OAXACALIFORNIA + OAXACALIFORNIA: THE RETURN
Special Features: Special Presentation; Double Feature. Q&A with filmmaker Trisha Ziff and subjects Noe and Vanessa Mejía on Oct. 3
OAXACALIFORNIA
Sylvia Stevens' 1995 documentary introduced viewers to the Mejía family of Fresno, California, whose parents emigrated from Mexico's beautiful but impoverished southern province of Oaxaca to make a living in the U.S. Despite the family's thriving landscaping business and thoroughly assimilated children, the ties to the family's ancestral home are strong, maintained each year with a family trip back for their home village of Jaltepec's fiesta in honor of Saint Mary Magdalene. DIR Sylvia Stevens; SCR/PROD Trisha Ziff. U.S/UK, 1995, color, 58 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Followed by: OAXACALIFORNIA: THE RETURN [OAXACALIFORNIA: EL REGRESO]
This follow-up to OAXACALIFORNIA (1995) revisits the Mejía family 25 years later, this time exploring identity and shifting intergenerational mindsets in 21st-century America. Now spanning three generations, the family's immigrant grandparents and their U.S. grandchildren naturally have different experiences and nuanced understandings about their ancestry and where they feel a sense of belonging. Where the older generation may have felt stuck between two worlds, ni de aquí ni de allá (neither here nor there), the grandchildren are comfortable identifying as having dual ancestry, de aquí y de allá (from here and there). Official Selection, 2021 Cine Las Americas. DIR/SCR/PROD Trisha Ziff; SCR/PROD Jorge Márquez; PROD Andrew Houchens, Isabel del Río. Mexico/U.S., 2021, color, 84 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED
There will be a 10-minute intermission between the films.
No AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 152 Minutes
Opening Date: Sunday, October 03, 2021
Genre: Documentary
