Las Diablillas (The Little Devils) are a softball team from Hondzonot, Mexico who began playing the sport as a way to have fun, create space for themselves, and also challenge traditional gender roles in their indigenous community.

This short documentary introduces Las Diablillas to the world, not just as the Mayan women who play softball barefoot and in their traditional dresses (huipiles), but as a collective voice that highlights their individual journeys by discussing who supported and challenged them along the way. The film explores the family traditions these women have built, the trauma they’ve broken, and the aspirations they have for future generations of women.

The objective of the film is to celebrate the Diablillas' courage, dreams, and what they've accomplished in their community.

The creative idea was to create a montage with a heartbeat.

Our goal was to have as few talking heads as possible and let the Diablillas narrate their collective story as Mayan women in their native language so they could all comfortably and freely express themselves, while still presenting individual stories and challenges of three of their team leaders.

Their story of resilience and soul was captured through our 16mm film camera to give viewers a feeling of truth and transparency. With Hondzonot as another character in this film, we wanted spectators to feel one with nature to understand the Diablillas' way of life at their homes, their field, and sacred indigenous land.

Baseball is a global sport and 30% of professional players are Latino. Their heritage, influence and stories have a tremendous impact on the sport.

With this film, we aimed to expand outside of baseball and celebrate the story of a resilient softball team that is inspiring the next generation of women and athletes. Sports know no boundaries and often build communities in unexpected ways. The Diablillas are the perfect example of just that.

Our director believes that this genre is beautiful for many reasons, one being because of its complexity; there is a true challenge in the fine balance between the story we tell and how we choose to tell it, never letting one overpower the other.

The close attention to detail and subtlety is what we believe to be the key to unlocking an emotional experience that allows us to dive into another’s story in an alluring way.

They were very excited to tell a story about how women can find freedom and power through sports, how a town change its way of thinking because of it, and how this can impact future generations.

Through this film, we confronted those that discredit the Diablillas’ courage and dreams by amplifying their talent on the field and their resilience as women.

Viewers from across the globe resonated with the women’s story and quickly chimed in via comments to share their admiration for the Diablillas and proudly celebrate and share photos of their own local women’s teams.

The story garnered 16.5M impressions and more than 5M total views.

The Diablillas also embroidered a jersey for Chicago Cubs pitcher Manuel Rodríguez, a native of the Riviera Maya. He received the gift before a game in Chicago during Hispanic Heritage Month and was moved after seeing the women in his own family reflected in the Diablillas.