Sharing ‘My Sad Dead’ With the Community That Helped Make It

On October 15, My Sad Dead, the limited series based on stories by Mariana Enriquez and directed by Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín, returned to the neighborhood where a central part of the story was filmed and takes place. We hosted a special screening of the first two episodes at Piedrabuenarte, a cultural center that serves as a key gathering place and hub for social and cultural activity in the Piedrabuena neighborhood.

Local residents attended the event, bringing the community together with members of the cast and crew to celebrate the series following its premiere at the San Sebastián Film Festival and its September 24 debut on Netflix. 

A Neighborhood That Became a Protagonist

My Sad Dead tells the story of Ema, a retired doctor grieving the death of her mother who has the ability to see and speak with the dead around her. Through psychological horror, the series creates a universe where the everyday and the supernatural coexist.

Finding the right setting for this story was a fundamental part of building that universe. The team looked for a location in Buenos Aires that would remain true to the essence of Enriquez’s work while also conveying an atmosphere recognizable across other Latin American cities: a place where the familiar and the ominous, the real and the dreamlike, could coexist. That search led them to Piedrabuena.

Located in the southwest of Buenos Aires, the housing complex was built between the 1950s and 1980s and — with its apartment blocks, homes and shared spaces — offered that distinctive geography. According to production designer Rodrigo Basaez, the neighborhood provided a setting that could portray the encounter between different social realities and take that contrast into a more symbolic realm.

For Larraín, filming there could not be replicated on a constructed set. The textures, colors and identity of the neighborhood were integral to what the team was looking for in the story. That decision also meant connecting with the people who live there: throughout the shoot, the cast and crew became part of the neighborhood’s daily life, and many local residents appeared on screen as extras over the more than 50-day shoot.

In this way, Piedrabuena’s streets, apartment blocks and recognizable landmarks — including the water tower, a key element in the story — became part of the visual universe of My Sad Dead.

Returning to Where It All Began

The screening offered an opportunity to reconnect with those who opened their neighborhood to the shoot and, in many cases, took part in the series themselves. 

Guests included My Sad Dead cast members Alejandra Flechner and Carolina Álvarez alongside Luciano Garramuño, director and founder of Piedrabuenarte, and Alan Allende, the center’s cultural manager. Members of the series’ production companies also attended, along with many of the local extras.

Reuniting with the community also gave the actresses an opportunity to reflect on their experience filming in Piedrabuena. “It was a unique experience, something completely new. The neighborhood, the people, how kind everyone was,” said Álvarez.

Flechner, meanwhile, highlighted the collective effort behind the production and thanked the community for being part of it: “It was an enormous undertaking, with tremendous collaboration across every area — from everyone working on the production to the extras, actors and actresses,” she said. “I’m grateful for everything this neighborhood does, for Luciano, for El Galpón and its art. To me, you are a source of Argentine pride.”

The event also highlighted the relationship an audiovisual production can build with the community that hosts it: from the participation of local residents and the economic and social activity generated by the production to the opportunity for the neighborhood to become both the setting and a protagonist in a story with global reach.