América
A film by Erick Stoll, Chase Whiteside
This film was screened as a part of the 2019 Cine Las Americas International Film Festival (CLAIFF22)
This feature was preceded by the short film Sweetheart Dancers
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwDiy6JpzJE]
USA, Documentary/Family Profile, 2018
76 min, Color
Spanish with English subtitles
Diego is a young circus artist living away from his family in a dull landscape of tourist beaches and all-inclusive resorts when he must return home suddenly. His grandmother, América, fell from her bed, causing his father to be jailed under accusation of elder neglect. Diego sees poetry and purpose in this tragedy. He believes América, despite her immobility and advanced dementia, fell willfully, to bring a separated family back together. He reunites with his estranged brothers and leaves his old life behind. But now they face the considerable challenges of freeing their father from an opaque court system bereft of moral authority, and learning to be caretakers for someone who may not understand who they are. And yet the greatest challenge might be learning to work together. As the brothers clash over money and the distribution of labor, difficult questions take the foreground — who decides what becomes of América? And how long will they put their lives on hold to care for her?
Regional Premiere
Biofilmography
Erick Stoll and Chase Whiteside co-founded the political web series NEW LEFT MEDIA which documented conservative and progressive movements during the Obama presidency; and co-directed the short LIFELIKE, a dispassionate reconstruction of the taxidermic process. Additionally, Stoll co-directed the award winning short doc GOOD WHITE PEOPLE about gentrification in Cincinnati OH, and Whiteside a short doc profiling an undocumented immigrant working in a Trump hotel. In 2017, Stoll and Whiteside were featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. AMÉRICA is their first feature film.
Credits
Producer: Erick Stoll, Chase Whiteside
Production Companies: Dogwoof
Cinematographer: Erick Stoll
Editor: Erick Stoll, Chase Whiteside
Sound Design: Antonia Bustamente, González Martínez David
Cast: Diego Alvarez Serrano, Rodrigo Alvarez Serrano, Bruno Alvarez Serrano, América Capdevielle Levas
Print Source: Nick Newman, nick@grasshopperfilm.com