Beyond Status is a new initiative for migrant filmmakers as part of The Center for Cultural Power’s work inspiring artists to manifest a world in which cultural, economic and political power is distributed equally. 

Mexican filmmaker and Beyond Status' project lead, Jesús Iñiguez says that while he's had the idea for the program for some time, a new political landscape coupled with a divisive immigration dialogue pressed him to make it happen now. 

"The conversation around immigration became one about statistics and numbers. There is a human toll, a sense of humanity, that is often placed on the back burner," he says. "#BeyondStatus became an opportunity to reconcile that divide. The migrant experience is vastly different from population to population, from individual to individual, and we, as migrants, have bigger personal aspirations than just earning a green card. We have visions for our future that are beyond our immigration status."

So he posed some telling questions to various migrant filmmakers in the Center's network. "[I asked them] if we could allocate some resources to support you as filmmakers, and if we asked that you decenter immigrant trauma as the focal point of your pieces, [and instead] had an opportunity to indulge yourselves as creatives, what sort of stories would you tell?" 

The result? An inaugural showcase featuring five migrant filmmakers of diverse backgrounds living in different parts of the United States:

Mojosito & Me by Lidieth Arevalo (based in Long Beach, California)
Day and Night by Nix Guirre (based in San Francisco, California)
35 by Rahi Hasan (based in Durham, North Carolina)
Gansos Raros by Samantha Ramirez-Herrera (based in Atlanta, Georgia)
Rakim's Secret by Frisly Soberanis (based in New York, New York)

As a migrant filmmaker himself, Iñiguez says he knows firsthand of "the pitfalls of working on deeply personal creative stories. So it became my job to create space and opportunity for these filmmakers to work on developing and telling a story they felt important enough to communicate and create."

In the search to find the finalists, it was important to Iñiguez that each filmmaker identified as being a migrant. 

"There is a certain kind of care and caliber of storytelling that comes from directors who have a life experience that matches their projects and visions, so building this showcase with this in mind was an intentional decision on my part," he says. "I went through various networks that I’ve been a part of (like the Undocumented Filmmakers Collective), and combed through my rolodex of filmmakers with who I’ve had the pleasure of working with in the past. All of these conversations culminated in a short list of directors who one, work as filmmakers as their primary artistic craft, two, had the availability and capacity to complete their projects within our projected timeline, and there, were open and willing to work within the few parameters that I had laid out for them." 

All five of the chosen filmmakers were specifically selected because of their resumes, backgrounds, locations and methods of work. "Each has their own style of work, approach to storytelling, and their own unique brand of filmmaking. I believe that there’s something for everyone in this showcase."

Iñiguez says witnessing the migrant filmmakers "hone in on their craft, stepping out of their comfort zones to experiment in storytelling and grow as filmmakers, and watching them all conceptualize and manifest their pieces" has been the most fulfilling part of the #BeyondStatus experience. 

"We need to tell our stories and our dreams, not just our traumas. When films about immigration are created by directors who have not undergone the migrant experience themselves, they often center on stories of trauma and resiliency. But migrants are much more than that," he says. "And when an opportunity arises to tell our stories on our own terms, interesting pieces emerge. New angles, new ideas, and it’s precisely these emerging perspectives that allow us to remember our way forward, where we can shed our political identities and be who we are: Artists."

All five short films will be premiered as part of a public showcase, set to take place virtually on November 18th (you can register here to watch), after which they’ll be made available on the Center for Cultural Power's YouTube account as well as their microsite. 

As for whether there will be another showcase next year, Iñiguez says it's a possibility. 

"There are so many other filmmakers from all over the country who were unavailable this year who I would love to see be a part of this showcase. This inaugural showcase has been an experiment of sorts, and I really hope to see it grow in order to offer this opportunity to more migrant filmmakers.

Announcements and updates on the growth of this project will be available on beyondstatus.us.