Film brings light to immigrant struggles

The Manatee Players will host a screening of "Under the Same Moon," from 2-5 p.m. Saturday (Nov. 1) for National Hispanic Heritage month. The event is free.

I haven't heard of this film before, but I'm told it is full of emotion and humor. It deals with a single mom that has been working in Los Angeles, sending money to the family (her mom and her son) back home in Mexico to provide them a better life. But when her mom dies, her young son, Carlos, tries to reunite with his mother, crossing the border on his own to find her.

Luz Corcuera, program director of the Healthy Start Coalition of Manatee County - one of the sponsors of the screening - said the 2008 film, written by Lighia Villalobos and directed by Patricia Riggen, is about love and emotion rather than immigration and politics. It has been shown in more than 600 theaters in the United States and 350 in Mexico. "Under the Same Moon" has won five Imagen Awards. Villalbos also has been recognized with the Norman Lear Writers Award.

Corcuera said the intention in showing the film is to share the impact of the separation between parents and children in such situations. Other local sponsors of the film screening are the Latino Community Network of Manatee County, Jim Delagado, Esq. Kallins, Little & Delgado, P.A., Tidewell and the Sarasota/Manatee Farmworkers Association.

For more information, call 650-5711. It's rated PG. Light hors d'oeuvres will be served. The theater is at 102 Old Main St., Bradenton.

- January Holmes