SATURDAY OCT 14
9:45 AM - THE WHEEL OF HEAVEN* (1hr 43min, Louisiana)
A woman caught up in predatory relationships is thrown into a multi-layered world of choices after she discovers a mystical book in a thrift store.
11:52 AM - Solar Eclipse commences outside, with maximum obscurity at 11:54 AM & annularity – when the entirety of the Moon is silhouetted against the Sun – subsides by 11:56 AM, with San Marcos happening to be directly in the path for utmost visibility, according to NASA
12:15 PM - Transcending Borders Bloc
Intro from Manuela Gonzales & Jennefer Canales-Pelaez – Texas Communications Coordinator & Texas Policy Attorney/Strategist, respectively – of Immigrant Legal Resource Center, concerning Operation Lone Star
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SOMOS BORDERLANDS (24min, RGV)
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Take a short personal tour of the Rio Grande Valley, encountering some of the people, perspectives & spaces of today through the music & lore of multimedia arts project "Futuro Conjunto."
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THE AMERICAN ALIEN (13 min, ATX)
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The absurd journey of an extraterrestrial caught at the Mexico border & processed into the U.S. immigration system.
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GREEN WATER (17min, ATX)
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College-bound Erik must learn to think of his younger sister’s welfare after their mother doesn’t return home from her shift at Mana’s, the classic San Marcos diner.
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COMADRE (19min, ATX)
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Marielitos is a Mexican immigrant nanny struggling with the last days of her current nanny job, and trying to find a new one.
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SUPERMARKET AFFAIRS (15min, ATX)
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Readying for the anniversary of her husband’s death, a Vietnamese immigrant woman & her Americanized adult daughter butt heads over how to best honor him.
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GHOSTLY LABOR (14min, Cali)
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Exploring labor history in the US–Mexico borderlands through Tap, Zapateado, Son Jarocho, Afro Caribbean movement & live music: generations of systemic exploitation, but also the power & joy of collective resistance.
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Total Runtime: 2hr
Followed by Q&A with COMADRE actresses, as well as organizers with Mujeres Inspiradas en Sueños, Metas y Acciones (MISMA), Rosario Nava & Mayra Brito; as well as THE AMERICAN ALIEN Director Rodrigo Rodriguez
2:45 PM - Beyond the Cages Bloc
CALLS FROM HOME* (31min, Appalachia) World Premiere!
courtesy Working Films’ Beyond Walls compilation
An intimate portrait of rural prison expansion, documenting WMMT-FM’s longstanding radio show that sends messages over the public airwaves to reach those incarcerated in Central Appalachia. For many, the show provides a lifeline to the world outside. Sharing the stories of family & friends who call in, & those who listen in from prison, the film portrays the many forms of distance that rural prison-building creates—& the ceaseless search to end this system of mass incarceration & family separation.
preceded by WHAT THESE WALLS WON’T HOLD (25min, Cali) courtesy Working Films’ Beyond Walls compilation
The COVID-19 crisis inside California prisons has claimed the lives of over 200 incarcerated people & infected tens of thousands more. This film tracks its origins inside the state prison system & a newly formed coalition, led by currently & formerly incarcerated people, that brought forward an abolitionist framework to a life-or-death situation. An exploration of how relationships built on trust, shared liberatory struggle & connections across broader abolitionist organizing work, can unfold into sites of resistance & radical change.
as well as CYRUS GRAY’S STORY (2min, San Marcos) courtesy Vera Institute of Justice
A brief glimpse at the struggle of a young man in Hays County falsely accused of murder, fighting for freedom & truth to be told.
ANDREW AFTER ANGOLA (40min, Santa Fe)
Chronicling a re-entry program created to help former prisoners rebuild their lives in Louisiana & the complex background of the program's founder, who spent years in the state’s largest prison for a crime he committed at age 15.
Films followed by Q&A with CALLS FROM HOME Director Sylvia Ryerson
Total runtime: 1hr 39min
5 PM - Beyond the Texas Cages Forum, moderated by Karen Muñoz, of Texas Jail Liberation Project & LatinoJustice PRLDEF – FREE EVENT!
Rooted in experiences inside & outside of cages in Texas – both from personal familiarity as well as the plight of loved ones – panelists will dissect the Lone Star State’s penchant for punishment, as well as grassroots struggle underway to dismantle our carceral state.
Featuring Panelists: Maggie Luna, Jennefer Canales-Pelaez, & Cyrus Gray*
7 PM - Infrarrealista Review Poetry Night, w/ special screening of new documentary on Xicánindio activist raúlsalinas, alongside filmmakers
RAÚLSALINAS & THE POETRY OF LIBERATION: UN TRIP* (25min, ATX/San Anto)
A splitscreen jazz-&-liberation film based on the words of “Un Trip through the Mind Jail” by raúlrsalinas, written in 1969 in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. The poem expresses lived experience in La Loma (East Austin). The short explores contemporary issues: imprisonment in the jail machine, community destruction & gentrification, the overwhelming force of cultural memory in sanity & salvation, the need for societal transformation.
preceded by I MADE IT (3min, San Marcos)
Short video, courtesy of San Marcos Cinema Club, featuring poem by Myles Martin, about the December 2022 killing of Joshua Wright by Hays County jailer Isaiah Garcia.
Followed by Q&A with Directors of RAÚLSALINAS & THE POETRY OF LIBERATION: UN TRIP, Anne Lewis & Laura Varela
Generously underwritten by Center for the Study of the Southwest at TXST & Texas After Violence Project!
9 PM - HOME IS SOMEWHERE ELSE* (Mexico/US, 1hr 27min)
An animated recounting – narrated by electrifying poet José Eduardo Aguilar, a.k.a. El Deportee – of three real-life stories from families who belong to the Mexican diaspora: sharing fears, hopes & emotions on what it means to live undocumented in the United States.
El Universal: "What makes this documentary new is its way of narrating, with animations in three different styles ... The result is absolutely beautiful, not only because of the inevitable emotion of each story but also because of the animations & empathy this beautiful documentary spreads."