As part of Hispanic Heritage Month, join the Office of Immigrant Affairs, Philadelphia Latino Film Festival, and Sotomayor Productions for a local rough cut community screening of the local short film Expanding Sanctuary. Directed by Kristal Sotomayor, Expanding Sanctuary tells a powerful story about community organizing in collaboration with Juntos to limit police surveillance in the city’s Latinx immigrant community.

City Hall Courtyard/Conversation Hall (rain location)

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Expanding Sanctuary covers the ordinary, extraordinary transformation of an immigrant worker, Linda Hernandez, who yearns for her mother's presence at the dawn of her new marriage and new life. In her quest to bring her mother to the United States, what begins as a perfunctory but necessary step in order to obtain her mom's visa, changes the character's life and world-view entirely. The film documents this shift as she becomes a passionate organizer and emerges with her newfound voice, power, and agency. This journey, which started simply as a woman's wish to be close to her mom on her wedding day, gives her renewed purpose in life. Now, the goal she hopes to obtain is no longer solely for her, rather her work, in solidarity, benefits the entire community of immigrant laborers that surrounds her.

RSVP