THE COLORADO DRAGON BOAT FILM FESTIVAL
  • Home
  • About / Contact
  • 2023 Raffle
  • 2023 Program
    • 2023 Community Conversations >
      • 3/11 - Celebrating the Stories of our LGBTQ+ Asian American Pacific Islander Community
      • 3/12 - Celebrating the Stories of our Multiracial AAPI Community
    • 2023 Short Films Showcase >
      • Amache Rose
      • Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya Findings
      • Dirty Rotten Tofu and the Gohan Girls
      • One Fine Day
      • Paddles on the Water
      • Soon
      • Thread
    • 2023 Emerging Artists Showcase >
      • 1992
      • Daruma
      • Esperanza
      • it's in the cards, fatherhood
      • My Grandpa Says He's an Alien
      • The Pomegranate Tree
      • The Waterspout
      • Yesterday I Was the Moon
  • Sponsors / Donors
  • Previous Programs
    • 2022 Program >
      • 2022 Community Conversations >
        • 3/5 - CAPU
        • 3/6 - AGI
      • 2022 Short Films Showcase >
        • #AsianAmResilience Microdocs
        • good enough
        • In Wake of the Crashing Dawn
        • Projections
        • Charlie
        • Desert Lotus
        • Ara, Untamed
        • My Name is not Amy
      • 2022 Emerging Artists Showcase >
        • Sino Ako
        • All Mine
        • Winter Glass Glare
        • Core
        • Maa
        • Heart Sutra
    • 2021 Program >
      • 2021 Short Film Showcase >
        • #AsianAMCovidStories
        • Duo Pandemia
        • Mastery I & II
        • Ib Tsug 13 Hnub
        • Ntuj Tsim Txom
        • Mechamorphosis
        • The 3 Day Nun
        • The Loyal Betrayal
        • Voices
      • 2021 Emerging Artists Showcase >
        • Check Box: Other
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter >
          • I Put the Bi in Bitter S2
          • I Put the Bi in Bitter S1
        • Safe
        • In the Spotlight
    • 2020 Program >
      • Digital Program Book
      • 2020 Creative Conversations >
        • 2/21 - Best Tasting Wild Foods of Colorado​
        • 2/22 - Health & Mental Health
        • 2/22 - Mushroom Foraging 101
      • 2020 Asian American Documentaries >
        • Palliative
        • Love Boat: Taiwan
      • 2020 Colorado Showcase >
        • The Rock Within
        • Ma
        • For Tashi
        • people (of water)
        • Not Pictured
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter
      • Ang Larawan (The Portrait)
      • Asian American Artist Showcase
    • 2019 Program >
      • 2019 Film Shorts >
        • Runner
        • Tears of the Sky
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter
        • My Escape
      • 2019 CU Denver Showcase >
        • Three Worlds One Stage
        • Virtual Mandala
      • 2019 Festival Talkbacks >
        • Creative Leadership Talkback
        • CU Filmmaker Q&A
        • Film Industry Talkback
    • 2018 Program
    • 2017 Program >
      • Taipei Story
      • The Last Princess
      • Mid-Length Films Block
      • Ten Years
      • What's in the Darkness
      • Millennium Actress
      • The Future Perfect
      • Youth of the Beast
      • Being Good
      • Heart Attack
      • Bloody Dairy
      • Bruce Takes Dragon Town
      • Cowboy and Indian
      • Dancing Through Life: The Dorothy Toy Story
      • Ho Chi Minh Kim Chi
      • Mango Sticky Rice
      • Night-Fly
      • Sumo Road - The Musical
      • Threads - The Art and Life of Surayia Rahman
      • Twenty Years
    • 2016 Program >
      • Wolf Children
      • Uzumasa Limelight
      • Changing Season
      • Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
      • Awesome Asian Bad Guys
      • Off the Menu: Asian America
      • Winning Girl
  • New Page

2023 Emerging Artists Showcase

Esperanza
​
​​Sunday, March 12th, 2023
Denver Sie FilmCenter

Synopsis of Film:  
When an immigrant taxi driver in upstate New York takes a hopeful young couple to the Canadian border, they find themselves at odds in the shared pursuit of a better life.

​Dev, a taxi driver in upstate New York, ferries asylum-seekers to an unmarked Canadian border crossing in the hopes of earning enough to bring his family over from India. One night, he picks up Estrella and Marisol, a Salvadoran couple with dreams of a new beginning and a great deal at stake. When they challenge his tactics, he must confront how far he will go for his American Dream.​

Get Tickets
Picture

Picture

​

​Shruti Parekh is a filmmaker and journalist from Atlanta and Brooklyn who tells intimate stories of life on the margins of American society. Her work spans fiction, documentary, journalism, animation, and music videos and can be seen in outlets such as Jezebel, Remezcla, Gizmodo, Food & Wine, and NYLON. Her first short film, "Blood Moon," won the Audience Award at the South Asian Film Festival of America. Shruti is the recipient of the Jack Nicholson Distinguished Student Director Award and the Edie and Lew Wasserman Production Fellowship, and is a member of the Snarky Elephant Production Incubator's inaugural 2023 cohort. She has a BA from Brown University and an MFA in Directing from UCLA.

