WORLD REFUGEE DAY FILM, DISCUSSION, AND RECEPTION
Miami-based independent documentary filmmaker Alexandra Codina's intimate verité doc Paper Children screens with short film En Manos De Dios for World Refugee Day.
The event includes a post-screening discussion with the González family (featured in both films) moderated by Codina at Coral Gables Art Cinema, followed by a complimentary reception at Books & Books (across the street from the cinema).
Love brings a family together. Will a system tear them apart?
Paper Children (Niños de papel, 64 min, 2020) reveals America’s invisible refugee crisis through the eyes of one family that defies a broken system with their unwavering resilience. Deep in the everyday life of the loving and optimistic González family, the horrific violence of gang-ridden Honduras and the encroaching threat of draconian US enforcement are almost forgotten. The film goes beyond the traditional immigration narrative to a nuanced, intimate story that implicates us all in how we care for the most vulnerable.
En Manos de Dios (15 min, 2024) is the missing piece in the immigration narrative—what happens after the journey to refuge and navigating the immigration roulette. In this intimate portrait of a new father, trauma is replaced by tenderness and the promise of a future.
2024 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Central American child refugee crisis. In 2014, roughly 70,000 unaccompanied children arrived in the US fleeing violence, including the 4 siblings featured in Paper Children.
About Director/Producer Alexandra Codina:
Alexandra Codina is a first generation LatinX independent documentary filmmaker, based in Miami. Her directing & producing debut, Monica & David (HBO Documentary) won Tribeca’s Jury Award & was nominated for a Primetime Emmy. Her second film, Paper Children, premiered worldwide with YouTube Originals. Ali is currently developing a documentary on the human brain, informed by her experience of surviving two brain aneurysm bleeds; and is consulting producer on River of Grass, a film about the Florida Everglades.
Her work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Good Pitch, CPH Dox, Hot Docs, Tribeca Institute, Fledgling Fund, Knight Foundation, Perspective Fund. She has appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Newsweek, Univision’s “Primer Impacto,” The Huffington Post, CNN en Español, LATimes, and Latina Magazine. The daughter of Cuban refugees, Alexandra is the mother of two young boys. She is fluent in Spanish and French and has basic knowledge of American Sign Language.
This event is supported by Books & Books Literary Foundation, which cultivates the love of books and a community of free expression in Miami.