While attempting to cross the border from Mexico to the US, Enrique meets a mysterious figure who teaches him what it really means to be an immigrant.
This short film will screen with other short films in Block 7 | East to West
Saturday, December 10th at 4pm
Palm Springs Art Museum. Palm Springs, California.
Buy Tickets Here
While attempting to cross the border from Mexico to the US, Enrique meets a mysterious figure who teaches him what it really means to be an immigrant.
César Velasco is a writer and director who graduated from Chapman University in 2021. He has worked in a multitude of short films as well as several independent projects (feature and television) often serving as 1st or 2nd assistant director. As a creative, his main goal is to elevate the stories and voices of those who are often cast aside in popular media. Born in Guanajuato, México, César has a particular interest in the Latinx community and hopes to be able tell stories that connect with his heritage in order to showcase its beauty and richness to the rest of the world.
A Song of the Land is a story of resilience, music and history. A tale that aims to explore the deeper questions brought by the experience of immigration, of leaving behind what you know and what you are in order to look for a new, different kind of home. As an international student who has lived in the US for 8 years now, I have always pondered about the repercussions of immigration not only in terms of opportunity and quality of life, but also in terms of the heart and the mind. It seems to me that there exists a vast discourse on what a person has to gain by immigrating, yet it is not often considered what it is that can be lost: a history, a culture, a language and a feeling. When we add to that the terrible reality of xenophobia in the places we immigrate to, it is hard not to succumb to the deep loneliness of being the “other”. But there is a factor that I believe is often left unspoken, a truth that is primal and central to the composition of immigration as a whole: the land does not belong to anyone. Whether that statement brings comfort or anger to the reader is perhaps the single most important question that this short film aims to ask, and it is a question that I hope we can all contend with as we move forward in a world that is simultaneously more connected and divided than ever.
