Past Event

Apr 13 | 4:00 pm

unseenPreceded byDoc West MovesIlluminating | Intimate | Experimental

Directed by Set Hernandez

"A raw, naked honesty"

— TheMovieBuff.net

In partnership with
Boston Asian American Film Festival LogoCineFest LogoRoxbury Film Festival Logo

Most people dream of a better future. Pedro, an aspiring social worker, is no different. But as a blind, undocumented immigrant, Pedro faces political restrictions to obtain his college degree, secure a job as a health care provider, and support his family. As he finally graduates, uncertainty looms over Pedro. What starts as a journey to provide mental health for his community ultimately transforms into Pedro’s path towards his own healing.

Through experimental cinematography and sound, unseen reimagines a cinema accessible for blind/low vision audiences, while exploring the intersections of immigration, disability, and mental health.

Gallery

Doc West Moves

Directed by: Federico Muchnik

14 MIN | In English

Doc West Moves follows Cambridge, Massachusetts, resident Lewis “Doc” West—a blind, Black blues musician—as he moves out of his current apartment and into a new place across town. No matter where he goes, Doc lives with the power of Jesus and faith that the Lord will provide for him and see him through life’s challenges.

Info

Venue

Bright Family Screening Room (BFSR)
559 Washington St, Boston, MA 02111



Dates

Apr 13, 2024 | 4:00 pm


Content Warning

Suicide, mass shooting/gun violence, depression

Details

1 hour 42 min

FREE

in English and Spanish

Access

Open Captions

Audio Description

American Sign Language interpretation following the screening





Tickets


Join the Discussion




Q&A with filmmaker, community leaders and ASL interpretation following the screening.

  • Federico Muchnik – Director, Doc West Moves
  • Christopher Robinson – Founder, Vice President, Clerk, Think Outside the Vox
  • Maria Hendricks, Multi-Lingual Interpreter, Artist & Activist
  • Sabrina Aviles – Moderator; Director, CineFest Latino Boston

Artists

SetHernandezR - Headshot

Set Hernandez

Set Hernandez, Director, unseen,  is a filmmaker and community organizer whose roots come from Bicol, Philippines. As a queer, undocumented immigrant, they dedicate their filmmaking to expand the portrayal of their community on screen. Set’s past documentary work includes the award-winning short “COVER/AGE” (2019) and impact producing for “Call Her Ganda” (Tribeca, 2018)

Since 2010, Set has been organizing around migrant justice issues, from deportation defense to healthcare access. They co-founded the Undocumented Filmmakers Collective which promotes equity for undocumented immigrants in the film industry. Set’s work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, NBCUniversal, Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, among others.

DOC WEST MOVES -Headshot -Federico Muchnik

Federico Muchnik

Federico Muchnik, Director, Doc West Moves, was born in Rome, Italy, of Argentinian/Jewish parents. When he was five years old he immigrated to the states with his mother and step-father. Federico studied film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and worked as a producer for PBS, producing a 52-episode Spanish language series. He played the lead role in “The Golden Boat”, by Chilean writer/director Raul Ruiz. The film was shown at Sundance, New York, Toronto, and was distributed by Strand Releasing. He is the author of The Strategic Producer (Routledge Press), a book on independent filmmaking. Federico is fluent in English, Italian, Spanish, and French. He has lived in Rome, Paris, Barcelona, New York City, Los Angeles, and considers Cambridge his home. He is part Sephardic and part Ashkenazi. His work increasingly centers around multiculturalism, diversity, and inclusion.

Christopher Robinson

Christopher Robinson

Founder, Vice President, Clerk, Think Outside the Vox
Coordinator of Outreach & Training of Disability & Access Services for Boston University and an ASL/English Interpreter and a Leader in the field of Disability Access and Equity. He has over 30 years of experience in access mentoring work as an ASL/English Interpreter nationally and as a national presenter in the content areas of inclusion-practices in the Performing Arts, and as an expert mentor for Interpreters, and Cross-Cultural Mediation within Deaf and hearing communities.

