If I Go Will They Miss Me

Walter Thompson-Hernández’s stunning feature debut is a coming-of-age story set in South Los Angeles, blending social and magical realism, Greek mythology, and vérité observation into a poetic reflection on family, legacy, and dreams. Adapted from the writer-director’s acclaimed short, the film follows 12-year-old Lil Ant, a sensitive, artistic boy navigating life in the shadow of his father, Big Ant, recently released from prison. The filmmaker charts the emotional journey of father and son as they struggle to reconnect, balancing youthful imagination with the rhythms of their neighborhood. A cast of nonprofessional actors join Danielle Brooks and J. Alphonse Nicholson, bringing raw immediacy to Thompson-Hernández’s vivid narrative. Streets and alleys become spaces of discovery, offering a tender, inventive portrait of adolescence and the fragile bonds that anchor us to family, community, and inheritance. —Jessie Fairbanks