Expired April 30, 2021 6:59 AM
Already unlocked? for access
This virtual screening is eligible for audience awards! Make sure to check back here after watching the film. Unlock it to cast your vote.

Click here for additional information.

A character-driven, cinematic tale of deportation, migration, displacement, and opportunistic capitalism, Call Center Blues follows four characters as they struggle to make sense of their lives in Tijuana. Each with a vastly different story, they are all linked by their displacement and the sole choice of call center work they have in a country that is so unfamiliar and oftentimes frightening, yet other times a ray of hope. Tijuana becomes their home, a place defined by the border but yet defiant towards it, a no man's land where everything and everyone feels transient. These characters paint a picture of love, loss and longing - for home, for an American Dream deferred, and for justice.


Director’s Statement: Geeta Gandbhir

As someone who grew up first generation in a large immigrant family of color, I was always aware of my place in society as a perceived outsider although I was born in the US. This generated many questions for me regarding what it means to be an American, what it means to feel displaced or ostracized even if you legally belong.

 

The experience of the deported community to me was always important because it encompasses so many issues specific to migration, displacement, and marginalization at the whim of power structures that have the legal right to banish people from the only home they know. The voices of the people in this community are underrepresented in the media. I always felt they were missing in the dominant narratives around migration. Call Center Blues is a window into this unique community, a look at what it means to try to rebuild one’s life while trying to reconcile one’s love for a home country that no longer returns that love.

  • Year
    2020
  • Runtime
    25 minutes
  • Language
    Spanish
  • Country
    United States
  • Premiere
    Oregon
  • Director
    Geeta Gandbhir
  • Producer
    Jessica Devaney, Abraham Avila
  • Executive Producer
    Gena Konstantinakos, Ryan Chanatry, Anna Holmes
  • Cinematographer
    Asad Faruqi
  • Editor
    Viridiana Lieberman
  • Music
    Laura Heinzinger