Last year, at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, the gentrification drama “Mountains” made its mark. Directed by newcomers Monica Sorelle and starring Atibon Nazaire, Sheila Anozier, Chris Renois, and Kerline Alce, the film centers on a Haitian demolition worker who is faced with the realities of the redevelopment as he is tasked with dismantling his rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.
Our review from Playlist writer Christian Gallichio described the film as “striking… [a] debut from a filmmaker to watch.” Sorelle won the “Someone to Watch” Independent Spirit Award that year, and Nazaire was nominated for Best Breakthrough Performance at the same award ceremony.
The film was screened at Tribeca, the Toronto International Film Festival, the BlackStar Film Festival, AFI, and the Charlotte Film Festival, among other venues.
Here’s the synopsis:
In Miami’s Little Haiti, Xavier (Atibon Nazaire) makes a living as a demolition worker while his wife Esperance (Sheila Anozier) holds down two jobs to sustain their cozy household. Their routine is tested when their son Junior (Chris Renois) returns home after dropping out of college. Xavier and Esperance struggle to relate with Junior, who is no longer interested in speaking Creole with them and harbors ambitions of an artistic career path they do not understand. Xavier aspires to buy a more spacious house for his family but still wakes up every morning, goes to work, and dismantles his neighborhood brick by brick. Yet even as construction vehicles rumble down the block, Little Haiti remains a vibrant community with traditions and rhythms distinctly its own. Monica Sorelle’s tender feature debut is a multigenerational drama that deftly explores the relationships between immigrants and their children, the looming threat of gentrification, and the pursuit of the American dream.
Music Box Films is finally releasing “Mountains” this summer. The film opens on August 16 in Miami, then moves to New York on August 23, and national expansion begins on August 30. Watch the first trailer below.