Director's Statement

Magan’s Fare explores the compartmentalization of our compassion for others. The film is a “conversation” examining how we distinguish who receives our kindness and who does not. The film revolves around Magan, a reluctant hero who is thrust into an unexpected difficulty, only to discover that his choices will have a consequential impact on the life of a stranger.

With Magan’s Fare, we wanted to explore the idea of individual moral responsibility; the challenge of true empathy towards those in need outside our familiar “box”. The story centers around two first generation immigrants and former refugees; Magan, a pragmatic, family man, ride-share driver from Somalia, and Jorani, an older nursing home patient from Cambodia. When Magan drives Jorani back to her nursing home only to find that they are kicking her out, he must figure out what to do with her. For Magan, Jorani is a fare, a means to his real monetary needs. As they spend more time together, however, Magan becomes personally invested in her fate.

Through this story, we also wanted to illuminate the detrimental effects that our for-profit healthcare system here in America puts upon the marginalized and vulnerable. Jorani, a woman who came to America decades ago escaping the horrors of a war torn Cambodia is now living a horrific nightmare here in the US. As we the audience identify more and more with Magan’s increasingly difficult situation, we question our communal responsibilities to one another. And through Magan, we are inspired to look more closely at our own capacity for compassion.

Director's Statement

My goal is always to achieve a knife-edge balance of humour and pathos, with characters you want to spend time with, and a compelling story that has to be binged. This is exactly why I was drawn to Olivia's screenplay 'Tell Your Face' because it had all of the above in spades, as well as an endlessly relevant message about the pressures around ageing.

Director's Statement

Since I was a child, I grew up hearing stories about sixty-year-old Europeans who, essentially, bought exotic Cuban brides with the promise of a better life. These women were the Cinderellas of post-Soviet Cuba, seen as heroines not only for having escaped the island’s agonizing reality, but also for their potential to become providers for their families from abroad.

Unfortunately, those stories aren’t just distant memories; they still reflect the painful everyday reality of thousands of Cuban women today. Norheimsund is precisely an invitation into that bittersweet world, a door opened to a place where the brutality of circumstance can render deeply human even that which, in another context, would be unforgivable.

This story was born out of a desire to tell an intimate tale of mutual sacrifice between a mother and daughter, two women who carry the weight of each other’s expectations and broken dreams, trapped in a country where hope seems to have faded long ago.

Director's Statement

This film was my attempt to explore the cost of pursuing one’s dreams in a place that makes those dreams almost impossible in a country where women aren't allowed to sing in public. Through visual metaphor and emotional intimacy, American Dream poses a question that has haunted my generation: can love truly survive when freedom is out of reach?

Director's Statement

My family followed the seasons as immigrant field workers harvesting fields throughout the southwestern United States. For years, when they worked in the strawberry fields, I witnessed the job's brutal effects on my parents and older siblings. But despite the back-breaking nature of the work, their constant fatigue was always coupled with a sense of pride and strength. It was this basic understanding that went into the creative process of this story. "The Ballad of Tita and the Machines" is named in honor of my mother.

The film presents a future where it's lawful for employers to utilize the metrics gathered by software that can quantify a worker's "presumed productivity" to determine if an employee's labor is, in fact, profitable. Though the film may seem to tease a dystopian sci-fi narrative, it was always my co-writer's and my aim to ground the story on our protagonist's independence, integrity, strength, and determination. Ultimately, Tita's story is emblematic of the struggles and triumphs the working-class communities we come from experience daily.

My goal was to celebrate and honor the myriad of workers that make up our working-class communities, from field workers to the many that clean houses, from fruit and rose vendors on the streets to nannies helping raise the children of the wealthy. This film shines a light on our unsung working-class heroes with authenticity and admiration.