HellenH. Castro
Film director, screenwriter and producer based in Mexico City
Films about childhoods the world tries to tame. Stories for brands that have something to say.
Open to directing and producing projects
Profile
Hellen H. Castro belongs to a generation of Mexican filmmakers who don’t separate art from craft: she writes and directs auteur cinema, produces other people’s films and leads creative work at an audiovisual studio for brands.
She was born in Puebla, Mexico. She studied Communication at the Universidad de Montemorelos, specialized in Production at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC) and in 2025 was a screenwriting resident at the EICTV in Cuba.
Her films look at working childhoods, women who remember and different ways of being in the world. Her short films screened at the Guanajuato International Film Festival, and she directed the miniseries Acquaintances for Hope Channel Inter-America.
As a producer she has worked on Siguiente parada: Planeta X, by Efraín Ortiz, selected at FICValdivia 2025; Largo camino al amanecer, by Luis Arellano, selected at the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards and Macabro 2025; Animal, by Diego Padilla; and Candelaria, by Efraín Ortiz. She is also producing Mango, by Antonia Benjumea Vélez, which she co-wrote.
With Zoar Flores and Eduardo Navarrete Pajarito she formed La Milpa Cine, the production company behind her debut feature, Podar el viento, winner of the DECINE 2026 development grant from IMCINE, the Mexican Film Institute, and selected for the GIFF Incubator 2026.
She also founded Creativo 115, the studio now led by Raquel Ramos as General Director. There, Hellen heads creative direction and audiovisual production: campaigns, music videos, documentaries, brand identity and content for brands and organizations. Her profile brings together what is usually taught separately: an auteur’s eye, production and strategy.
Podar el viento
Pruning the Wind, her debut feature. Judith fixes everything that breaks in her village. She comes to the city to keep studying and gets trapped in a house that exploits her. To get out, she will use the one thing no one could take from her: the way she understands how things work.
Read about the filmLa Milpa Cine
Cinema begins with finding each other.
La Milpa Cine is the fiction and documentary production company Hellen formed in Mexico City with Zoar Flores and Eduardo Navarrete Pajarito. It was born from the wish to make close, sensitive films built in community, and it accompanies each story from its origin to the screen.
Hellen H. CastroDirector, screenwriter and producer. Childhood, landscape, body and intimacy to reveal social tensions.
Zoar FloresProducer. Film production, cultural management and national tours.
Eduardo Navarrete PajaritoProducer, CCC graduate. Producer of El baile de las ánimas, by Ramón Llaven.
From the notebook
Before shooting, Hellen draws the film by hand: locations, house plans, objects and scenes, with notes in the margins. These pages come from her director’s notebook for Podar el viento.
Filmography
In development
Producer
Director and screenwriter
Reel
Creativo 115
Creativo 115 is the audiovisual production and content strategy studio Hellen founded. It is led by Raquel Ramos, its General Director, while Hellen heads creative direction and audiovisual production. Together they work with brands and organizations from start to finish: from identity to video, from social media to the website.
The question is the same as in her films: what is the story, and who does it need to reach.
Raquel RamosGeneral Director
Hellen H. CastroFounder. Creative director and head of audiovisual production
- Audiovisual production
- Content and social media strategy
- Brand identity and design
- Websites
- Social impact campaigns
- Music videos and documentaries
Script consulting
Hellen reads scripts as both a director and a producer: what the story wants to say and what it will cost to shoot. She works with writers to find the conflict that holds everything up, cut what isn’t needed and reach an ending that earns its place. Sessions in Spanish or English.
- Script coverage with notesA written report on structure, characters and tone that starts with what the script already does well.
- Working sessionsConversations to unlock scenes, motives and the ending.
- Draft-by-draft supportSeveral rounds as the script evolves, until it is ready for a fund, a call or a lab.
Contact
A paper plane works too, but email gets there first.
Hellen is open to new directing and producing projects: fiction, documentary and branded content.