Immigration Film Fest - Short Films: Hispanic Heritage Stories

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with us for the opening night of our core festival screenings! This mix of short documentary and narrative films highlight stories of latino immigrants across the world. From a documentary exploring the lives of Latin American women in the Netherlands through stop motion textiles, to a short animated film following a young immigrant on his first day of school, join us for a curated selection of impactful shorts.

After the screening, we'll hear from the director of Oneyda, Yulian Martinez-Escobar.

First Winter:

Animated
Short Films

Ángel is a newly arrived immigrant who is experiencing his first winter in Chicago. The film follows his realization of what it may mean to be away from home for a very long time.

Movable Scraps:

Short Films
Experimental
Art
Latin America
Hispanic Heritage
Women's Empowerment

‘Retazos móviles’ is a documentary in which Latin American women stitch together their intimate experiences of how public transport and mobility in remote areas of the Netherlands have shaped their lives. This project combines stop-motion with a textile technique (Arpilleria) developed during the dictatorship in Chile, where textiles spoke of silenced stories. The documentary's more profound question addresses issues of how lives are reconstructed in long trajectories of migration while, in telling our stories, a community of women is created.

Oneyda:

Hispanic Heritage
Latin America
Labor
Women's Empowerment
Documentary

Oneyda is a single mom from Guatemala working in construction and electrical services. She is raising two teenage girls in South Carolina and building a new life for herself and her family after surviving a chapter filled with violence and economic instability. Despite the challenges that come with being an undocumented immigrant, Oneyda has embraced the various gender roles in her life as she works day after day in a high-risk, traditionally male work environment.

Hermanos:

Narrative
Short Films
Hispanic Heritage
Latin America

HERMANOS tells the story of Santino and Tomás, brothers who flee Mexico with their mother seeking refuge after the murder of their father. Separated from each other and their mother, they are detained at the U.S. border. When an unlikely opportunity to escape presents itself, the brothers risk everything to protect each other and stay alive as they cross Texas on foot.

The Changebaker:

Documentary
Short Films
Latin America
Hispanic Heritage
Labor

After a string of ICE raids, a small southern city’s first Latin Bakery becomes a ground zero for local immigration activism, and its proprietor- an unlikely leader.

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