Hummingbirds : A unique documentary about slice of life addressing tons of current issues in USA .

Movie : Hummingbirds.

Director :  Silvia Del Carmen Costaños,  Estefanía "Beba" Contreras.

Cast : Silvia Del Carmen Costaños ,  Estefanía "Beba" Contreras.

Year : 2023.

My experience in documentary is quite minimal. I have watched some of them but you do not think of watching any of them usually. In my tour of Berlinale which I and my friend were browsing through the list to spend our evening, we come across this documentary called "Hummingbirds". The only thing that strike my eyes was a documentary issuing present day conflicts in USA. In my mind, I had no expectations of what to expect from such an indie documentary. Turns out after we both left the movie, we were both were very overwhelmed (I was in tears for a while) and enjoyed it a lot more than we expected. No wonder this documentary bagged the award for "Grand Prix International Jury "at Berlinale 23. 

Directed by Silvia Del Carmen Costaños and Estefanía "Beba" Contreras (who also are the main protagonists), this documentary follows the journey of two Mexican girls living in the city of Laredo, Texas where they enjoy the summer days of 2019-2020 discussing various topics in the most naturalistic way amidst the family and friends. The opening scene of both of them laying over the roof of the car looking on the night sky until the owner of the car arrives shows the immense bond that these two girls have amongst them. This gets more and more amplified with each of the scenes and the topics discussed among them showing even though they differ or agree, it shows how much love respect they have for one another which gives us that friendship like these stay for quite a long time. It does discuss a lot of hard hitting topics which includes one of the protagonist undergoing an abortion and also depression, LGBTQ rights and ofcourse the ongoing conflict between Mexico and America involving the detention centers which the protagonists also faced.   This deep love and friendship is again being shown with the poems that they wrote for the other which are very intricate and complex (I would personally would love to hear them again) which also showed immense talent of these two women. The opening and ending credits of the movie involving a fantastic anime style cinematography which also portrays this spectacular journey of these two women among the various hardships of their life. 

Major additional characters were Beba's sister and their friend who portrays a queer character. Her sister expressed her freedom of expressing herself via dance and uploading videos in social media. This also hints at the benefits of people expressing their talents via social media which is an intricate part of creative success in this new Gen Z era. 

One of the major issues they try to address is the abortion laws in USA. These protagonists do take part in the protests and they are very vocal against the laws. This was very upfront and I was impressed to see. Other issues are also brought up in many ways in the middle of conversations which were so natural and it makes you feel easily connected to them. 

As cool and amazing these people are, they were equally amazing when we had the chance to see them in the World Premiere for the questionnaire session. It was so amazing to see a World Premiere of such a warm hearted movie and meet the cast and crew. 

Just like the birds " hummingbirds", this movie is a symbolism of love and living their life admist all the challenges. All over, this documentary is a unique adventure to me on a personal level. I conclude my view on this movie with a silly quote which involves the girls are running for fun and saying: 

                            "last one to finish the race is a republican"