MFA Thesis: Finding Home (Buscando mi Hogar)

We have decided to change the name of this project from El Tio Viajero (The Traveling Uncle) to Finding Home (Buscando mi Hogar) as this better reflects the story we are unraveling.*

My film Finding Home (Buscando mi Hogar) is a personal hybrid documentary about how living around the world shaped the identity of my father and me. Since my mother works for an NGO, this brought a nomadic lifestyle to our family that involved us living cross-national/cultural lives. To unpack the question “Where are you from?” the film investigates two contrasting worlds of identity through conversations between my father and me.

During our travels, my father was motivated to maintain his national identity as a Bolivian through music, language, and cuisine. In contrast, I constantly searched for a sense of belonging and a “home.”

Feeling constant pressure to belong to a specific nation or culture while growing up created an identity crisis that has remained with me until now. I seek to understand what it means to have a national identity in an attempt to move it away from contextualizing a “home” to a geographical location.

My film incorporates observational footage depicting the present day, while collage animation, archival, and home footage will convey the memories from our travels.

 

How will the funds be used?

 

Finding Home (Buscando mi Hogar) combines both collage animation and video/interview footage of my father in the present day. To capture the video footage and interviews, I will need to travel to Guatemala, where my parents currently reside.

My father’s native language is Spanish. Thus, all interviews, journal entries, and conversations filmed will need to be translated and transcribed into English.

To visually reconstruct my father's memories, I will create collage animations using Adobe After Effects and Photoshop, software that requires a subscription. I will also need to purchase a computer to run the software to edit and post-process the film, which is crucial for completing the project. In addition, I will have a crew member joining me for this production to help with scheduling, camera operation, and sound recording.

 

The funds will cover the costs listed above in addition to SD cards, long-term Digital storage, carrying cases, food, and accessories needed to facilitate the filming and post-processing of the project. The contributions will help compensate the composer, sound mixer, and color grading of the film.

 

All contributors' names will be included in the film’s credits. 

 

Visit the website here: Finding Home

Check our IG account: findinghomefilm

 

Meet the Team!

 

 

Isabel Miranda

Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor

Isabel Miranda is a Boston-based artist who grew up in South America, Southeast Asia, and Southern Africa. Growing up abroad influenced her interest in street photography and documentary filmmaking, where she explores topics such as spirituality, music, and identity. Her past projects include the short film José which was selected and screened in the 2020 Online New England Film Festival, and So Powerful, featured on the Baha'i Blog. Isabel is pursuing an MFA in Film and Media Art at Emerson College and is working on completing her thesis project, Finding Home (Buscando mi Hogar). In her free time, you might find her: rock climbing, biking, playing the guitar/ukulele, cooking, or watching a good movie.

 

Emmanuel Lopes 

Producer, Cinematographer 

Emmanuel (Manny) Lopes is a Boston-born artist who grew up in Villalba, Puerto Rico mountains. He rediscovered his passion for photography in 2018 when he purchased his first 35mm film camera. He soon fell in love with the intricate process of rolling, developing, scanning, and post-processing his black-and-white film from the comfort of his home. His first project was a short documentary, So Powerful, co-produced with Isabel Miranda. As a camera operator, sound mixer, and producer, he continues to explore and develop his skills as a cinematographer on this new project Finding Home (Buscando mi Hogar). As a lover of the outdoors, he likes to spend his free time with street photography, camping, mountain biking, rock climbing, and bike packing.

 

 

Yousra Benchekroun

Co-producer, Researcher, and Counselor 

Yousra is currently occupying an urban consultancy position at the World Bank. She studied geography and international development at Clark University, where she met her like-minded, soul-searching friends – future crew members of Finding Home (Buscando mi Hogar). An avid lover of stories and reflections, Yousra is always looking for an opportunity to explore and express themself in a constant search for the meaningful. She is excited to embark on the creative journey that is Finding Home (Buscando mi Hogar) by putting her research and analytical skills to use. In her free time, you can find Yousra surfing on the shores of Rabat, enjoying night jogs, or musing over a puzzle to the playlist mood of the day.

 

 

 

Maria Luisa (Lulu) Escobar Pardo

Translator and Transcriber 

Lulu is an adventure seeker, a curious student of life, and a world traveler. She studied geography and art history at Clark University, where she met some crew members of Finding Home (Buscando mi Hogar). She has recently started hiking up high-altitude ecosystems in Colombia, where she lives, to raise awareness about tropical glacier loss. Lulu feels excited that her bilingualism and translations will bridge the Spanish-speaking and English-speaking audiences of Finding Home (Buscando mi Hogar).

Michael Sheridan

Story Consultant

Founding Director, Community Supported Film (CS Film) and SheridanWorks.

Michael Sheridan is a filmmaker and educator who has produced documentary and experimental films for local, national, and international humanitarian and cultural organizations through SheridanWorks productions. PBS, ABC, National Geographic, TLC, and Discovery have aired Michael’s work as a producer, cameraman, and editor.

For 25 years, Michael has taught filmmaking and has been on the faculty at Northeastern University, MassArt. He offers filmmaking courses through SheridanWorks-Learning (sheridanworks.com/learning). From 2007-08 he served as a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia. In 2010, Michael founded Community Supported Film to amplify local voices by training and mentoring storytellers and change-makers in under and misrepresented communities.

Ana Vazquez-Landeros

Composer

As a classically trained clarinetist, Ana has studied and performed internationally at renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall and Prague’s Estates Theatre among others. Through her performance career, Ana was awarded multiple scholarships to attend Berklee College of Music where she pursued a dual major in Composition and Film Scoring and was further awarded the Robert Share Scholarship by the Film Scoring Department in 2021.

Ana enjoys collaborating on projects that raise social awareness about cultures around the world which stems from her folkloric upbringing as a South Texas native. Throughout this year, her scoring collaborations included recording and producing with the Budapest Art Orchestra for two animated short films in collaboration with the Universitat Politècnica de València to be released in 2024. Ana also conducted and produced her original score, Perspective of You at London’s world-renowned Air Studios.

Ana is a recent graduate of the Master of Music in Scoring for Film, Television, and Video Games program at Berklee Valencia.