Photo: Lidieth Arévalo / Courtesy
The undocumented filmmaking community celebrates that this 14 of May will be presenting a series of documentaries and films at the festival NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA) Monthly Movie Show.
InFocus: Immigrant Stories en a compilation of short stories about the immigrant experience by a diverse group of storytellers.
The group belongs to the collective Undocumented Filmmakers Collective (UFC) where they not only highlight the work of undocumented immigrants in front of cameras, but also behind them.
UFC addresses the systemic inequities faced by undocumented immigrants in the field of conducting p films, as creators, artists and main audiences.
One of the documentary filmmakers and leaders of the UFC is Lidieth Arévalo, a beneficiary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), who will be presenting his short film “Mojosito and Me”, which is the story of Arévalo and his car, which he has had for more than 17 years.
“My mom got it a month after I arrived from El Salvador in the 2005”, said Arevalo. “The car has not only been the one that has taken me in more than 11 , has also seen me grow up, celebrate my graduations, cry when I’m stressed and much more”.
Arévalo said that his documentary like others films that will be presented are stories that go beyond just talking about immigration status.
“They are very complex and different stories in each experience of the filmmaker. Someone who sees my story will see that the issue is not only immigration, but also my life experience like any other human being,” said Arévalo.
Unindo forces
Arévalo said that the UFC collective has about 55 undocumented members of different ethnicities—with and without DACA—from across the country. He indicated that the objective is to create a space for other filmmakers with shared experiences.
“As an immigrant in any profession and as a first generation, you always you will find browsing those spaces where there is uncertainty, where you are not 100% sure where you are going, what you have to do and it is very difficult to get to the film industry without connections or being recognized”, said Arévalo.
She said that through the UFC group everyone shares the talent and experiences they have either as documentary filmmakers, specialists in fictional narratives, audio, among others.
“This is how we are doing a network to support each other”, he indicated.
Another of the founders of the group and who has experienced this support from the filmmaker group is Dorian Gómez Pestaña, beneficiary of DACA in the state of North Carolina, who is a born filmmaker.
Tab, of 28 years, came from his native Mexico with his family to North Carolina ago 16 years and despite the fact that this is the place they call home, he also recognized that there are not so many opportunities in higher and/or professional education. She graduated as a professional translator but her passion has always been cinema, mainly in the audio area.
In it 2018 met a Rahi Hasan, another undocumented person with DACA from the Center for Documentary Studies and with a professional degree in film.
“She connected me with Set Hernández, who is another Filipino filmmaker from Los Angeles, and from there a group was created between five people from different parts of the country,” said Pestaña. “Among all of us, we began to connect with more filmmakers with the experience of being undocumented.”
The young woman, who has experience in audio, said that he likes to see the way in which the undocumented have organized in California since in his state there is not so much support.
“It is very common to see that one does not even know where the Hispanic communities are because we are so far apart and the same circumstances do not allow us to have as much knowledge of what organizations there are,” said Pestaña. “But when I get here I feel welcome and privileged to have been able to connect with so many people.”
Other films on the UFC schedule include : “16” by Rahi Hasan, “COVER/AGE” by Set Hernández Rongkilyo, “I Know What Pandemic Means” by Frisly Soberanis, “Oda a Los Frijoles” by Karolina Esqueda, “What The Pier Gave Us” by Luna X. Moya, “Ziola” by Marcos Nieves and “Thank You, Come Again” by Nirav Bhakta.
NFMLA is a non-profit organization designed to showcase innovative work of emerging filmmakers from around the world, providing the Los Angeles community of entertainment professionals and film buffs with a steady increase in monthly screening events.
InFocus: Immigrant Stories will be presented on Saturday 14 from May at South Park Center located at 1139 S. Hill Street, Los Angeles 90015.
To learn more about the group visit: https://linktr.ee/undocufilmmakers