Mountainfilm Film Festival has previewed many motivating films this year, but none of the films I have seen have been as encouraging as Free Like the Birds (dir. Paola Mendoza), a ten-minute documentary about a young girl’s passion for making a difference in the immigrant community. Other than the motivating impression of the film, this film includes multiple montages of Sophie, the main subject, doing impressive things for her age, like participating in Tae Kwon Do and going to Washington to see the Pope. Along with her impressive abilities, the film contains immense emotion, as the family is worried about being separated because of deportation risks.
This courageous little girl wants to make a difference in America, not only to help her family, but for other immigrants in the same situation. Because of the meaningful message behind the film, I would consider this film to be very poetic for its emotional story. At one point, Sophie asks her mother what she should do if her parents got deported; this fragment of the story was very emotional because Sophie was asking such a difficult question that would be hard to explain. Other than poetic, this film also takes on the classic documentary trope of participatory. Throughout the film, Sophie’s parents are interviewed about Sophie and what she has all done. Overall, this film is very poetic with its emotion, but yet participatory with the interaction of Sophie’s parents.
I enjoyed this film primarily because of its emotion; whenever a film includes a type of emotion, it gives it a more thoughtful message. Emotion draws people’s attention in and makes the audience feel for the subjects, helping the issue or cause to get more publicity. Other than the emotional storyline making the film remarkable, the music in the film was also a factor to the emotion. Throughout all scene of sadness, generally during the interviews, quiet music played in the background; but when there were exciting moments, like when Sophie ran towards the Pope, upbeat music played to show the revelation of her actions. Overall, this film’s emotion gave the story a greater meaning, whether it was within the story itself, or if it was created during editing, all aspects of it created a powerful message.
Sophie in tae kwon do, she joined when she was only three years old.
As this film had a powerful message, it also connected to the theme of the festival appropriately. The theme of the 2018 Mountainfilm Film Festival is migration, and this story includes the efforts taken for Sophie’s family to be where they are today. Their family is hoping to not have to worry about being deported in the future, and this film works to give the immigrant’s issue publicity and to show how they would be losing everything with the act of deportation. Overall, Mountainfilm’s theme is very impactful in their way of including many films that attempt to inspire people to take action with the issue. In conclusion, Free Like the Birds was a very emotional yet inspiring film to watch because of Sophie, the courageous subject, and her ambition to publicize the issues of deportation.
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