Hummingbirds

POV
  • Feature Film
  • 2024
  • 90 Mins

In Hummingbirds, Silvia and Beba tell their own coming-of-age story, transforming their hometown on the Texas-Mexico border into a wonderland of creative expression and activist hijinks. Filmed collaboratively over the final summer of their fleeting youth, their cinematic self-portrait celebrates the power of friendship and joy as tools of survival and resistance. Grand Prize, 2023 Berlinale Generation. A Co-Presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB).

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Film Credits

  • Estefanía “Beba” Contreras Director/Protagonist
  • Silvia Del Carmen Castaños Director/Protagonist
  • Jillian Schlesinger Producer
  • Miguel Drake-McLaughlin Producer
  • Leslie Benavides Producer
  • Ana Rodriguez-Falco Producer
  • Diane Ng Producer
  • Rivkah Beth Medow Producer

Critical Acclaim

The spark and embrace of love and acceptance is the root of the film. There’s nothing soft or mushy about it. The escapades involving trespassing, protest, street food and nightlife that Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía Contreras document are fleeting yet life-shaping moments. They’re captured fireflies that, like the tattoo Beba does for Silvia, will last.

Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

Press Room

POV, WHUT / Howard University Television, and From Prison Cells to PHD Host Event on Gun Violence Reduction Featuring THE BODY POLITIC Featuring Brandon Scott, Mayor of Baltimore, MD ‘POV Shorts’ Seventh Season Puts Center Stage Ten Short Acquisitions Telling Big Stories in an Arthouse Setting Beginning November 12, 2024 on the PBSApp and POV.org POV Announces the ‘Our America: Documentaries in Dialogue’ PBS Station 2024 Grantees
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