A Place at the Table

In Teta, Alexandra Hidalgo tells the story of her journey nursing her youngest son, Santiago, for twenty-two months. Teta uses Hidalgo’s narration and the footage shot by her husband to portray the ups and downs of nursing a baby as a working mother of two. As the film shows Santiago go from his first nursing session minutes after being born to his last as a walking and talking toddler, Teta illustrates the transcendent emotional bond created by nursing, not only between mother and child but between all members of the family.

In order to meet stringent beauty standards, Venezuelan women often turn to plastic surgery. This documentary features conversations with 14 Venezuelan women and men on the subject.

It tells the story of four immigrant women—Teboho Moja, Melainie Rogers, Daphnie Sicre, and Yatna Vakahria—living in New York City, who are transforming their communities through their work, activism, and the way their cultural hybridity influences their interactions with others. While media portrayals of immigration primarily present it as an abstract threat, this documentary finds the face and heart behind the thousands of people who come into the United States every year determined to make the life they’ve always dreamed of a reality.

The filmmaker and her husband filmed their sons reaching the same milestones during the boys’ first year of life, placing the images side by side on the screen so audiences can see how the boys’ individual journeys mirror each other. Besides providing a meditation on how siblings grow up, the film is a joyful look at what it’s like to make sense of the world for the first time.