Videos

MILES AWAY was originally written as an autobiographical short story by Julio Espinoza, a high school student in San Francisco, through 826 Valencia’s Young Author’s Book Project, then adapted into a screenplay by Bay Area poet and author Chinaka Hodge. It stars Ricardo Chang, a resident of San Francisco's Bayview District and student in BAYCAT's youth programs.The short is directed by longtime BAYCAT team member Ariel Dovas and former intern and current BAYCAT team member Jose Alfaro.When a single mother originally from Guatemala (Lucia) moves her teenage son (Julio) from San Francisco across the Bay to Richmond, he has a hard time adapting to his new environment. He sits alone in his room, refusing to unpack, drawing pictures of the things he left behind. But when he realizes that the trinkets his mother has placed around the house were made by her family long ago in Guatemala, Julio begins to see the bigger legacy of their migration.

 Through animation, beautiful cinematography and original music, we get a glimpse of a mother and her son unpacking their differences and discovering a new home together.