Trailer Watch: Iliana Sosa Pays Tribute to Her Grandfather in “What We Depart Behind”

“Grandpa was a thriller to me as a child. I didn’t know easy methods to discuss to him,” Iliana Sosa narrates within the newest trailer for her acclaimed doc “What We Depart Behind.” The SXSW title sees the filmmaker demystifying the storied lifetime of her grandfather Julián Moreno, regularly establishing her circle of relatives tapestry alongside the best way. “What We Depart Behind” explores this very thought of genealogical legacy: what is it that we depart behind for posterity? And what will we, as successors, inherit from our elders?

On the age of 89, Moreno undertakes a Herculean process: constructing a brand new house in rural Durango, Mexico, for relations on either side of the Mexico-U.S. border. In her function debut, Sosa paperwork the development course of and every day routine of her grandfather. In an interview with us, she defined that she was additionally “drawing out recollections from relations” and grappling “with how migration and loss have marked all of our lives.” 

“The movie is in the end a form of love letter to Julián and his homeland,” Sosa mused. “I mirror on my grandfather’s superstitions, my mom’s journey throughout the border, and my grandmother’s premature demise when my mother was simply a teen. As I interweave these completely different threads, I’m capable of construct relationships and mutual understanding with my kin, unearth buried recollections, and in the end piece collectively a fragmented household historical past.”

Moreno was a bracero, one in every of hundreds of thousands of agricultural employees dropped at the U.S. from Mexico to accommodate the labor scarcity of World Conflict II. These seasonal employees had been exploited for his or her handbook labor after which repatriated as soon as their work permits expired. Whereas Sosa got down to discover her grandfather’s nomadic, precarious life as a bracero, “the challenge’s focus and method shifted to one thing extra private,” she revealed.

“The dynamics round this home allowed me to discover how migration has affected our household’s bonds and formed my id,” Sosa shared. “It additionally prompted me to mirror on my emotional and cultural experiences as a part of a diaspora. Via the method of filmmaking, I used to be capable of construct a brand new relationship with my grandfather and his homeland.” She emphasised, “The movie honors my household on either side of the border and tells their story — the story of individuals we not often see onscreen.” 

Along with his private anecdotes and vignettes of household historical past, the doc captures Moreno’s unbreakable spirit at the same time as his well being declines. “I do know that that day has to return in the end. Why get scared?” he says within the trailer.

“What We Depart Behind” follows “An Unsure Future,” Sosa’s 2018 documentary brief centering round two expectant moms contending with elevated ICE raids and the xenophobia fomented by the Trump administration. Co-directed with Chelsea Hernandez, the challenge received a Jury Award for Greatest Texas Brief at SXSW. “What We Depart Behind” snagged two Particular Jury awards at its SXSW premiere earlier this 12 months.

“What We Depart Behind” hits theaters and Netflix September 30.