Director's Statement 

As the American-born daughter of Indian immigrants, I have always been interested in exploring the experiences of immigrants and their cross-border journeys to survive and thrive. Immigrant stories reflect the extent of human resilience, determination, and hope. But in xenophobic societies, even kindred communities are often pitted against one another in their struggles for success and self-preservation. In Esperanza, I explore these tensions in the immigrant narrative while questioning the cutthroat nature of the elusive American Dream. While fictional, Esperanza is inspired by a real surge of asylum-seekers crossing into Canada at an unmarked border in upstate New York. I covered this story as a journalist in 2017 and was struck by this alternate border narrative—one in which people flee the U.S. instead of coming to it. Many making the journey are undocumented or at risk of losing their immigration status, and like Estrella and Marisol, many face dangerous futures in their home countries due to their identity. Near the border, taxi drivers who shuttle migrants to their destination sometime follow U.S. border protocol at their passengers’ expense. Some of the drivers are immigrants themselves. Through the stories of Dev, Estrella, and Marisol, I explore the complex dynamics at play between those in pursuit of a better life and the systems they are up against.

Esperanza Press Kit
File Size: 17305 kb
File Type: esperanza press kit 8 (1).5x11_0622
Download File

Contact Us

  • Home
  • About / Contact
  • 2023 Raffle
  • 2023 Program
    • 2023 Community Conversations >
      • 3/11 - Celebrating the Stories of our LGBTQ+ Asian American Pacific Islander Community
      • 3/12 - Celebrating the Stories of our Multiracial AAPI Community
    • 2023 Short Films Showcase >
      • Amache Rose
      • Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya Findings
      • Dirty Rotten Tofu and the Gohan Girls
      • One Fine Day
      • Paddles on the Water
      • Soon
      • Thread
    • 2023 Emerging Artists Showcase >
      • 1992
      • Daruma
      • Esperanza
      • it's in the cards, fatherhood
      • My Grandpa Says He's an Alien
      • The Pomegranate Tree
      • The Waterspout
      • Yesterday I Was the Moon
  • Sponsors / Donors
  • Previous Programs
    • 2022 Program >
      • 2022 Community Conversations >
        • 3/5 - CAPU
        • 3/6 - AGI
      • 2022 Short Films Showcase >
        • #AsianAmResilience Microdocs
        • good enough
        • In Wake of the Crashing Dawn
        • Projections
        • Charlie
        • Desert Lotus
        • Ara, Untamed
        • My Name is not Amy
      • 2022 Emerging Artists Showcase >
        • Sino Ako
        • All Mine
        • Winter Glass Glare
        • Core
        • Maa
        • Heart Sutra
    • 2021 Program >
      • 2021 Short Film Showcase >
        • #AsianAMCovidStories
        • Duo Pandemia
        • Mastery I & II
        • Ib Tsug 13 Hnub
        • Ntuj Tsim Txom
        • Mechamorphosis
        • The 3 Day Nun
        • The Loyal Betrayal
        • Voices
      • 2021 Emerging Artists Showcase >
        • Check Box: Other
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter >
          • I Put the Bi in Bitter S2
          • I Put the Bi in Bitter S1
        • Safe
        • In the Spotlight
    • 2020 Program >
      • Digital Program Book
      • 2020 Creative Conversations >
        • 2/21 - Best Tasting Wild Foods of Colorado​
        • 2/22 - Health & Mental Health
        • 2/22 - Mushroom Foraging 101
      • 2020 Asian American Documentaries >
        • Palliative
        • Love Boat: Taiwan
      • 2020 Colorado Showcase >
        • The Rock Within
        • Ma
        • For Tashi
        • people (of water)
        • Not Pictured
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter
      • Ang Larawan (The Portrait)
      • Asian American Artist Showcase
    • 2019 Program >
      • 2019 Film Shorts >
        • Runner
        • Tears of the Sky
        • I Put the Bi in Bitter
        • My Escape
      • 2019 CU Denver Showcase >
        • Three Worlds One Stage
        • Virtual Mandala
      • 2019 Festival Talkbacks >
        • Creative Leadership Talkback
        • CU Filmmaker Q&A
        • Film Industry Talkback
    • 2018 Program
    • 2017 Program >
      • Taipei Story
      • The Last Princess
      • Mid-Length Films Block
      • Ten Years
      • What's in the Darkness
      • Millennium Actress
      • The Future Perfect
      • Youth of the Beast
      • Being Good
      • Heart Attack
      • Bloody Dairy
      • Bruce Takes Dragon Town
      • Cowboy and Indian
      • Dancing Through Life: The Dorothy Toy Story
      • Ho Chi Minh Kim Chi
      • Mango Sticky Rice
      • Night-Fly
      • Sumo Road - The Musical
      • Threads - The Art and Life of Surayia Rahman
      • Twenty Years
    • 2016 Program >
      • Wolf Children
      • Uzumasa Limelight
      • Changing Season
      • Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
      • Awesome Asian Bad Guys
      • Off the Menu: Asian America
      • Winning Girl
  • New Page