PHLAFF 2024 Selections — First Friday Series @ Cherry Street Pier
Looking to explore some great films on your First Friday nights? We’ve teamed up with Cherry Street Pier to co-present a First Fridays Film series as part of their dynamic programming. This collaboration underscores our commitment to accessibility, fostering cross-cultural dialogue, and building community. We are proud and excited about bringing these selections as part of Cherry Street Pier's programming as part of our year-round effort to integrate PHLAFF offerings at partner and community events. Check our lineup!
Cherry Street Pier is a year-round public space located on the central Delaware River waterfront. Housed within the historic structure of a century-old municipal pier, it embodies the essence of Philadelphia today—creative, diverse, historic, adaptable, and inspiring. The Pier is free to enter and open to the public. You can explore more about their programs here.
The First Friday Series will take place from December 6th - May 2nd, 2025 during each first Friday of the month. You can explore more about the films being programmed as a part of this series below:
December 6th @ 6 PM
A Little Family Drama (87 minutes, United States, 2024)
A Mexican American family, whose lives revolve around their legendary restaurant, prepares for their annual family reunion dinner oblivious to the fact that a shattered taco truck dream is about to change everything.
Film still from Wishful Thinking
Wishful Thinking (16 minutes, United States/Brazil, 2023)
Rodrigo is an immigrant gay man with a double life: he’s out and in a relationship in the US but closeted to his family in Brazil. On his birthday, he makes a wish for his two worlds to come together. The wish proves to be magical, sending him on a surreal coming-out journey back and forth between Brazil and LA. Now, he must confront his identity and relationships to understand that coming out is more internal than external.
Peccadillo (25 minutes, United States/Mexico, 2023)
Lorenzo’s desire to explore his feminine side, is a secret...and according to his religious family, secrets belong to the devil.
With a choice to make, he’ll either live a lie, or come out to his loved ones by killing his secret AND THE DEVIL HIMSELF.
January 3rd @ 6 PM
KENYA (88 minutes, Mexico, 2022)
After witnessing the murder of her friend, Kenya, a trans woman sex worker, embarks on a path of struggle and search for justice that leads her to face the fear and pain of seeing herself reflected in that tragic ending.
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS (66 minutes, Brazil, 2023)
In 1968, Brazil’s military government passed a law that ushered in the most violent period of the dictatorship. The meeting was recorded, but remained secret for decades. The documentary combines these audio tracks with propaganda films of the time.
Film still from BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
February 7th @ 6 PM
The Invention of the Other (144 minutes, Brazil, 2022)
In 2019, the Brazilian government coordinates the largest and riskiest expedition of the last decades into the Amazon rainforest to search for a group of isolated indigenous people in vulnerability and promote their first contact with non-indigenous. Bruno Pereira, who would be later murdered in the same region and turned into an international symbol in favor of the indigenous and the forest, leads the expedition.
Film still from Street Photographer
Street Photographer (20 minutes, Venezuela, 2022)
Documentary that captures the portrait of the artist Juancho Domínguez and his discovery of photography, at 70 years of age, as a new form of expression, which leads him to his rebirth as a human being and the reinvention of his artistic path.
Todavia Estamos Aqui (29 minutes, Puerto Rico, 2023)
We Are Still Here is a student-made documentary from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez campus (UPRM) about the lives and experiences of the Peñolanos from Barrio Rucio and adjacent communities who have resisted generations of adversities due to their geographical location and at the hands of the Puerto Rican government. Centered on resistance and collective care among communities, this inaugural documentary produced by the Oral History Lab at UPRM and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities showcases how community work by projects like Aula en la Montaña and organizations like Impacto Juventud GC Inc. demonstrate that strength lies in union and that true healing occurs through mutual accompaniment between community and volunteers.
March 7th @ 6 PM
Somos el Barrio (74 minutes, Mexico, 2023)
Menchaca, Mujeres Independientes y San José el Alto, en el municipio de Querétaro, son los barrios, las calles y escenarios en los que cuatro jóvenes han vivido las historias que los han convertido en lo que son hoy.
José María González Flores, alias “Chema”, de la pandilla de “los PQ's de San Jo”, rapero que ha estado dos veces preso y con drogas como parte de su vida desde los 16 años, es uno de los Protagonistas de este documental. Como sus padres no viven juntos, anhela ser, para su hija de seis años, el padre que siempre quiso para él.
David Miranda Hernández, “DMH”, es el líder de la “clicka” “DH”, y fue criado en la colonia Mujeres Independientes por su madre y su padrastro. La música es su pasión y su impulso, la pandilla su identidad y el vecindario su hogar.
Film still from Somos el Barrio
Su influencia sobre otros jóvenes lo ha convertido en alguien conocido por todos, alguien que saluda a todos mientras camina por las calles del barrio rapeando y dando voz a sus “ovejas negras”.
Everardo Mata Paredes pertenece al “ILCK” (Criminales Ilícitos) y es conocido en San José el Alto como “Peluzin”. Las paredes de su barrio son la piel en la que tatúa con su spray, porque el dibujo y el graffiti han sido su lenguaje y forma de expresión en los últimos 10 años desde que murió su madre.
Abigail León Pérez, “La Macho”, de la pandilla “LPRM” (La Princi Rompiendo Madres) ha estado alejada de sus padres durante los últimos 15 años, y seguía el ejemplo de un tío, tratando de mantenerse alejada de las drogas. . Su sueño es convertirse en artista de la serigrafía como forma de vivir y expresarse.
Ante este tipo de historias, el Municipio de Querétaro decide intervenir a través de políticas públicas y programas de apoyo, respondiendo a las necesidades no sólo de estos cuatro jóvenes, sino de todos los jóvenes de la zona que comparten dificultades comunes como familias disfuncionales. adicción a las drogas, abandono escolar y falta de planificación a largo plazo para sus vidas, junto con otros problemas del día a día.
Miremos entonces por una ventana más clara y descubramos qué se mueve, qué sostiene y cuáles son los sueños que sueñan el barrio, las calles y quienes la habitan.
Film still from Inheriting Hood
Inheriting Hood (20 minutes, United States, 2023)
After being jumped, Olivia tries on the hood life with the help of her long lost cousin in order to retaliate.
A Symphony For A Common Man (86 minutes, Brazil, 2022)
Brazilian ambassador José Bustani, the first director of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, tried to avoid the destruction of Iraq, but was forced out under pressure from the USA. Today, similar situations are repeating themselves in the multilateral organizations.
April 4th @ 5 PM
El Huatrila (69 minutes, Peru, 2023)
Raúl studies in one of the most expensive private English schools in Lima, thanks to his father, Máximo, who is a teacher there and the school photographer. However, Raúl has never felt that he fits in. He counts the days for the year to end and waits to see if he will win a scholarship to a university abroad in Madrid.
A sudden change forces Raúl to rethink his life and dreams. This situation takes him on a journey to reconnect with his father’s community that he left as a child and to uncover the power of his roots.
Four Seasons of Youth (99 minutes, Brazil, 2024)
For more than a decade, a wannabe movie director filmed his experience at one of the most important universities in Brazil. Through this portrait of a disenchanted generation, we follow the hopes and fears of students who faced an unprecedented educational crisis.
Film still from Four Seasons of Youth
May 2nd @ 5 PM
Ninety Minutes Later (88 minutes, United States, 2024)
My documentary is about Vanessa Marquez, who was killed in her own home in 2018 by police officers after a 90-minute long "wellness check." The officers entered her apartment after a close friend contacted the local fire station to check on her. Police came instead of the paramedics, and found Marquez having a seizure, living in hoarding conditions. They quickly decided she needed to be "5150'd" (forcibly taken for mental evaluation) and somehow delayed the execution of this plan for nearly an hour and a half. When the officer finally instructed her to go with them, Marquez (still in bed) reached for something under her blankets that looked like a gun, and the police fled, assuming shooting positions at the bottom of her apartment stairwell. They start to call her out of her unit, and minutes later she emerged on the stairs with the gun and an armful of stuffed animals. Officers open-fired at her. The gun turned out to be plastic. The woman turned out to be a well known actress, whose body of work included an iconic 1980s movie, Stand and Deliver (Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips) as well as 27 episodes of the hit TV show, ER.
In this film, Vanessa's effervescent and complex personality, as well as her talent and body of work are revealed in film clips, and through the remembrances of some of her co-stars, primarily from Stand and Deliver (her breakout role). The film explores her legacy as a role model for other actors of color, as well as her tragic death which is revealed at the end of the film in never before seen body-worn camera footage. Finally, all of the participants consider what steps must be taken to make lasting change in our response to mental health calls, and ask all to consider being role models and agents of change in their communities and their own lives.
Film still from Ninety Minutes Later
Admission to this event is free and no tickets are required. We hope you’ll stop by Cherry Street Pier to check out these amazing films!
