In 1995 the world stood still after the murder of rising and beloved recording artist Selena Quintanilla. Gabriela Ortega’s short film “Marga en el DF” takes place along that timeline as Marga, at 21 weeks pregnant, takes a trip to Mexico City and discovers a change in the plans she had for her future.
With the short’s 2026 Sundance Film Festival premiere, Ortega returns with a relationship that has been building for years.
Her connection to the festival began in 2019 through a Sundance theater fellowship, which served as her entry point into the Sundance Institute. That experience led to continued involvement over the following years, including additional fellowships, a selection for her short film “Huella” in 2022 and participation in the Screenwriters Lab in 2023.
Most recently, Ortega returned to Sundance in 2024 as an actress and producer on the short “Border Hopper.” This year marks her second time at the festival as a director — and her first time attending in person in that role.
“I consider myself a multi-hyphenate right now,” Ortega said. “Writing and directing is my calling, but acting is a bit of my first love.”
That approach has shaped her career since her early 20s, when she began making short films out of a need to write roles for herself as an actress. Over time, she said, that impulse evolved into a deeper surrender to story and to telling stories that reflect Caribbean identities and experiences which she said are rarely depicted on screen.
“I really love being Dominican,” Ortega said. “So if I can show people the joy of seeing something from my country, that always makes me happy.”
Ortega said “Marga en el DF” is the film she is most proud of.
“It is a culmination of the last 10 years of me working in the short form world,” she said.
The short follows Marga, a Dominican woman late in her pregnancy, who travels to Mexico City to surprise her husband, only to find herself confronting questions about her marriage and the life she thought was already set.
Though fictional, the film draws heavily from Ortega’s own history. Her father studied in Mexico City, and family stories about long-distance marriage helped shape the emotional core of the film.
“When my parents tell the story of being in a long-distance marriage, I’m like, how could you be long-distance back then?” Ortega said, noting that she is currently in a long-distance relationship herself. “I’m so lucky, because we FaceTime all the time.”
Mexico City itself became central to the film’s language. Ortega first visited the city in her early 20s and fell in love with it. Her experience, she said, shattered negative stereotypes she often heard in the United States.
“I was fascinated by the architecture and how the memory of Mexico in the ’90s is still resisting. I was fascinated by the contrast of you walking down the street and you feel like you’re in Paris, and then right outside the city, there’s this incredible archeological site of the most amazing pyramids,” she said. “You go up there and you feel the four winds, and suddenly you’re connected to something greater than yourself.”
Those tensions of past and present embodied in the city is something that Ortega said she always looks for in her work.
Music plays a central role in “Marga en el DF,” particularly through the use of Quintanilla’s songs, which anchor the film in a timeframe while also reflecting Marga’s internal experience.
“This communal grief starts to mirror Marga’s grief in her own life,” Ortega said.
Drawn to the emotional duality within Quintanilla’s music, Ortega chose to include songs like “Como La Flor,” one of the artist’s most widely recognized tracks, and “Dreaming of You,” which was meant to lead the artist’s transition into the English-language market. The symbolism of “Dreaming of You” deepens the film’s exploration of grief, as Quintanilla was killed before she was able to see that moment realized.
Ortega pointed to the way “Como La Flor” pairs an upbeat, danceable sound with deeply sad lyrics, a contrast she said feels familiar within Latin American culture.
“We really find the joy within the struggle,” Ortega said.
In the film, Marga reaches a moment of realization while visiting Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology, where she encounters the statue of Coatlicue, the Aztec mother of gods.
Ortega said the moment was inspired by her own experience walking through the museum for the first time. As Marga stands before Coatlicue, the film draws a connection between Mexican belief systems and Ortega’s own Taíno heritage, including parallels between Coatlicue and Atabey, the Taíno goddess of creation. The figure’s association with both creation and destruction, pain and power, became central to the scene’s meaning.
Rather than offering a clear answer, the moment is meant to feel expansive and grounding, said Ortega, allowing Marga to return to her center and recognize the power she carries as she prepares to create life.
“I wanted to a make a little ode to the indigenous people of Mexico, because it was almost like me saying thank you for letting me shoot here,” she said.
Asked what she hopes viewers take away from the story, Ortega reflected on the uncertainty at the heart of the film.
“Love is hard, and sometimes it’s not enough,” she said. “But change is always possible, and sometimes we have to go with it and see what happens.”
Ultimately, Ortega hopes audiences approach the film with openness, allowing space for their own interpretations. She described watching a film as an act of self-reflection as much as observation.
“We’re watching the movie, but we’re also watching ourselves,” she said.
Short Film Program 4 in-person screenings
- 9:00 p.m., Jan. 31, Broadway Centre Cinemas 6
- 3:15 p.m., Feb. 1, Holiday Village Cinemas 4
Online
- 8 a.m., Jan. 29-11:55 p.m., Feb. 1