Short Film Program: Hecho en Tejas
Join us for a collection of short films made here in the Lone Star State, Hecho en Texas.
Tejano Night
USA / 2021 / 13 min / Drama
Synopsis
While out of town at a family gathering in South Texas, an awkward Mexican-American, Mijo, is forced to tag along with his cousin to a local bar after butchering his Spanish pronunciation at dinner.
About the Director, Alexander Rosales
Alexander is an award winning narrative & commercial director based in his hometown of Austin, TX. Since the age of sixteen, Alexander has found filmmaking as a natural outlet for creativity. He’s drawn to two main items of cinema:. story & cinematics (the latter being the stylistic aesthetics of cinema) which helps illustrate his hypothesis that films and movies are separate avenues of cinema. While pursuing a MFA at the University of Texas at Austin, he’s learning to balance the two in order to shape his voice as a filmmaker. Alexander traveled all over the U.S. and other countries as a freelancer before attending graduate school.
Poolside
USA / 2020 / 17 min / Drama
Synopsis
POOLSIDE accounts the haunting moments of a 1950’s high society woman struggling with keeping her sanity while isolated at her indoor pool.
About the Director, Alex Kinter
Alex Kinter is an Award-winning Latino Director from Dallas, Texas whose works have made some noise and portfolio speaks for itself. Alex is a visually driven storyteller with a background in the commercial video production space for over 10 years. Alex brings both creative intuition and technical expertise to his film projects using experience from directing live action video, motion graphics and collaborating with agencies, entertainers and fortune 500 companies. He attended Texas A&M University in Commerce, TX and REDucation in Hollywood, CA.
In the Hiding
USA/ 2020 / 12 min / Western / Houston Premiere
Synopsis
Maria Estrada is a local bar owner in Catarina, TX. The year is 1910 and Mexico is experiencing civil unrest as the Mexican Revolutionary War is at full power. Hundreds of Mexicans are fleeing from their war torn villages north into Texas. However, the Texas government views these “refugees” as a threat to their well being, so the Texas Rangers were given full power to do whatever they wanted to keep the “great state of Texas” safe. So, these unlawful Rangers became the judge, jury, and executioner of hundreds of Mexican refugees and Mexican Americans. This is only one story of Texas’ dark history.
About the Director, Jason Joe Angco-Barrera
Jason Joe Angco-Barrera was born and raised in a small South Texas city called Laredo, TX. After his first production at Laredo Community College, Jason made acting and writing for the stage his life. He attended Texas State University and graduated with a BA in Theater, after graduation he applied at the University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg, TX where he went on to receive his MA in Theater. During his time at Pan Am, Jason became close to the Film and Television department helping them in countless amounts of short films.
Espera
Mexico / 2020 / 15 min / Documentary / Houston Premiere
Synopsis
Stuck in a makeshift camp along the Texas-Mexico border, asylum seekers await their immigration appointments indefinitely when “Remain in Mexico” stalls their hope of coming to the US.
About the Director, Emily Grooms
Emily Grooms is a filmmaker who lives and works in her hometown of Austin, Texas. She studied Political Science at the College of William and Mary and worked in conservation before her love of film and non-fiction storytelling took her to Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies. Currently, Emily is an MFA candidate in Film Production and the Jesse H. Jones Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. Freelancing in film and television, Emily is drawn to stories of motivation, change, and hope.
When You Clean a Stranger’s Home
USA / 2020 / 7 min / Drama
Synopsis
A first-generation high school student describes what she and her mom learn about people when cleaning their homes for a living. House decor and items left around convey a privilege that unveils her imagination, jealousy, and frustrations.
About the Director, Sharon Arteaga
Sharon Arteaga is a first-generation Mexican-American filmmaker from Corpus Christi, Texas, who convinced her mom to buy her a video camera instead of a Quinceañera. Included in NALIP’s 2019 List of Latinx Directors to Know, Arteaga has won numerous short film competitions including the 2021 HBO Latinx short Film Competition. Arteaga was a 2019 Tribeca Chanel Through Her Lens finalist for her short screenplay IN TOW, which also won runner up at the 2020 New Orleans Film Festival South Pitch, was a Semifinalist in ScreenCraft’s Film Fund and most recently, was awarded the 2021 Mexican-American Cultural Education Foundation Filmmaker Grant. Arteaga is currently developing her first feature film. She is also a passionate educator who loves empowering others to also tell their stories through film.
Disrupted Borders
USA / 2021 / 19 min / Documentary / Houston Premiere
Synopsis
This is a coming-of-age story about two best friends living on the US-Mexico border in a scarred landscape of racial tensions, family wounds, and lack of opportunities as they embark on their extraordinary journeys in 3D innovation and artistic creativity to heal themselves, their families, and their community.
About the Director, Alejandra Aragón
Alejandra Aragón is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the identities of border regions and how territories determine one’s experience. Here documentary film “Invisible Nights” was part of the “Coordenadas” program of the Ambulante Film Festival in 2018. In 2019 she was awarded the Mexican Fine Arts Grant (FONCA) and a film production grant from the Tribeca Film Institute If/Then Program. She was a member of the 2020 Joop Swart Masterclass of World Press Photo and recently received the Border Narrative Change Grant from NALAC.
