Border towns can be strange places to grow up, and that’s especially true of Laredo. Situated on the divide between Texas and Mexico, this transient place is defined by change as thousands of immigrants try to pass through in search of something better. Yet there’s also an unyielding rigidity to the river that splits these two worlds. To cross would be a one-way ticket, something that 21-year-old Estefanía ’Beba’ Contreras and 18-year-old Silvia Del Carmen Castaños know firsthand.
Shared fears for their families and their future in America bind the pair (Sylvia was born to undocumented parents while Beba waits for her citizenship application), yet these anxieties don’t define them or their connection. In fact, they’re doggedly determined to live lives free of constraint in every aspect, a desire expressed by how fluidly they switch between Spanish and English, by their sexual and gender identities, and of course by “Hummingbirds,” the wonderful film they star in and co-directed together.
“Hummingbirds” came into being when producers Jillian Schlesinger and Miguel Drake-McLaughlin discovered a short that Silvia had entered into a local student film festival. The pair asked Silvia to collaborate with them on a feature which could be very open-ended, whatever the budding filmmaker wanted to create. “I was excited and at the same time I was like, ‘Are these people going to steal my kidneys?’” Silvia jokes in the press notes, but thankfully, they and their bestie Beba survived, not just with their kidneys intact, but with a remarkably vibrant debut that embodies the hopes and dreams of two bright young talents on the cusp of adulthood.
The original plan was to film all vérité over the summer in 2019 and then complete the project with scripted flashbacks the following year, but when the pandemic hit, the pair decided to scrap the second part and focus solely on the time they spent together before Silvia moved to Boston. The result is technically a documentary, yes, although lines are blurred thanks to that fictional intent along with poetic voice-overs that make this so much more than the “two-month long slumber party” that “Hummingbirds” has been likened to by the people who made it.
What might seem like “random” goofball stuff at first — singing, making tattoos, playing bingo — coalesces into a portrait of two creatives striving for change. Vignettes of the pair playing kickball and dancing in the club or driving around town, visiting McDonald’s late at night, are given the same weight as dreams for the future, concerns over citizenship, and even abortion rights. Through Silvia’s poems, Beba’s songs, and “Hummingbirds” as a whole, the pair advocate for those who struggle to make their own voices heard, be it through talk of immigration or when they deface a local anti-abortion sign in one of the film’s standout scenes.
Quieter moments interspersed throughout heighten those big messages further by giving the viewer space to sit with Silvia and Beba in calmer aspects of life. There’s an intentional lyricism to these interludes where they and we reflect on both the present and the future. In the hands of lesser filmmakers, or perhaps different protagonists, watching the pair look up at stars on a car roof or stare across the river that separates their two worlds could have been trite and even awkward. That’s not the case here though and much of that is down to the honesty that’s imbued in every shot, devoid of pretense, despite the very nature of vérité filmmaking.
With their punky t-shirts — Night Of The Living Dead, Thrasher Magazine — and camera always on, the protagonists of “Hummingbirds” appear brash and fearless in every endeavor yet they’re also incredibly charming and never anything less than authentic. So what could have been an exercise in tedious self absorption is instead daringly vulnerable and unlike any other teen coming of age story in recent memory. Because make no mistake. For all its documentary trappings, this is still a coming of age story, albeit one that defies the usual tropes with boundless energy and optimism in the face of what can be a troubling place to live.
The lively narrative flits and darts between scenes like the film’s namesake, lingering for a moment before speeding off to the next in an edit that feels energized yet never rushed. What we’re experiencing here are memories, after all, and memory doesn’t follow a traditional path. Years later, it’s the emotions felt that still remain the strongest, even when the specifics are no longer clear. And in that sense, “Hummingbirds” is a near-perfect time capsule of this one summer for our protagonists who exist — and even thrive — in a space that’s liminal in more ways than one.
Grade: A-
“Hummingbirds” is now playing at DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema in New York City. It will premiere on ‘POV’ PBS Television Channel on Monday, July 1.
