Debris

Greetings again from the darkness. Living in constant fear. Never able to relax. The unrelenting fear of being discovered. These are the challenges faced daily by illegal immigrants.

This is the fourth short film from award winning writer-director Julio O Ramos, and the script was co-written with Lucas Mireles. Armando is the site supervisor over a crew working to renovate a home. When one of the workers falls from the roof and is seriously injured, the contrasting reactions are stunning. Armando is worried about the man's condition and how to get him treatment, while the other workers are more concerned with how this might affect their own situations.

When the big boss shows up and calls his "personal" doctor to attend to the injured worker, things go sideways quickly and Armando's well-intentioned approach is exposed as naivety. Tenoch Huerta (SIN NOMBRE) plays Armando, and Karran Karagulian (TANGERINE) plays the big boss. This little 14 minute film drives home the constant fear faced by illegal immigrants, and the extreme situation that often sustains an entire industry. As these folks strive to remain "invisible" to the world, one man doing the right thing can expose something that is very wrong.

Armando is the bilingual construction foreman who keeps his Spanish speaking crew working on the renovation of a house for his English speaking boss. When an accident happens, he moves quickly to deal with it before the owner returns. Unfortunately, he isn't fast enough.

The screenwriter and director understand "show, don't tell" better than most of Hollywood does. In 14 short minutes, they tell us a heartbreaking story that happens every day to millions of nameless and faceless migrant workers. In the process, they tell us exactly what happens when someone is forced to become invisible to support his family.

This is a modern American version of "Parasite." More Americans should see it, and understand who is actually paying the price for everything we enjoy, from fresh produce to cheap home repairs.

I cannot wait to see more from the two of them,