Things We Dare Not Do by Bruno Santamaría
POV’s Season 34 is putting the spotlight on a diverse lineup of U.S. Latinx and Latin American narratives this October, continuing Hispanic Heritage Month past its traditional end date with broadcast premieres scheduled through the last week of the month.
Building off of an already robust emphasis on Latinx and Latin American perspectives this season, next month will see the highly anticipated broadcast premieres of Emily Cohen Ibañez’s Fruits of Labor on Monday, October 4; Óscar Molina’s La Casa de Mama Icha on Monday, October 18; and Bruno Santamaría’s Things We Dare Not Do (Cosas que no hacemos) on Monday, October 25, 2021. All three films will also be available to stream for free at pov.org after their respective premiere dates.
America’s longest-running documentary series' newest season follows artists, activists, elders, comedians, frontline workers and politicians across the globe as they navigate their personal stories and the larger histories under which they take shape. As in past seasons, POV has continued its longstanding commitment to Latin American and U.S. Latinx filmmakers and narratives by having already presented the broadcast premieres of four powerful documentaries that prioritized intersectional Caribbean, female, indigenous, and U.S. Latinx perspectives.
Marking a historic moment for Latinx narrative representation on PBS and public television in general, the majority of titles in Season 34’s thirteen-film program are by Latin American or U.S. Latinx filmmakers.
Fruits of Labor by Emily Cohen Ibañez
"Since POV’s inception nearly 35 years ago, the series’ mission has been simple: to use public television to meet the moment. This season's spotlight on Latin American and Latinx voices reflects our goal to ensure that a wide diversity of perspectives is represented both in front of and behind the camera," said Erika Dilday, Executive Director of American Documentary and Executive Producer of POV.
A moving coming-of-age story about a determined young woman and an eye-opening look at the seen and unseen forces that trap many families in poverty, Fruits of Labor is a co-production and co-presentation of POV and Latino Public Broadcasting’s VOCES. A high school senior, Ashley dreams of graduating and going to college, but when ICE raids in her community threaten to separate her family, she is forced to become their primary breadwinner. While most of her friends are thinking about prom and graduation, Ashley finds herself working days in the strawberry fields and the night shift at a processing plant, with little time left for sleep or studies. Tracing the tensions between family bonds and the systems that work to sever them, Fruits of Labor follows Ashley as she tries to hold on to her dreams while coping with obligations to her mother, who is undocumented, and her three younger siblings.
Also a co-presentation of POV and Latino Public Broadcasting, Oscar Molina’s La Casa de Mama Icha tells the story of Mama Icha who, decades earlier, moved to the United States to help her daughter with the care of her grandchildren. Now, at ninety-three, Mama Icha feels that the end of her life is near. Despite protestations from her family, she spends her days focusing on just one thing: returning to her native village of Mompox in northern Colombia. Against their wishes, Mama Icha boards a plane and flies back to Colombia where she meets her sons, Gustavo and Alberto, who have been looking after her house while she’s been gone.
La Casa de Mama Icha by Óscar Molina
An honorable mention at the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival, and an official selection at the Cartagena International Film Festival, La Casa de Mama Icha offers a profound meditation on notions of home and the complexities inherent to many migrant experiences: distance, the loved ones left behind, and the problem of aging in a country that doesn’t feel like your own.
Nominated for two Ariel Awards by Mexico’s Academy of Cinematographic Arts, winner of the Gold Hugo Award for Best Documentary and the Gold Q-Hugo Award for Best LGBTQ+ Film at the Chicago International Film Festival, and an official selection at the Hot Docs and DOC NYC film festivals, Bruno Santamaría’s Things We Dare Not Do offers a profound and moving coming-of-age story. In the small Mexican coastal village of El Roblito, sixteen-year-old Ñoño lives what seems to be an idyllic existence with his loving family. He spends his days playing with the free-spirited younger children of the town and staging elaborate community dance productions. But he holds a secret. Defying gender norms, Ñoño bravely works up the courage to tell his family he wants to live his life as a woman, a fraught decision in a country shrouded in machismo and transphobia.
Fruits of Labor, La Casa de Mama Icha, and Things We Dare Not Do will be available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. PBS station members can view many series, documentaries and specials via PBS Passport. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.