He is a nationally recognized speaker and trainer for Disability Justice, Deaf Equity and Anti-Ableism Practices. He has served as the Coordinator for the Conference Interpreter Mentorship Program (CIMP), a collaborative project with the then Northeastern University Interpreter Education Project and Boston University Center for Interpreter Education (BUCIE), Co-lead training series for Gallaudet University Regional Interpreter Education Center (GUREIC) Interpreter Mentoring Project and served as Advisor Lead facilitator for the Community of Practice for ASL/English Interpreters for the College of St. Catherine’s Graduation to Certification (GtC). He is also a nationally renowned performance ASL interpreter.

Maria Hendricks headshot 2

Maria Hendricks

(She, Her/s) is a multilingual language interpreter, artist & activist. You may have seen her recently at the BCA in a staged reading of Fresh Ink Theatres The More The Man and as Dr. Van Helsing in Dracula at the Umbrella Center for the Arts last season. She was also nominated for an Elliot Norton Award for her portrayal of Mother in the Musical Passing Strange. As an actor/singer, she has performed on stages throughout New England, down the East Coast and South Dakota. Maria has also done TV & Film and, as a voiceover artist, Multilingual Voiceover work for various Industrials & instructional videos as well as film over the years including The Arboretum Experience with A.R.T. Marias training in cultural competence in audio description has also led her to explore language access and serve as an English voice actor for the Spanish language voices in the documentaries When We Fight as well as the Spanish voices in Set Hernandezs documentary Unseen.

As an audio-describer, Maria has done AD work for the Brazilian film Êxtase. In theatre, Maria was part of the AD quality control team for A.R.T’s production of TWILIGHT: Los Angeles 1992 as well as doing audio-description for Life of Pi, Wife of Willesden, EVITA and Real Women Have Curves at the A.R.T.

This past Fall she also collaborated with her husband Teddy as an all Native audio description team for the unprecedented and sold out show We Are the Land at ArtsEmerson, which speaks to the history and people of the Wampanoag Tribe of which they are both members.
In her work to uplift & advocate for marginalized voices she served as a Resident Artistic Advisor for New Repertory Theatre for 2 seasons, and a collaborator with the founders of VoX to
provide arts access consulting and training that centers on anti-ableist, and anti-racist culture for arts institutions. She is slowly becoming a major voice for cultural competency in Audio-Description as well as language access. Proud Member of Actors Equity
@mariahendricks888

Sabrina Headshot

Sabrina Avilés

in an award-winning independent filmmaker, educator and the Founder/Executive Director of CineFest Latino Boston and most recently was awarded a Brother Thomas Fellowship in 2023. Born in NYC, and as a first-generation daughter of Puerto Rican and Dominican immigrants, she sees her life reflected in the stories she documents about Latinx communities. A graduate of Boston University’s film program, her goal as a documentary filmmaker is to tell in-depth stories, documented over a period of time, that require longer substantive conversations with the community, and that move beyond the headlines. By drawing attention to the issues Latinx communities face, she hopes her films will shift perspectives and foster a deeper understanding of the human experience. She is currently working on a feature film about Chelsea, MA which explores the challenges and resiliency of the city.

Partners




Shared Stories is a spring film series that seeks to build community, shared conversation, and experiences through cinema. This series aspires to create a shared space to find commonality across experiences, and encourage the exchange of stories and ideas. Presented by ArtsEmerson in collaboration with the Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF), CineFest Latino Boston, and the Roxbury International Film Festival (RoxFilm).

Boston Asian American Film Festival Logo

New England’s Largest Asian American Film Festival
The Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF) empowers Asian Americans through film by showcasing Asian American experiences and serving as a resource to filmmakers and the Greater Boston Community. BAAFF is a co-production of Asian American Resource Workshop and ArtsEmerson.

Roxbury Film Festival Logo

The Roxbury International Film Festival (ROXFILM) is the largest festival in New England celebrating people of color around the world. Over nine days, the festival presents narrative and documentary features, shorts, animation, experimental, and youth films. The festival holds workshops, panel discussions, discussions with filmmakers, and networking opportunities. ROXFILM is a competitive festival.

CineFest Logo
CineFest Latino Boston LLC is an annual film festival conducted in Boston, highlighting stories by and about Latinos. The festival is committed to using the power of film to break stereotypes, bring cultures and communities together and reveal the complex issues affecting the Latinx community in the United States, as well as communities in Latin America and Spain.