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Logline

Yosimar Reyes is a queer undocumented poet and a full-time caregiver, whose life takes an unexpected turn when his 89-year-old abuelita decides to self-deport.

Synopsis

Yosimar Reyes is a queer undocumented poet and a full-time caregiver to his 89-year old ABUELITA. As the new poet laureate of Santa Clara County, Yosi’s career is soaring — but his life takes an unexpected turn when his abuelita decides she wants to self-deport to Mexico to live out her final days with family she hasn’t seen in decades.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Jimmy Goldblum – Director/Producer
Jimmy Goldblum is an Emmy Award-winning Director & Producer. He’s set up and directed some of the world’s most visually ambitious and emotionally resonant documentary series.

His short documentary, A Broken House, was shortlisted for the 2022 Academy Awards for “Best Documentary Short.” It also won the IDA Award for “Best Short” and was nominated by the Emmy’s and Cinema Eyes for “Best Non-Fiction Short.” It premiered at Hot Docs, and it won both the “Bridging the Border” prize and “Audience Award for Best Documentary” at Palm Springs ShortsFest.

He set the tonal & visual aesthetic and directed the pilot of Unsolved Mysteries, the reimagining of the 80s cult series; produced by 21 Laps (Stranger Things), Unsolved spent its first 10 days on Netflix as the most watched series in the world.

He also set up the series and directed an episode of the Apple+ / A24 series, Home; and he directs episodes of the critically acclaimed documentary series, Chef’s Table, for Netflix.

Previously, he directed and produced Tomorrow We Disappear, a feature documentary about India’s last colony of magicians, acrobats, and puppeteers. IndieWire listed it as one of the “20 Best Documentaries of 2014.”

Justin A. Gonçalves – Producer
Justin A. Gonçalves is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker based in New York City. Prior to joining Protozoa Pictures in 2021, he traveled the world crafting short form documentaries for Great Big Story, CNN, Quartz, Mashable, and the NBA. His work has been featured at Hamptons International Film Festival, New Hampshire Film Festival, and the Valencia International Film Festival Cinema Jove.

Gia Rigoli – Producer
Gia Rigoli is a Los Angeles-based Mexican-American film producer who made her producing debut at the age of 20 with the feature film, Rock Steady Row. The film premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival and won both the Narrative Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for Best Narrative Film. Gia holds a BFA in Creative Producing from Chapman University and was mentored by Michael Apted. Her senior thesis film was a Student Academy Award Finalist.
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Gia has been recognized for her talent by various film industry programs including Berlinale Talents, Project Involve Producing Fellowship, Sony Pictures Entertainment Fellowship, NALIP Producer’s Incubator Lab, PGA Create, and Rotterdam Producing Lab Fellowship. She is currently an inaugural fellow of Film Independent’s Imaginar Producer’s Residency. She founded Discordia, a production company, in 2020 with her frequent collaborators. Their work has received support from Locarno, Film Independent, The Gotham, Tribeca, PGA, and SFFilm.

Vero Kompalic – Producer
Vero Kompalic is a Venezuelan filmmaker and painter, who’s work and scholarship focuses on postcolonial feminist discourse, with publications on the sexual transgression of Catherine Breillat’s work and the radical implications of the cinema of Mariana Rondon.
 
In 2020 Vero founded DISCORDIA alongside her longtime collaborators and producers. Since coming together, DISCORDIA’s work has been recognized by Locarno, Tribeca, Sundance, SXSW, SFILM, Film Independent, Berlinale, la Biennale, The Gotham/IFP, among other institutions and organizations. In 2023, Vero’s first film, Plástico premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, where it received a special jury mention.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.