ShortList 2019: Paloma Martinez’s ‘Enforcement Hours’ Offers a Timely Look at a Hotline for Immigrants

Three days after a white-supremacist gunman opened fire in an El Paso, Texas, mall and killed 22 people while targeting immigrants, Houston-based Mexican-American filmmaker Paloma Martinez struggled to come to terms with the horrifying event. “Hatred seems to be coming out in the open, where before it was maybe underground,” said Martinez, whose short film “Enforcement Hours” takes a measured approach to portraying the fear and hatred in and around immigrant communities. “But even as I was going though Houston yesterday, it felt surreal knowing that we are seen as the enemy in this polarized environment. Our communities are very real and vibrant — we exist, and here, at least in inner city Texas, we’re embraced and celebrated. That’s what we love about our cities.” “Enforcement Hours,” a finalist in TheWrap’s 2019 ShortList Film Festival, is set in one of the nation’s most liberal cities, San Francisco. And yet it is informed both by the time Martinez spent in Northern California and by the childhood she spent in a Mexican-American family in Houston. Also Read: 2019 ShortList Film Festival Finalists Announced: Watch and Vote for the Winner!! “It was a coming together of my own experience growing up in a...

Read original story ShortList 2019: Paloma Martinez’s ‘Enforcement Hours’ Offers a Timely Look at a Hotline for Immigrants At TheWrap