#Immigration
Array Releasing Lands Iliana Sosa’s SXSW Winner “What We Leave Behind”
Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing has secured U.S., Canadian, U.K., Australian, and New Zealand rights to “What We Leave Behind.” From director Iliana Sosa, the doc made its world...
Isabel Castro’s Doc “Mija” Screening Free for One Week in Select Theaters
Before Isabel Castro’s “Mija” bows on Disney+ September 16, audiences will get a chance to see the doc for free in select theaters in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco for a...
Trailer Watch: “Mija” Sees Daughters of Immigrants Blazing Their Own Trail in the Music Biz
“It takes a lot of courage to make your own path,” we’re told in a new trailer for “Mija.” From director Isabel Castro, the Disney Original Documentary follows Doris...
Anike L. Tourse’s “America’s Family” Lands Top Honors at Dances With Films
Anike L. Tourse’s feature debut made a major splash at the 25th annual Dances with Films festival in LA. “America’s Family,” a drama that depicts a family in crisis after their...
Trailer Watch: Rebeca Huntt Explores Her Identity and Trauma in “Beba”
“You are now entering my universe,” announces Rebeca Huntt in a new trailer for “Beba.” “I am the lens, the subject, and the authority.” The doc sees the...
SXSW 2022 Women Directors: Meet Linda Goldstein Knowlton – “Split At The Root”
Linda Goldstein Knowlton is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, working in documentary, scripted feature films, and television. Her award-winning documentary “We Are The Radical Monarchs” ...
SXSW 2022 Women Directors: Meet Iliana Sosa – “What We Leave Behind”
Iliana Sosa is a documentary and narrative fiction filmmaker based in Austin, Texas. Her documentary short “An Uncertain Future,” co-directed with Chelsea Hernandez, premiered at the 2018...
Isabel Castro’s Sundance Doc “Mija” Heads to Disney, FX Acquires Scripted Content Dev Rights
“Mija,” a music documentary from director Isabel Castro, has secured distribution and a potential narrative adaptation. Worldwide rights to the Sundance 2022 title have been nabbed by...
Nana Mensah’s “Queen of Glory” Acquired by Film Movement
“Queen of Glory” has found a home. Film Movement landed U.S. rights to the dramedy, which marks the directorial debut of Nana Mensah, a multi-hyphenate best known for her acting roles on...
Pick of the Day: “Hester Street” 4K Restoration
The old and the new collide in Joan Micklin Silver’s beloved “Hester Street.” The Oscar-nominated 1975 portrait of Jewish immigrant life in turn-of-the-century New York has received...
Trailer Watch: “Fruits of Labor” Spotlights a Mexican-American Teen with No Time to Spare
“I wish to only worry about the things girls worry about at my age,” says Ashley Solis in a new trailer for “Fruits of Labor.” The SXSW doc sees the second-generation...
Svetlana Cvetko to Direct “One Nation Under Earl,” Shining a Light on Immigrant Stories
Svetlana Cvetko has lined up her next feature. She will follow up “Show Me What You Got,” a romance about three boundary-breaking Millennials released earlier this year, with “One...
Pick of the Day: “La Leyenda Negra”
“Respect my existence or expect resistance.” These are the words high school senior and immigration rights activist Aleteia (Monica Betancourt) reiterates throughout “La Leyenda...
Trailer Watch: A Mother Investigates Her Son’s Disappearance in Border Drama “Identifying Features”
A woman searches for her missing son in a new trailer for Fernanda Valadez’s “Identifying Features.” Set in Mexico, the Spanish-language drama sees Magdalena (Mercedes Hernández)...
Patricia Vidal Delgado’s “La Leyenda Negra” Acquired by HBO
“La Leyenda Negra” is heading to HBO. A press release confirmed that the cabler acquired North American rights to Patricia Vidal Delgado’s story of a teen immigrant making her way...
Diane Paragas on Her Portrait of an Aspiring Country Singer, “Yellow Rose”
Diane Paragas is an award-winning director, editor, cinematographer, and producer of narrative features, documentaries, and commercials. She owns and operates Civilian Studios, a Brooklyn-based...
Women Directors Sweep Main Prizes at Zurich Film Festival
Women-directed films made a major mark at this year’s Zurich Film Festival, taking home all three main prizes. According to Swiss News Channel, Fernanda Valadez won the Golden Eye for best...
Trailer Watch: “I Carry You With Me” Tells a Cross-Border Love Story
“When you dream, it happens so fast. The American dream happens in slow motion. It takes years. I came here to do something. Don’t lose faith in me,” says Iván (Armando Espitia) in...
NYFF 2020 Women Directors: Meet Heidi Ewing – “I Carry You With Me”
Heidi Ewing’s documentary credits include “Jesus Camp,” which received an Oscar nomination, “One of Us,” and “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You.” She...
Linda Ronstadt Doc “Linda and The Mockingbirds” Gets a Release Date
Another Linda Ronstadt doc is on the way. Following on the heels of 2019’s “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice,” “Linda and The Mockingbirds” will focus on a...
Trailer Watch: Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwarz Unpack the State of Our “Immigration Nation”
Directors Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwarz follow undocumented immigrants and ICE alike in their upcoming Netflix docuseries. A new trailer for “Immigration Nation” shows families...
Isabel Sandoval’s History-Making Drama “Lingua Franca” Acquired by ARRAY Releasing
“Lingua Franca” made history as the first film directed by and starring a trans woman of color to screen in competition at Venice Film Festival, and now it’s secured distribution....
Human Rights Watch Film Fest 2020 Women Directors: Meet Christina Antonakos-Wallace – “From Here”
Christina Antonakos-Wallace is a filmmaker and cultural organizer. Her short films and interactive work has been exhibited in over a dozen countries, in contexts from schools to festivals galleries...
Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Ying Wang – “The World is Bright”
As a migrant navigating between multiple cultures, Ying Wang is fascinated by stories that reveal the geopolitical complexity of global migration. Inspired by her sister’s experiences, Wang wrote...
Cristina Ibarra on Making a New Kind of Immigration Narrative in “The Infiltrators”
Cristina Ibarra has been making award-winning films that explore the U.S.-Mexico border for the past 16 years. Her PBS-broadcast documentary “Las Marthas” premiered on “Independent Lens” in...
Sundance 2020 Women Directors: Ekwa Msangi – “Farewell Amor”
Ekwa Msangi is a Tanzanian-American filmmaker who has written and directed several drama series for mainstream broadcasters in Kenya and South Africa, including “The Agency,” MNET’s...
Trailer Watch: Two Families Seeking Asylum Are “Torn Apart” in Ellen Goosenberg Kent’s HBO Doc
In “Torn Apart: Separated at the Border,” director Ellen Goosenberg Kent tells the story of two mothers who were taken from their children as a result of the U.S.’s immigration...
EIFF 2019 Women Directors: Meet Ásthildur Kjartansdóttir – “The Deposit”
Ásthildur Kjartansdóttir is a director, writer, and producer. Her films have screened at film festivals around the world. Two of her documentaries were nominated for Best Documentary by the...
Laugh It Off: Crowdfunding Picks
Comedy has long been a vehicle to talk about the issues plaguing society. From projects like podcast-turned-HBO series “2 Dope Queens” to favorites like “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,”...
Under the Radar: Diane Paragas’ “Yellow Rose” Puts the American Dream to Music
“I feel out of place/Song out of tune,” sings Rose Garcia (Eva Noblezada), strumming her guitar on her bed, donning a red cowboy hat. “Like a velvet chair in a dusty sunroom.”...
Cate Blanchett Will Star in “Stateless,” Immigration Limited Series She Co-Created
Cate Blanchett has another TV project in the works. On the heels of directing and casting news for “Mrs. America,” the FX show in which she’ll portray Phyllis Schlafly,...
Hot Docs 2019 Women Directors: Meet Emily Gan – “Cavebirds”
Emily Gan is a Chinese-Canadian photographer, filmmaker, and video artist born and based in Montréal. Gan has travelled across Canada, the US, India, and Malaysia working on various independent...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Cristina Ibarra – “The Infiltrators”
Cristina Ibarra has been making award-winning films that explore the U.S.-Mexico border for the past 16 years. Her PBS-broadcast documentary “Las Marthas” premiered on “Independent...
Trailer Watch: Michelle Monaghan Fights for Asylum Seekers in “Saint Judy”
Michelle Monaghan is giving her all to make America great in a new trailer for “Saint Judy.” Based on real events, the drama tells the story of U.S. immigration attorney Judy Wood, who...
