Utah-based director premieres short film, I HAVE NO TEARS, AND I MUST CRY

Utah-based Mexican American director and writer Luis Fernando Puente debuts short film during Sundance Film Festival. Photo: Sundance Institute.

PARK CITY, Utah — The Sundance Institute supports and guides emerging artists. However, not many are from or based in Utah. Mexican-American writer and director Luis Fernando Puente debuts live action short film I HAVE NO TEARS, AND I MUST CRY during the Sundance Film Festival.

“Maria Luisa (Alejandra Herrera) is ready to escape immigration limbo, but when her green card interview takes an unexpected turn, she faces the anxiety of losing the life she had planned.”

Puente stated the film is based on and inspired by personal experience. The film is featured in Short Film Program 5, starring Alejandra Herrera, Enoc Oteo, and Cherie Julander. It premiers alongside six other short films on Monday, January 23 at 11:55 a.m. at the Prospector Square Theatre.

The director made this statement about the film, “This film is about Maria Luisa and her husband Jorge as they are interviewed by a US immigration officer for Maria Luisa’s green card approval. My wife and I are Mexican immigrants to the US, and this film is based off her real-life green card interview. Something I rarely see portrayed in film or television is the bureaucratic side of immigration. Yet, it is a topic that is frequented often in immigrant communities. A lot of people don’t realize what the “right” way of immigration looks like, and it’s a lot of lengthy and confusing forms. Between filing these forms, you enter long periods of limbo in which you don’t know if you’ll make it or not. For a seemingly mundane process, the stakes are high. You may be granted an immigration status – whether that be a visa, green card, or citizenship – or you get deported. On top of that, immigrants often have to pay thousands of dollars in filing fees, and this is before any lawyer fees come into the mix. All of this culminates in that one interview in which you hope that the person in front of you, who is a human being, woke up in a good mood so that they grant you legal immigration status. I want to provide a glimpse into this reality that I hope garners empathy for the thousands and thousands of immigrants that go through this process every single day.”

The film with produced in Orem, Utah.