couple of years now and have been consistently impressed with her skills. She’s been able to not just launch a successful directing career in Europe, but Latin America as well. We talk a lot about being a home for Latino directors who have a global aesthetic, a top tier, general market ‘look’ if you will, and María is exactly that.”
Cline added, “As a minority owned company we understand the struggles faced by underrepresented talent when trying to land jobs. In recognizing that, we place a lot of value in being an important piece in the professional development of talent from that pool. Truthfully, we’ve worked hard to be in a position where we can add value and bring opportunities to the careers of up-and-coming Latina directors like María. Now that we can, the onus is on us to follow through with that and help drive María’s career to where we know it can be.
De Castro said, “I am happy, excited and looking forward to filming in the US. The truth is that, like almost all things that happen naturally in life, it was a group of people and coincidences that brought me to join ALTERED.LA The first being José Morales from Plan(9) Media, a partner production powerhouse based in Colombia, who now represents me and with whom I have shot several times. In the past, I had also met Paco Cossío on a project I was shooting in Mexico while he serviced from LA, so having trusted producers involved made me very interested in joining the company.
“With ALTERED.LA,” she continued, “I have the opportunity to direct campaigns as a woman, but not only for the female market. I think this is the next challenge, not only as a woman to be present in the industry but also to be able to film anything and make a stand. In any case, it would be great to be able to come around a lot.
“Lastly, the quality of the directors on the roster, especially coinciding with Albert Grabuleda, a director I admire and a good friend of my friends in Barcelona. In the end, production companies are the people that make them, and in this case ALTERED.LA has a great team that I want to be a part of.”
