SF Immigrant Film Fest: Official Selection 2014!

The longest-running film festival on issues surrounding immigration, the San Francisco Immigrant Film Festival, SFImFF, announced its official selection with 24 great movies and videos from all over the world. The non-competitive festival accepts submissions from movie-makers who have a particular focus on showing the human face of immigration, including migrant worker’s rights and the experiences of asylum-seekers and refugees.

Each years SFImFF brings the films/videos to the community with free screenings at their workplace and for student groups, which is a feature that makes this event a unique project, since is has the exhibitions in nontraditional venues. SFImFF is completely volunteer-run festival, and this October is showcasing 24 new works from different countries through a non-competitive event.

The following works, narrative and documentary shorts, which are listed below in random order, were selected for the 2014 screenings:

"Zacharie doesn't live here anymore" , Alberto Segre, France 2014; "English", Amanda Quaid, USA/Poland 2014; “I Am Emmanuel” , Genevieve Clay-Smith, Australia/Sudan 2013; "I've just had a dream", Javier Navarro Montero, Spain 2013; “Budapest: An American Quest” , Lynn Schneider, USA 2013; “Without the Ancestors/San Zanset Yo”, Jonathan DiMaio, USA/Haiti 2014; “Disappeared migrants”, Eloísa Diez, Mexico 2013; “Common places”, Delia Márquez Sánchez, Spain 2014; “An honest arrangement” , Mitch Kase, USA 2013 and “Friend/Amigo” , Arturo León Llerena, Peru/Spain 2014 (World Premiere).

The Official Selection also includes “Somewhere in Gaza” directed by Hisham Madayi, Qatar 2013; “City of lights/La ville lumiere”, Pascal Tessaut, France 2013; “Namnala” , Nacho Solana, Spain 2014; “An open heart/A CŒUR OUVERT” , Ayekoro Kossou, France 2013; “New Kentucky Home”, Elijah Mckenzie, USA 2014, “Zugzwang”, Yolanda Centeno, USA 2014; “Mother, I left/Yema hana mchit”, Zeltia Outeiriño González, Spain/Morocco 2014; “Hogar, a home video”, Edgardo Antonio Jr, USA/Mex 2014; “The Chair/Der stuhl”, Daniel Martin Gómez, Spain/Germany 2013; “Vocabulary”, Sam Baixauli, Spain 2013; “Sepideh”, Fani Konstantinov, Spain 2014; “The man who fed his shadow” , Mario Garefo, Greece 2012; “Border diaries”, Irene Gutiérrez, Cuba 2012 and “Open arms, closed doors” , Fernandea Polacow & Juliana Borges, Brasil 2013. The documentary “Lonche” of Claire Weissbluth, USA, of 2013 Official Selection 2013 will be also shown during this event.

Most of the works will be seen for first time in America. SFImFF has had screening in venues such as City College of San Francisco (Ocean and Mission Campus), ATA theater, San Francisco Day Labor Program, Sonoma Community Center, the community organization PODER, SF International High School, Centro del Pueblo and Mission Neighborhood Resource Center.