I WANT TO BE HOME WHEN THE NIGHT COMES is a Spanish-language feature screenplay about a young South American woman desperately seeking the meaning of life and death within and outside her city after the unexpected passing of a close friend.
A self-identified feminist who believes financial independence is the key to living her values, Fernanda deftly balances a corporate job, an internship at an investigative magazine, and her thesis project for the Journalism program at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. But the death of someone who we later discover was her turbulent first love, Laura, upends Fernanda’s entire sense of self and direction.
Fernanda’s attempts to escape the depths of despair lead her to travel to a feminist gathering in the north of Argentina, where she experiences ecological and indigenous practices that spark moments of connection, with Mother Nature as well as with a group of young queers. Joining them as they journey on to Brazil, she glimpses the necessity of community, but runs away when grief rears its relentless head. Back and adrift in Buenos Aires, Fernanda discovers she’s integrating a new set of values, finding solace in friendship and communal rituals.
Florencia Manóvil is an Oakland-based Latina writer-director whose work expresses a yearning to evolve societal paradigms, through a queer ecofeminist lens.
Manóvil was a 2025 SFFILM Sound and Cinema fellow and 2024 SFFILM FilmHouse resident, as well as selected for the 2024 Writing Climate Pitchfest and Stowe Story Labs. She’s a two-time recipient of the Frameline Completion Fund, and her films have screened at festivals around the world. In 2015 she was named “Best East Bay Filmmaker” for her web series DYKE CENTRAL, lauded by press and fans for its groundbreaking representation of diverse LGBTQ characters.
Born and raised in Argentina, Manóvil moved to the U.S. to study film at Emerson College on an Honors scholarship. Based in the SF Bay Area since 2007, she’s active in her local film community and passionate about sustainable and equitable practices. She’s also a certified Intimacy Coordinator and parent to an inspiring teen artist.
