“Dream Carriers” — that’s what a San Antonio filmmaker calls the people who carry on a dream from one generation to the next.
Filmmaker Esmerelda Hernandez reflects on her family heritage growing up on the West Side in her new film.
It’s about a college chicana who sees a monarch butterfly on her way to the airport and it causes her to look back on the past generations of women in her family.
The film explores immigration, first-generation college graduates and growing up in an underserved community — themes seen in Hernandez’s own family.
“Conversations about our grandmothers not being able to finish school, having all these pressures on them to break generational cycles,” Hernandez said. “And just explore those ideas through the migration of monarch butterflies.”
The film shows multiple generations of monarchs alongside a great-grandmother and so on... it’s the youngest, newer generation getting to migrate and experience life differently.
“Being able to just fly all the way back to Mexico from the north and not really having to do what the past generations did. And it felt like I was able to go to college and not and nobody before me was able to do that,” Hernandez said.
The entire movie was supported by a San Antonio native crew, local actresses and was shot on the city’s West Side.
“Dream Carriers” has won multiple awards at film festivals across the country.
Hernandez said she’s happy to see her San Antonio experience resonate with so many people.
“I wish I had films like this when I was a kid because I think it would have really drastically changed my self-image when I was younger,” Hernandez said.
You can watch “Dream Carriers” here.