“A personal and inspiring portrait, Margo Guernsey’s debut feature film profiles Dominican-born city councilwoman Carmen Castillo. The behind-the-scenes foray positions Castillo as a powerful face of contemporary American grassroots politics at a moment pivotal in the fight for immigrant rights and political representation in the United States.
This story starts where most political films end: Councilwoman Castillo has just won an election to the Providence, Rhode Island City Council. Her victory is despite talk in the neighborhood that she is merely an uneducated “maid.” But, as a councilwoman, Castillo faces her toughest challenge yet: balancing her full-time job as a hotel housekeeper, her family, and her personal life with corporate interests organizing against her supporters.
Through an intimate cinema vérité approach and personal proximity, Councilwoman becomes a timely portrait of a woman part of a growing number of Latina activists — such as rising political superstar Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — that are changing the face of politics in this country.
COUNCILWOMAN
A film by Margo Guerney
(USA, 2018, 56 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)
Watch for free through May 4 —as part of the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival
