YES

Los Angeles, California | Film Short

Drama, Family

Gonzales Joe

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Orphaned by fire, silent Mia lives with her aunt on a long, dusty road near the Mexican-American border. When she finds an immigrant mother and daughter hiding in a tool shed in her backyard, she is jolted out of her own grief and must decide what to do.

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Mission Statement

Although America is comprised of people from across the world, we often view immigrants with political bias. Each person who leaves their country to find home in a new one has their own story. My hope is that viewers will not only connect to these characters but discover shared humanity.

The Story

It’s been several months since she lost both of her parents in a fire, but eight-year-old Mia hasn’t uttered a word since. She’s been staying with her Aunt Nicole, a pottery maker who lives in a small Arizona town near the Mexican border, and tonight the area is alive with helicopters and ICE vans on the hunt for suspected illegal crossers. Soon, Nicole’s errant boyfriend, Bobby, winds his way down her road in his white, delivery van. He’s fired up, hoping border control rounds up all the migrants, but Nicole is more sympathetic, worrying that it’s a cold night to be crossing the desert. When Bobby tells Nicole that he must leave early tomorrow for a San Diego delivery, she’s disappointed. Who knows when he’ll make it back again?

As the evening transpires, Mia sees a shadow cross the living room. Curious, she steps outside and discovers a frightened mother and daughter, Ana and Mariela, hiding in the tool shed. It’s hard to communicate at first; Mia doesn’t talk, and Mariela and Ana speak only in Spanish, but Mia feels a connection to this young girl and her determined mother. After some charade-like moves on Mariela’s part, Mia understands that they’re on their way to California to reunite with her father. This gives Mia an idea. If she can sneak them into Bobby’s van, maybe he can unknowingly bring them to San Diego. But is the plan too crazy and dangerous to work?

As Mia risks everything to help them, she begins to forget her own trauma for the first time, and what ensues is a story of healing, humanity, and redemption.

Principal filming for YES will take place in January, with a projected project completion date of April 1, 2024.

I’ve always been attracted to stories of outsiders and immigrants. Growing up in a small town, I had the strange feeling of both being an insider and very much of an outsider, and the characters that populate my screenplays reflect that. Our family was Jewish in a mostly Christian environment, and I learned early on the shame and secrets that come with being seen as “different.”

”YES” was inspired by two events; the first was a Thanksgiving that I spent recently in the Arizona desert outside of Tucson. As I celebrated the holiday, originated by American colonial immigrants, with a group of friends and family at a beautiful outdoor park, ICE helicopters buzzed overhead, searching for recent immigrants hiding in the desert. I was struck by the juxtaposition of our celebration with the desperate fight for survival, happening just steps from each other. The second event was the loss of my older sister in a fire, when she was just 25 years old. And perhaps most importantly, I was inspired by my grandmother, my husband, and the millions of refugees that came before and will come after them, risking everything, facing innumerable obstacles, struggling between all they hope to gain and all they leave behind.