July 11, 2011, 8pm

Sternberg Park (map)

Moviehouse returns to Sternberg Park for our 3rd edition of our CinemaParque series featuring the very best in filmmaking from North Brooklyn. And for our first show this summer we’re returning to the folks who featured at the first screening ever on the handball courts. Its the powerful documentary: New Children New York.

“New Children/New York” is an intimate portrait of the struggles and perseverance of young immigrants coming of age in a rarely seen New York City. Set in a community workshop in Bushwick, a Latino immigrant and low-income neighborhood of Brooklyn, the documentary follows three young people among a group of students who are studying filmmaking: Desiree, a Dominican teenager who loves comics, skateboarding and rock music; Patricia, a pensive college student who has spent her life back and forth between New York and Gualaceo, Ecuador; and Fausto, a positive and recent immigrant from the indigenous community of Quisapincha, Ecuador. They now all call Bushwick their home and are members of the community organization that hosts the film workshop, Make the Road New York.

Their gripping, self-exploratory films—excerpted throughout the documentary and each exhibiting a distinct voice and style—reveal the confidential perceptions of the youth who straddle the opposing cultures of the U.S. and their homelands. As filmmaking urges them to reflect on their identities, family situations and the elusiveness of the “American Dream,” the documentary portrays how these young
adults are triumphing over the barriers of illegality, discrimination, economic hardship, family separation, cultural loss and social alienation. “New Children/New York” concludes as the students premiere their films at a Latino film festival in New York, but more so, it ends with three young immigrants having completed a process of healing, self-discovery and empowerment by way of personal storytelling.

Come early for music from the film’s composer, Maya Martinez.