More than ten years ago, David Riker’s acclaimed debut film, La Ciudad (The City)—about the lives of Latin American immigrants in New York City—anticipated many of today’s most contentious debates about undocumented immigrants and their possible pathways to citizenship. For his long-awaited follow-up, The Girl, Riker traveled to the border to tell an unconventional tale about migration.
Australian actress Abbie Cornish stars as a 20-something working-class South Texan who seeks to escape her minimum-wage existence by smuggling immigrants across the border. Emotionally distraught after losing custody of her son, single mother Ashley becomes desperate when she loses her job at a local Austin megastore. So when the risky opportunity to become a coyote arrives, she takes it. When the attempted crossing ends in tragedy, she finds herself stranded with a young girl who lost her mother during the journey. Harrowing, grim, but ultimately hopeful, The Girl turns the central myth of the border—that hope flows north—upside down.
The film opens tomorrow, March 8, in two New York City theaters and is currently scheduled to run in theaters in Tucson, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio over the course of March. Click here for a full theatrical schedule and contact your local cinema and implore them to run the film too.
In NYC, there are also three special film events this weekend at Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Monroe Film: On Friday, March 8, Riker, Cornish and filmmaker Paul Mezey will discuss the movie after the 7:30 showing; on Saturday, March 9th, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman will talk about the film with Riker after the 7:30 showing, and on Sunday, March 10, Nation reporter Jeremy Scahill and Riker will talk about the issues raised in the film after the 5:15 screening.
Watch and share the trailer below:
