“EL Regreso” A Dreamer Awakens A Short Documentary Film World Premiere @ Dances with Films Film Festival

June 26, 2024

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DWF — "EL Regreso” A Dreamer Awakens A Short Documentary Film World Premiere @ Dances with Films Film Festival

She’s worked with Congress and Stacey Abrams. Now this Dreamer is telling her own story!

As Biden solidifies DACA, this documentary debut explores identity, family and homeland for the undocumented. During the 12th anniversary month of DACA, Director, Filmmaker and advocate Samantha Ramirez-Herrera’s documentary short “EL Regreso” made its world premiere at the Dances with Films Film Festival on June 26th at The Chinese Theater. With an Advance Parole document allowing the DACA recipient to temporarily leave the country, Ramirez-Herrara returns to Mexico for the first time since she left when she was 7 years old. During Dia de los Muertos, she searches for the family she lost and how to release the burden of the failed American Dream she’s carried for her parents since they crossed the border. “I’m here to talk to the dead,” Ramirez-Herrera says while visiting her grandparents’ tombs. “There’s things that just can’t be said to the living.” It is written and directed By Samantha Ramirez-Herrera and produced By Sam Bathrick.

At Age 7, Sam Ramirez-Herrera fled Mexico with her family in pursuit of the American Dream. Now a filmmaker, DACA recipient and advocate for undocumented immigrants in the U.S., Sam, like so many other “Dreamers,” finds herself caught between two nations—fully belonging to none. On the eve of Dia De Los Muertos, she is offered the opportunity to return to Mexico after 30 years away. Leaving the U.S. for the first time. Sam embarks on a journey to reconnect with her past and convene with her Mexican family, both living and dead. As her trip stirs traumas on both sides of the border, her homecoming reveals to her the great cost of her decades old crossing and upends her conception of the American Dream she’s spent her life fighting to achieve. Against the vibrant visual backdrop of Mexico’s Day Of The Dead, “El Regreso” explores rebirth through the lens of one dreamer’s awakening.

Sam Ramirez is both the filmmaker and the subject. It’s a unique position of power for someone who has, at times in her life, been powerless to assert her POV or even her identity in U.S. culture. Though she has regularly appeared on major news networks and sat at table with lawmakers in Washington, her return to Mexico derails her from talking points she has faithfully delivered as a public figure and leaves her exploring her fractured identity in a deeply personal way. The result is an honest and singular depiction of the immigrant experience that hasn’t been on screen before.

Samantha “Sam” Ramirez-Herrera is a filmmaker, public speaker, and advocate who founded OffThaRecord.com (OTR), a creative content agency in Atlanta, Georgia, addressing social issues like economic justice, immigration, and reproductive justice. She has produced work for influential clients such as The Nature Conservancy, FWD.us, Stacey Abrams, and the Ms. Foundation for Women. A sought-after speaker on immigration, gender equality, and identity, Sam was named a 2018 scholar at The Aspen Institute and HATCH Experience North America, and one of the 50 Most Influential Latinos in Georgia in 2019 and 2020. She has appeared on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews and has been featured in Forbes, The Washington Post, and more. In 2019, she directed an Emmy-winning Get Out The Vote campaign and a Shorty Social Good Award-winning project, Home is Here: The Voices of Undocumented People at the Supreme Court.

El Regreso had its world premiere at LA’s DANCES WITH FILMS earlier today.

Our News Team of Entertainment Today TV Producer: Steve Taylor, TV Show Host: Margie Rey, & News Reporter: Matt Segal at The Opening Night of the Dances With Films Festival in Hollywood, at The World Famous Chinese Theatre:

Among DWF: LA’s lineup of 232 films, including 38 narrative features, 17 documentary features, 25 television and streaming pilots, and 152 short films (101 narrative and 20 documentaries, 13 KIdz section, 18 Downbeat/Music), are an impressive number of films (117!) making world, international, North American, or U.S. premieres. That number includes 24 narrative features, 10 documentary features, 69 narrative shorts, 22 documentary shorts (including Downbeat), and 15 pilots which will have world premiere screenings at Dances With Films.

The Dances With Films Festival is a Star-Studded 11 days, with Both A-List stars, and several recognizable faces and names that include: “Norita” that is Executive produced by Jane Fonda, Russell Goldman’s Burn Out, which is executive produced by Jamie Lee Curtis and stars Tommie Earl Jenkins, Eli Vidis Newman’s Concrete, which stars four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris, Kestrin Pantera’s Dr. No Means No, which stars comedy duo The Sklar Brothers, Mindy Sterling (Austin Powers), and Breeda Wool (The Walking Dead), Mike Harris’ Mecánica, which stars Haley Joel Osment, and Olivia Sandoval(Fargo), and Danny Farber’s Thoughts and Prayers, which is executive produced by Amy Poehler, “Tim Travers & The Time Travelers Paradox” Stars: Samuel Dunning, Felicia Day, Danny Trejo, and Keith David, Mindy Cohn the Co-Star on “The Facts of Life,” and finally: the World Premiere of “Max Dagan” which stars: Rob Morrow, Zachary Gordon, Michael Madsen, Rob Brownstein, Lindsey Dresbach, Lisa Roumain, and Comedians and Actors Jeff Ross and Jay Mohr!

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