Featuring references to Selena Quintanilla, Larry Itliong, Google Translate and the filmmaker’s grandfathers, A GUIDE FOR WHEN IMMIGRANTS BECOME ANCESTORS pairs personal experience with poetry to paint an intimate portrait of fourth-generation Mexican Filipino Americans as they navigate what it means to inherit an identity rooted in cultural memory.

Director - Iliana Garcia

Iliana Garcia is Mexican Filipinx American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Her short films, inspired by poetic personal essays, provide an intimate look into the world of identity, loss and place. A graduate of Pomona College, Iliana’s thesis film, FLOWERS WILT IN CONCRETE, took home Best Experimental Short and Best Nonfiction Short at the 5C Film Festival. As an assistant editor/editor, Iliana has worked on projects highlighting green building, skate culture, and queer youth empowerment. Most recently, she had the honor to work on AND SHE COULD BE NEXT, a two-part PBS docuseries about women of color transforming politics from the ground up.