New York Cinema Circle: Sin Nombre

Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga

Starring Paulina Gaitan and Edgar Flores

Wednesday, March 18
8:00pm

Tribeca Grand Hotel
2 Ave of the Americas (at White St.)

Complimentary cocktails courtesy Double Cross Luxury Vodka

Gen Art invites Producer-level members to an intimate screening and reception for Sin Nombre, the winner of the Directing Award and the Excellence in Cinematography Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.  Writer/Director and Student Academy Award winner Cary Joji Fukunaga will be in attendance to discuss his in his debut feature. Cary is an alumnus of the 2005 Gen Art Film Festival where his short film "Victoria Para Chino" won the Acura Grand Jury Prize.

Synopsis
The film tells the story of Sayra (Paulina Gaitan), a teenager living in Honduras, and hungering for a brighter future. A reunion with her long-estranged father gives Sayra her only real option – emigrating with her father and her uncle into Mexico and then the United States, where her father now has a new family. Meanwhile, Casper, a.k.a. Willy (Edgar Flores), is a teenager living in Tapachula, Mexico, and facing an uncertain future. A member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang brotherhood, he has just brought to the Mara a new recruit, 12-year-old Smiley (Kristyan Ferrer), who undergoes a rough initiation. While Smiley quickly takes to gang life, Casper tries to protect his relationship with girlfriend Martha Marlene (Diana García), keeping their love a secret from the Mara. But when Martha encounters Tapachula’s Mara leader Lil’ Mago (Tenoch Huerta Mejía), she is brutally taken from Casper forever. Sayra and her relatives manage to cross over into Mexico. There, they join other immigrants waiting at the Tapachula train yards. When a States-bound freight train arrives one night, they successfully rush to board – riding atop it, rather than in the cars – as does Lil’ Mago, who has commandeered Casper and Smiley along to rob immigrants. When day breaks, Lil’ Mago makes his move and Casper in turn makes a fateful decision. Casper must now navigate the psychological gauntlet of his violent existence and the physical one of the unforgiving Mara, but Sayra bravely allies herself with him as the train journeys through the Mexican countryside towards the hope of new lives.

Winner of the Directing Award and the Excellence in Cinematography Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

Focus Features releases Sin Nombre in select theaters March 20.

Additional Support Provided By: