Films do not exist just for entertainment. As a classroom, cinema can offer true learning experiences that change viewers for the better. A particular genre of film with the potential for empathy is documentaries. While still films at home or in a theater, a veil of fiction vanishes. What occurs on-screen during a documentary is something that has, is, or will happen in reality. Merging documentation and personal storytelling is the directorial debut of Rebeca Huntt with “Beba.” After its premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, the first trailer for the documentary has arrived.
READ MORE: ‘Beba’: Rebeca Huntt’s Earnest Documentary [TIFF Review]
In a statement about “Beba,” the director was asked what she hoped audiences would take away from her documentary. Huntt replied in part, “If this triggers humanity in the audience, for someone to be able to identify with this film or identity with this character, that’s great… I want every single person who witnesses my films moving forward to feel a personal connection to them, to feel some kind of ownership to them. I want to encourage love, self-acceptance, and compassion.” It sounds like viewers can garner a true empathetic and considerate experience from the documentary, which is what good films are capable of.
Here’s the official synopsis:
First-time feature filmmaker Rebeca “Beba” Huntt undertakes an unflinching exploration of her own identity in the remarkable coming-of-age documentary/cinematic memoir “Beba.” Reflecting on her childhood and adolescence in New York City as the daughter of a Dominican father and Venezuelan mother, Huntt investigates the historical, societal, and generational trauma she’s inherited and ponders how those ancient wounds have shaped her, while simultaneously considering the universal truths that connect us all as humans. Throughout “Beba,” Huntt searches for a way to forge her own creative path amid a landscape of intense racial and political unrest. Poetic, powerful and profound, “Beba” is a courageous, deeply human self-portrait of an Afro-Latina artist hungry for knowledge and yearning for connection.
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Produced, written, and directed by Rebeca Huntt, “Beba” will premiere in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on June 24th. Watch the new trailer below.
