Hummingbirds
Description
During a stifling summer in Laredo, Texas, two adolescents stargaze from a car’s rooftop, share worries that they could be deported, and fret over their futures while rebelling against present circumstances. Directors Estefanía “Beba” Contreras and Silvia Del Carmen Castaños spotlight their own lives, revealing the poetry and passion that fire young spirits in a world that wants to control their bodies and their citizenship. As their state moves towards draconian anti-abortion legislation, Beba and Silvia fight back with their words and their Sharpie pens. Goofy and rebellious in equal amounts, the film tenderly centers this soulful friendship as the pair acknowledge their feelings for one another in poems, songs, and the headlong sense of adventure their bond brings to daily living. SFFILM proudly supported the film through the Documentary Film Fund and SFFILM Invest program.
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Biographies
Silvia Del Carmen Castaños previously made the short Ocean (2018), which won a documentary jury prize at the Laredo International Media & Film Festival. They are a 2021 NBCU Original Voices Fellow, a 2021 Sundance/WIF Financing Intensive Fellow, a 2021 Points North/LEF Fellow, a 2022 BAVC MediaMaker Fellow, and a 2022-2024 Firelight Documentary Fellow. Their debut film, Hummingbirds was the 2023 Grand Prix winner of the Berlinale Generation 14plus section.
Estefanía “Beba” Contreras is a musician, visual artist, and tattoo artist as well as a filmmaker. She is a 2021 NBCU Original Voices Fellow, 2021 Sundance/WIF Financing Intensive Fellow, and a 2022-2024 Firelight Documentary Fellow. Hummingbirds, for which she also composed the score, is her first film. Hummingbirds is the recipient of the SFFILM Documentary Film Fund.