7th Annual Femme Frontera Filmmaker Showcase
7TH ANNUAL FEMME FRONTERA FILMMAKER SHOWCASE (FFFS 2022):
THE FILMS
Homesick
“Homesick” is a modern-day tale of two star-crossed lovers, separated by a global pandemic and the U.S.-Mexico Border. This film focuses on the love and bond that unites people and communities across borders—and the heartbreak that exists when that unity is broken.
Narrative Short Directed by Valeria Contreras
barter
A short about a family whose fundamental relationships have been replaced with a chain of anomalous ones. A film that, despite most of the well known Iranian shorts and features, not only talks about Iran but also about a subject that involves every society.
Narrative Short Directed by Ziba Karamali, Emad Arad
seeds
Without parents to guide them, Loretta and Raven reflect on the love their parents modeled and the grief of their loss. While one finds catharsis in their mother’s old VHS camera the other struggles with a potential pregnancy.
Narrative Short Directed by Morningstar Angeline, Ajuawak Kapashesit
shipping them
A non-binary day-dreamer pines for the life of the girl next door, but soon finds out the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
Narrative Short Directed by Ryan Rox
mommyland
A young woman wakes up to find herself lying on a small glowing island, an amusement park called Mommyland, exploring various rides such as a roller coaster, carousel, and distorted mirrors, which all remind her of her fears and anxieties about pregnancy.
Animated Short Directed by Aijian Chen
lioness
Barricaded in a motel room, a mothers determination and primal instincts kick in to protect her child's innocence.
Narrative Short Directed by Molly E. Smith
La Bi-vencia
Drawing on images from a non-existent border between Santa Elena, Chihuahua, and Big Bend National Park in Texas. La Bi-vencia explores the reunion of a ghost town next to the Rio Grand that was abandoned after 9/11.
The filmmakers, Mariana Gongora-Reyes and Analaura Cardenas were selected fellows of Femme Frontera’s 2022 La Frontera Film Lab made possible by the support of the Sundance Institute.
Documentary Short Directed by Mariana Gongora-Reyes, Analaura Cardenas
blue veil
In the wake of 9/11 and after losing her mother, Amina, a Muslim teenager, struggles with the gaze of Islamophobia from surveillance to the 24-hour news cycle until she discovers and begins sampling her mother’s record collection.
Experimental Short Directed by SHIREEN ALIHAJI
STUDENT SHOWCASE
Saturday, Oct. 1st: 10:30 am at Alamo Drafthouse
Formerly the Children’s Showcase, the Student Showcase celebrates both youth and adult student works from our summer filmmaking programs. Students, ages 8+, share stories of identity, friendship, love, and life on the U.S.-Mexico border.
“From Short to TV: The Joys, the Headaches, and Everything in Between”
A panel discussion featuring Femme Frontera colleagues and past Showcase filmmakers who discuss their journeys from making short films to making content for productions such as Netflix, Amazon, PBS, AppleTV, and Amazon Studios.
Saturday, Oct. 1st at 3 pm
Where: Philanthropy Theatre - 125 Pioneer Plaza, El Paso, TX 79901
Free Event
WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND
A FILM BY EL PASO NATIVE, ILIANA SOSA
Saturday, October 1st at 6:30 pm in the Philanthropy Theatre at the Plaza Theatre. Join us for a Q&A with Iliana after the film.
Synopsis
At the age of 89, Julián takes one last bus ride to El Paso, Texas, to visit his daughters and their children — a lengthy trip he has made without fail every month for decades. After returning to rural Mexico, he quietly starts building a house in the empty lot next to his home. In the absence of his physical visits, can this new house bridge the distance between his loved ones?
Over several years, director Iliana Sosa films her grandfather’s work, gently sifting through Julián’s previously unspoken memories brought up by the construction project and revealing both the daily pragmatism and poetry of his life. WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND unfolds as a love letter to her grandfather, as well as an intimate and insightful exploration of Iliana’s own relationship with him and his homeland.
Iliana Sosa
Iliana Sosa is a documentary and narrative fiction filmmaker based in Austin, Texas. A former Bill Gates Millennium Scholar, she was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, by Mexican immigrant parents. Iliana has been a Firelight Media Impact Producer Fellow, Sundance Institute Development Fellow, Women at Sundance Adobe Fellow, and Berlinale Talents participant. Her work has been supported by JustFilms/Ford Foundation, Field of Vision, Austin Film Society, and WarnerMedia 150, among others. What We Leave Behind had its World Premiere at SXSW 2022, where it won two Special Jury prizes: the Louis Black Lone Star Award and the first-ever Fandor New Voices Award. Iliana was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2020 and one of DOC NYC’s “40 Under 40” in 2021. She holds an MFA in film production and directing from UCLA and is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at UT-Austin.