Young Filmmakers in Texas – ‘Hummingbirds’ Self-Portrait Doc Trailer
by Alex Billington
June 6, 2024
Source: YouTube
“Do you have a green card?! I need one!” An official trailer has debuted for an indie documentary film titled Hummingbirds, made by two young filmmakers from Texas telling an autobiographical story of their time living in America. This premiered at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, and also played at the True/False, San Francisco, and Boston Independent Film Festivals this spring. Silvia Del Carmen Castaños & Estefanía “Beba” Contreras tell their own coming-of-age story in Hummingbirds, a punk-rock portrait of the last summer of their youth on the Texas-Mexico border. This is similar to the doc Gasoline Rainbow. Together they transform their hometown of Laredo into a cinematic wonderland of creative expression and activist hijinx. Berlinale Generation’s Grand Jury Prize winner, Hummingbirds celebrates the power of friendship, laughter, and joy as tools of survival and resistance. As they discuss immigration, gender, sexuality, mental health, and class, a moving story of trying to find the joy in uncertainty emerges. Check out the film below.
Here’s the first official trailer for Castaños & Contreras’ doc Hummingbirds, from YouTube (via TFS):
Via Berlinale: “In Laredo, a city in southern Texas on the Mexican border, best friends Silvia & Beba know that the long summer nights of their youth cannot last forever… Their hang-out spots are so familiar but, stuck in an immigration process over which deportation hangs as a constant possibility, home still seems a fragile concept. Between bars, drive-thrus, friends’ couches and the borderlands, they confront the stresses of survival, the future, and community building. For them, this means protest action for legal abortion and against border control abuses, in a politically divided America. But dusty half-light is also a time for poetry & dreams. Their laughter & creative expression cement a sense of solidarity and belonging in togetherness.”
Hummingbirds is directed by the young filmmakers Silvia Del Carmen Castaños & Estefanía “Beba” Contreras, both making their feature directorial debut with this project. It’s also co-directed by Jillian Schlesinger, Miguel Drake-McLaughlin, Diane Ng, Ana Rodriguez-Falco. Produced by Jillian Schlesinger, Miguel Drake-McLaughlin, Leslie Benavides, Ana Rodriguez-Falco, Diane Ng, and Rivkah Beth Medow. This initially premiered at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, and it also played at True/False 2024. Hummingbirds will debut in select US theaters (at DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema in NYC) starting June 21st, 2024 this month. It will also play on PBS TV on July 1st coming soon this summer. Who wants to watch?
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