Hummingbirds
Calling “Hummingbirds” simply a documentary feels wrong and limiting. This quiet gem comes from best friends and debut filmmakers Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía “Beba” Contreras and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. This is a glowing self-portrait of their friendship, a call to arms, a summer besties comedy with lots of hell raising, and an immigration tale with a range. It is a statement that poses the conventional stereotypes about this genre and its subjects. Much to the temper of the one trying to place a label to this relationship, their circumstances and the things that are associated with their life in a border town. silly sea fun. Stating the obvious is almost like a slap to the face.Something where Silvia and Beba allow musings all while in all ways working to exude a calming presence about.
The motion picture, ‘Hummingbirds’, is devoid of any apparent narrative development. Shot in the summer of 2019, ‘Hummingbirds’ does not appear to have any coherent story line. Here, we actually went along with fresh, Silvia and Beba in their daily life in Laredo, Texas, a desolate city at the Mexican border and of all the hardships that is posed by becoming immigrants in the US with no hopes about the future. All of them have had to face adult problems from their tender age, and the flashbacks linger on such memories quite often. In between laughter and remarkable stories, Beba recalls being smuggled into the USA, when she was around four years old, in her mother’s arms over the US Mexican border at night. Currently, Beba just keeps on the immigration paperwork and waits for new information. Real citizenship is more of an illusion, it does not matter how much doors are shut out, they are always met with irritation and acceptance.
In case of assuming additional seriousness in the summertime, “Hummingbirds” descriptively identifies the patriots’ invaluable professional and activist abilities. Absence of firmly established narrative helps to avoid the pitfalls of the narrative regarding lekyas and encourages more natural interaction instead. In the course of one of these friendly exchanges, Silvia makes a mild mention of her abortion in the previous year. Silvia is a talented author and poet with words that build and conquer the heart and support the cause of Planned Parenthood, unless, there is an amusement, along with anti-abortion graffities with Jeffrey hatred censorship done jokingly in one of the gentler segments of the film. Beba’s natural gift for music manifests itself in the happy passage in which they sing passionately and joyfully as the thematic score that underscores their bonds of everlasting friendship.
Though there are weighty issues that both Silvia and Beba have to deal with, ‘Hummingbirds’ is also just great fun. Pampered by the overenthusiastic camera of her co-stars, Julie seems to happily enjoy being a part of the privileged few. The scene feels as if we have been privy to a secret society, darting around in between them as part of their crew and feasting on a mix of fast foods, getting inked, living the life of youth. This is never more brought to light than in a funny sequence where both ladies, wearing oversized and funny looking sunglasses purchased at a local store, giggle through a game of bingo, annoying the other players, including Beba’s mother, who is not at all amused by it. A birthday bowling party in honor of Jeffrey, however, does see both Silvia and Beba in a light mood and throwing caution to the wind and all the other issues of grown up life that they would have to deal with at least for that night.
While Silvia and Beba attempted to get help from more experienced filmmakers in shooting their first film, it seems that “Hummingbirds” is a film that cannot be created by anyone other than them. Using the camera on themselves, and narrating in the manner that they find most suitable, is such a rare creative display and very honest. A skinny woman met the audience who only knows bunch of negative about this group of people, most of whom you just see on TV, and who only pretend to talk about this problem. Nevertheless, if “Hummingbirds” manages to achieve something, then, entertainingly and thoughtfully, it is to offer an illustration that immigrants nowadays just like everyone else go through different vicissitudes of life aiming to survive and progress. For Silvia and Beba, however, it is the easiest thing to do, and they are all the time doing it with a smile.
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