Film screening: ENTRE NOS ("Just Between Us") with commentary by co-writer/director Gloria La Morte

A still from "Entre Nos" co-directed by Gloria La Morte and Paola Mendoza

Film screening and discussion with co-director/writer Gloria La Morte: "Entre Nos" ("Just Between Us")
7 p.m. Friday, February 16, 2018
Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, downtown campus, Albany
Free and open to the public.

UPDATE: Attendees who register for this free screening
will be entered in a drawing for a $50 gift certificate to El Patron restaurant in Albany.
Register here.

Inspired by true events, co-directors/screenwriters Paola Mendoza and Gloria La Morte's deeply personal family drama brings the immigrant's story to the screen, as it follows one devoted mother's quest to provide for her two children after being abandoned in a strange new land.

ENTRE NOS (United States, 2009, no rating, 80 minutes, color, in Spanish with English subtitles), made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2009 and has since had subsequent screenings at more than 14 film festivals. It was awarded Best Film at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Newport International Film Festival, and has received four and a half out of five stars on Amazon.

The screening, followed by discussion with La Morte, will be shown at 7 p.m. Friday, February 16, at Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, on the University at Albany downtown campus. The program is presented free and open to the public.

ENTRE NOS ("Just Between Us") presents the story of Mariana (played by Mendoza), a Colombian woman, and her two young children, 10-year-old Gabriel (Sebastian Villada Lopez) and 6-year-old Andrea (Laura Montana Cortez) struggling to survive on the streets of New York City after her husband announces he'll be leaving for Miami and they're not welcome to join him.

Based partly on the life story of Mendoza’s mother, Filmmaker Magazine called ENTRE NOS "an inspiring story of what a mother does during an unthinkable situation to provide her kids with a better life." In The New York Times, film critic Andy Webster wrote, "It’s bracing to find a narrative in which a heroine rights her own situation without a Hollywood knight galloping to her rescue," and David Noh of Film Journal International described the film as "an indictment of this incredibly wealthy country's indifference to the less fortunate."

Gloria La Morte, right, began her film career in 2000 as the writer and co-producer of DETAILS, her first narrative short film that had its television debut on HBO after a notable festival run, including a Best Short Award at the NY International Latino Film Festival. She went on to co-produce the multiple-award winning feature film, WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, in 2002 and won Best Documentary Editor for AUTUMN'S EYES at the 2006 Woodstock Film Festival, a credit she shares with husband and partner Joseph La Morte.

The program is cosponsored by the NYS Writers Institute and the UAlbany Department of Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Studies. by the Mohawk Regional Migrant Education Tutorial and Support Program (METS) of the New York State Department of Education.

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620.