Amanda Morales Guerra has rarely seen the light of day for almost a year, since she first entered Holyrood Church Santa Cruz on a tumultuous day in August 2017. Fleeing violence in her native Guatemala, she had lived in the US for more than a decade without documents when the Trump administration suddenly issued a deportation order. At the very last moment, Guerra found Luis Barrios, a priest, professor and activist, who offered her and her three young children sanctuary in his church in Uptown Manhattan. Ten months later, she is caught up in memories of her house in Long Island and the inflatable children’s pool in the garden, her own slice of American freedom. Whenever the isolation seems unbearable, she is tempted to step outside into the glaring sunlight – where ICE agents are waiting for an opportunity to deport her.
Final (one-week) film project at the New York Film Academy documentary program, June 2018
