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Two Mexican-American sisters from the Eastside of Los Angeles who couldn't be more different or distanced from each other are forced to return to their old neighborhood, where they are confronted by the past and surprising truth about their mother’s identity.
Tanya Saracho
Alonso Ruizpalacios
So Yong Kim
Sierra Santana
Catalina Aguilar Mastretta
Evangeline Ordaz
Jenée LaMarque
Nancy C. Mejia
Jenniffer Gomez
Chelsey Lora
Gandja Monteiro
Elena Crevello
Mando Alvarado
Gladys Rodriguez
Esti Giordani
Taylor Orci
Casts & Crew
Melissa Barrera
Mishel Prada
Ser Anzoategui
Chelsea Rendon
Carlos Miranda
Maria-Elena Laas
Also Directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios
Mexico, 1985. Juan and Wilson, two perennial Veterinary students, perpetrate an audacious heist in the National Museum of Anthropology, running away with a loot of more than hundred invaluable pieces of Mayan art, unaware of the consequences of their outrageous act.
Minutes before his death in the general ward of a city hospital, Ulises, a terminal patient in his fifties, reconstructs the fragments of his life. Lauro, a young and smiling nearby patient accompanies him on his final agony, reliving all Ulises' missed opportunities.
Café paraíso ("Paradise Café") is a 2008 Mexican short film directed and written by Alonso Ruizpalacios. The film won the "Mayahuel Award" for "Best Mexican Short Film" at the Guadalajara Mexican Film Festival Principal actor Tenoch Huerta Mejía won "Best Actor" at the Short Short Film Festival in Mexico City for his role as Gallo in the film.
Set amidst the 1999 student strikes in Mexico City, this coming-of-age tale finds two brothers venturing through the city in a sentimental search for an aging legendary musician. Shot in black-and-white, Güeros brims with youthful exuberance.
Following “the life in the kitchen of a vast New York City restaurant where all the cultures of the world mix during the lunchtime rush.”
A radical experiment combining documentary and fictional elements. The film gives voice to one of Mexico’s most controversial institutions: the police force, and unravels the causes of the impunity crisis that plagues the justice system.
In Alonso Ruizpalacios’ bracing and stylish film, security guards in an armoured van try to manage the stress that comes from being close to a pile of cash in Mexico City. The team’s stability is imperilled when one member nears his boiling point.
Also Directed by So Yong Kim
Two sisters, Nova Bordelon and Charley Bordelon, with her teenage son Micah moves to the heart of Louisiana to claim an inheritance from her recently departed father - an 800-acre sugarcane farm.
Neglected by her husband, Sarah embarks on an impromptu road trip with her young daughter and her best friend, Mindy. Along the way, the dynamic between the two friends intensifies before circumstances force them apart. Years later, Sarah attempts to rebuild their intimate connection in the days before Mindy’s wedding.
In Seoul, Korea, two sisters must look after each other when their mother leaves them to search for their estranged father.
Soon after Elizabeth receives this text message, her mother isn't the only one lost in sleep. Elizabeth's car has broken down. It's freezing cold, no sign of life nearby. She just has to wait, patiently. The recovery guys will be here soon, Elizabeth. Till then, she warms her young hands on the vents, drifts into a strange slumber, followed by an even more surreal awakening. Icelandic landscapes merge with Elizabeth's memories. Fears are magically transformed into comforting and fantastical fabrics. Father, upstairs, alone.
In memory of the Japanese earthquake on 3.11, each director presents a 3 minute and 11 second short film in tribute to those who were lost that day.
Over 30 filmmakers and friends of Strand Releasing have come together to honor the company’s indelible contribution to independent cinema over the past thirty years. The participating filmmakers have each created a short film for the project, all shot on iPhones. Produced by Strand Releasing and Connor Jessup.
Three "good girl" suburban wives and mothers suddenly find themselves in desperate circumstances and decide to stop playing it safe and risk everything to take their power back.
After an overnight long-distance drive, Joby has a special meeting—with lawyers and his ex-wife. A struggling musician with the prerequisite tattoos, slimy hair, goatee, and his head firmly floating in the clouds, Joby hasn’t been around to be a dad. Now is his last chance to fight for shared custody of his daughter, Ellen.
The exhibition 'The Complete Letters' features epistolary works defined by cinematographic creation. This is an experimental communication format used between pairs of film directors. Although each director is situated in a location geographically distant from that of their partner, they are united by their willingness to share ideas and reflections on all that motivates their work. Within this space of freedom, the directors featured in the exhibition examine their affinities and differences, within an environment of mutual respect and simultaneity of interests and with notable formal variants established in each of the correspondences.
A Korean immigrant falls in love with her best friend while navigating her way through the challenges of living in a new country.
Also Directed by Catalina Aguilar Mastretta
Ema finds out she is pregnant with an unplanned child she's not sure she wants to keep, the same week her beloved grandmother becomes gravely ill. Spending her last days at her grandmother's side, Ema is forced to spend time with her estranged, larger than life mother, getting to know her and seeing her with new eyes. As she spends time with the people gathered around her grandmother in her last days; Ema re-evaluates her beliefs, her fears and her set ideas about family, love and parenthood.
When Cindy decides that she doesn't want to marry her boyfriend, she runs to Mexico City, where new friendships and unexpected paths teach her that there are so much more possibilities on her life and her talent than she imagines.
On the surface, Clara Barron seems to have it all: a job as an OB-GYN; a great house in LA; and a loving family. But, the one thing Clara doesn't have figured out is her love life. Pressured by a family wedding in Mexico, Clara asks a co-worker to pose as her boyfriend for the weekend festivities,- only to be caught by surprise when her ex- boyfriend (and family favorite) suddenly shows up after disappearing from her life completely. Torn, Clara must decide between going back to the past or open her heart to new and unexpected possibilities.
A multi-generational bilingual comedy about the magic that happens over the course of a single day in New York, when lives and loves intersect in unexpected and meaningful ways, and people realize that there is more that unites us than divides us, on this day and every day.
When a girl vanishes from a suburb near Mexico City, the personal goals of some involved in the case muddy the search. Based on a true story.
Also Directed by Jenée LaMarque
Three sisters pack up their family home after the death of their father. Anna, the eldest, is put in charge while her younger sisters fuck off. To make matters worse, Anna's breasts are painfully engorged with breast milk. How will these sisters come back together in this time of crisis?
When her idolized twin sister Audrey dies in a car accident, Laurel decides to take her place. But, as she eases into the life she has always wanted, she must decide between continuing the lie or revealing herself.
A lesbian bachelorette weekend goes awry when one of the brides admits she's never had an orgasm.
Also Directed by Gandja Monteiro
Talent, a working title, is the story of a failed songwriter, to be played by Erivo, who returns home to Chicago to lead a group of at-risk youth in their annual talent show.