Dominga Sotomayor’s first feature, “Thursday Till Sunday,” was screened at over a hundred festivals, and won the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2012. In 2013 she co-directed “The Island,” winning The Tiger Award once more. In 2009 Sotomayor co-founded Cinestación, a leading production company based in Santiago, where she produces auteur films in Latin-America. Recently, she has been involved in projects such as “Los Fuertes,” “Murder Me, Monster,” and “Raging Helmets.”

“Too Late to Die Young” will begin screening the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival on September 12.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

DS: “Too Late to Die Young” has to do with the nostalgia and the demystification of a period of time. For me, it’s a coming-of-age story of both the young characters and a society — Chile.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

DS: In December of 1989, Augusto Pinochet was kicked out by popular vote in the first democratic election after a dictatorship in Chile. And in March of 1990, Patricio Aylwin, the first president in the transition, started his mandate.

That year my parents moved to a community right below the Andes on the outskirts of Santiago with a group of no more than ten families in the middle of nature and isolated from the city. That summer, between December and March, was a very particular moment, a transition in itself, a parenthesis that was full of expectations.

I lived in this place for around 20 years, I experienced all its transformations.

This film was for me, and gave me the possibility to look back on a different time — to capture a way of living that marked me, and that is going away, and does not seem possible anymore.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

DS: I think the film embodies a period of time that has passed, but it could also represent now. It is like a memory in present tense. I would like people to complete it with their own past, to remember things they had forgotten.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

DS: Trying to make a collective portrait. It was like capturing a mental state. In a certain way, talking about each [character] also defined the general shape of things. Attention is put on some [individuals], but at the same time, on all, giving importance to the group and the place before the individuals.

I was exploring an organic structure that feels loose and big, and even a bit messy, like life. It is a film with digressions. Maybe this has to do with the way we remember things.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

DS: The project was supported by institutions abroad from 2012, such as Sundance, the Hubert Bals Fund, and Binger FilmLab, among others, but it was very difficult to finance the production in Chile. While this kept going, I worked on “The Island,” “MAR,” and “The Boats,” all small projects that gave me another perspective toward this film. I also made two photo exhibitions around the same theme, and I started to produce projects by other directors from Chile and the region through our production company, Cinestación.

In 2016, RT Features from Brazil got involved in the film as co-producers, and since then everything moved forward. We managed to complete the financial structure with our co-producers from Argentina and The Netherlands. They brought public funds from their countries, and we got a small Chilean Fund. We shot in 2017.

I think that during all this time the project was adding layers. It was transforming, and after five years I was in another stage of my life too. The shooting was incredible, a real community of people was put together. We had a very special time. It’s a film made with the love and the work of many people.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

DS: It has to do with memory. I have a very bad memory, and I’m moved by the illusion of capturing and not forgetting.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

DS: The worst: That I should add a big event to my script, such as a kid dying or a house burning.

The Best: To follow my instincts and do what my stomach tells me.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

DS: To define themselves first as filmmakers rather than female filmmakers, and to be persistent.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

DS: I like a lot of films directed by woman. Most recently, I enjoyed “Western” by Valeska Grisebach. It is a film that couldn’t be another thing rather than a film, and couldn’t have been made by another person, and I think it captures real emotions and is alive.

W&H: Hollywood and the global film industry are in the midst of undergoing a major transformation. What differences have you noticed since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?

DS: I think it is an explosive but positive time for necessary changes in the film industry and in general, where women and minorities have made their voices heard and now certain behaviors are not allowed or silenced anymore.