Exclusive: Director Monica Sorelle talks Haitian Immigrant Drama Film Mountains
Playing in theaters currently from Music Box Films is Mountains, Monica Sorelle's debut feature about a tender and naturalistic portrait of a Haitian-American family in Miami.
In Miami’s Little Haiti, Xavier (Atibon Nazaire) makes a living as a demolition worker while his wife Esperance (Sheila Anozier) holds down two jobs to sustain their cozy household. Their routine is tested when their son Junior (Chris Renois) returns home after dropping out of college. Xavier and Esperance struggle to relate with Junior, who is no longer interested in speaking Creole with them and harbors ambitions of an artistic career path they do not understand. .
Xavier aspires to buy a more spacious house for his family, but still wakes up every morning, goes to work, and dismantles his neighborhood brick by brick. Yet even as construction vehicles rumble down the block, Little Haiti remains a vibrant community with traditions and rhythms distinctly its own. Monica Sorelle’s tender feature debut is a multigenerational drama that deftly explores the relationships between immigrants and their children, the looming threat of gentrification, and the pursuit of the American dream
Written by Monica Sorelle and Robert Colom, the producers include Rhianon Jones and Tristan Scott-Behrends.
Monica’s feature directorial debut, Mountains, had its world premiere at Tribeca Festival, where it was awarded a Special Jury Mention in the U.S. Narrative Feature competition. Mountains later had its international premiere at TIFF, received awards from Miami Film Festival, BlackStar, and Indie Memphis, and screened at festivals around the world, including Glasgow Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, and AFI Fest. Mountains was nominated for two Film Independent Spirit Awards, with Monica receiving the Someone to Watch Award.
As a creative producer, Monica’s short films have won top prizes at Berlinale, BlackStar, and Miami Film Festival, been selected at Sundance, New Orleans Film Festival, and New Directors/New Films, and acquired by Criterion Channel and Indiana University Black Film Center & Archive.
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales spoke with Sorelle on her debut feature, Mountains.