NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (NFMLA) spotlights the storytelling and cinema of immigration with InFocus: Immigrant Stories, and also showcases Writer-Director Sarah Pirozek’s feminist thriller feature, #LIKE. The day’s event is Powered by Seed&Spark on their virtual festival platform, and each screening will be followed by a live Q&A via Zoom.
The day opens with Sarah Pirozek’s #LIKE, an engrossing psychological thriller about a teenage girl who takes justice for her sister’s suicide following her victimization by an internet predator into her own hands. We then continue with feature film Two Autumns in Paris, directed by Gibelys Coronado and based on a book by Francisco Villarroel. Two Autumns in Paris is a timely exploration of political upheaval, activism and privilege, telling the story of a Paraguayan political refugee and activist in Paris, and the tensions and lessons that are evoked by her romance with a Venezuelan law student. The film is part of NFMLA’s first presentation of InFocus: Immigrant Stories.
The evening’s programming concludes with a collection of short narratives told from the perspective of the immigrant experience and those affected by it, InFocus: Immigrant Stories Shorts. From the brutality of an immigration raid seen through the eyes of a young girl to teenagers balancing the expectations of two cultures, this block serves as a reminder of both the diversity of experiences unique to immigrants, as well as some of the harsher realities.