Trailer Watch: Five Young Refugees Go to Summer Camp in Barbara Kopple’s “New Homeland”
“New Homeland,” Oscar winner Barbara Kopple’s latest documentary, sees five refugee boys from Syria and Iraq going to summer camp, a fairly common rite of passage for kids in the...
DOC NYC 2018 Preview: Immigration, Trans Rights, Ursula K. Le Guin, and More
DOC NYC kicks off on Thursday, and will have tons of women-centric and women-directed offerings. We’ve put together a few of the titles that have piqued our interest — just a few. This...
Neither Here Nor There: Crowdfunding Picks
“America is a melting pot” you often hear people say. Different cultures, religions, and ethnicities all living side by side to make up the diversity we see in our everyday lives. There...
Apple Orders Immigrant Anthology Series Co-Created by Emily V. Gordon
Emily V. Gordon has booked another gig. Apple just ordered a timely half-hour anthology series inspired by immigrant stories co-written by “The Big Sick” scribe, Deadline reports....
Addressing Adversity: Crowdfunding Picks
Whether it’s an inescapable reality of everyday life, or catalyzed by a change in our circumstances, we’ve all faced adversity. For many, multiple systems of oppression intersect to pose...
Tribeca 2018 Women Directors: Meet Ioana Uricaru — “Lemonade”
Ioana Uricaru was born and raised in Romania, where she studied biology before turning to filmmaking. She is an Alumna of Berlinale Talents, the Cannes Cinefondation Residence Programme, the...
Roswell Reboot in the Works at The CW, Carina Adly MacKenzie Penning the Script
Long before Shiri Appleby called the shots on a “Bachelor”-esque reality dating TV show on “UnREAL,” she played a teenage girl in a whirlwind romance of her own on “Roswell.” She...
Gina Rodriguez Producing Two Immigration-Themed Series for CBS TV Studios
Looks like Gina Rodriguez is a multi-tasker on par with Jane Villanueva herself. Per Deadline, “Jane the Virgin” star Rodriguez is producing several projects for CBS TV Studios via her I Can...
Trailer Watch: Salma Hayek Takes on a Trump-Like Figure in “Beatriz at Dinner”
If you find dinner parties awkward, prepare to cringe your way through a new trailer for Salma Hayek-starrer “Beatriz at Dinner.” Beatriz (Hayek) has way more to deal with than dinner companions...
New Doc About Pregnancy and Immigration in Trump’s America Available to Stream for Free
As part of their “100 Days” initiative, Field of Vision and Firelight Media have released “An Uncertain Future,” a press release announced. Chelsea Hernandez and Iliana Sosa’s short...
Lena Khan’s “The Tiger Hunter” Picked Up by Shout! Factory
Lena Khan’s feature directorial debut has secured distribution. Deadline reports that Shout! Factory has acquired all of the North American rights to “The Tiger Hunter,” a timely comedy about...
Tribeca 2017 Women Directors: Meet Julia Solomonoff — “Nobody’s Watching”
Julia Solomonoff is an Argentine director based in New York City. As both a director and producer, she has played a key role in the revitalization of Latin American cinema and her films have been...
SXSW 2017 Women Directors: Meet Ana Asensio — “Most Beautiful Island”
Ana Asensio is an actress, writer, and director from Spain. “Most Beautiful Island” is her feature directorial debut. Asensio has also appeared in “Planta 25” and “Zenith.” “Most...
Moving Forward: Crowdfunding Picks
“La Barracuda” This month’s crowdfunding projects are about women moving forward in their lives, usually in the wake of tragedy. Each of these projects, from a documentary examining immigration...
Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Acquires Heidi Saman’s Award-Winning Debut “Namour”
Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY has announced its fifteenth film acquisition. The independent distribution company has snagged “Namour,” Egyptian-American filmmaker Heidi Saman’s first feature. The...
LFF 2016 Women Directors: Meet Christine Molloy— “Further Beyond”
Christine Molloy hails from Dublin, Ireland and is one half of Desperate Optimists, a UK-based creative partnership formed with her partner, Joe Lawlor. Between 2003 and 2010, Molloy co-wrote and...
“Orange is the New Black’s” Diane Guerrero Set to Star in Immigration Drama at CBS
Diane Guerrero of “Orange is the New Black” and “Jane the Virgin” is set to star in a CBS drama based on her memoir, “In the Country We Love: My Family Divided,” Deadline reports. The...