The neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, is home to approximately 60,000 Mexican immigrants; it is often referred to as "the capital of Mexican culture on the East Coast." By putting cameras in the hands of four Mexican American teenagers, I directed a collaboration, inciting and guiding them on an investigation of their family lives from the inside.

With a didactic approach, this collaborative project created an instant film archive depicting the hopes and dreams their families sought as they crossed the southern border of the United States in hopes of a peaceful life, one free from the difficulties of hunger and violence and instead filled with the small calamities of coexisting in a space called home.

Contributors:

Kevin Ascencion.

Sofía Benítez Oliva.

Alejandra Fernandez.

Richard Cruz Ramirez.

Milagros Salas.

The results of this process were exhibited in the International Center of Photography (ICP) and in the Mixteca organization.

(We’d like to thank the Mixteca organization for providing the space, film and cameras to make this project possible.)