Docudrama Film ‘America’s Family’ Goes Digital after Successful Santa Barbara Screening

Mirasol Diaz sacrificed everything in coming to Los Angeles to give her son Koke the life he deserved. She built a beautiful family after meeting her husband Jorge and raising Koke with his two half siblings, Emiliano and Valentina. The Diaz family’s everyday grind, representative of the “American Dream,” is interrupted when ICE shows up at their door. Derived from true stories, Anike Tourse’s docudrama America’s Family depicts the heart-wrenching, yet all-too-familiar tale of a mixed-status immigrant family being ripped apart at the seams.

Recognized for her victorious effort in tackling such an emotionally intense subject matter with ferocity and integrity, Tourse landed an impressive array of accolades during screenings at Dances with Films (Grand Jury Award for Features and Audience Award for Competition Features) in Los Angeles and Roxbury International Film Festival (Best Narrative Feature Award) in Boston. In Tourse’s efforts to shed light on the horrific truths faced by immigrant families, she co-produced the film with Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)’s CHIRLA Liberty Film. Stacked with compelling acting performances, masterful cinematography, and a creative spin on narration, America’s Family is a profoundly heavy journey for the Diaz family and the audience.

Without revealing too much, the Diaz family’s world is flipped upside down in a matter of seconds amidst the holiday season when Koke is deported and Mirasol is detained by ICE. The deliberate scene transitions and musical arrangement progress through a series of phone calls that launch Valentina, the youngest daughter, and Emiliano, the middle son, into a full throttle endeavor to bring their family back together. Both having unique perspectives as a first generation American student and lawyer, Mirasol turns to social media to crowdsource help and Emiliano puts his career on hold to fight the injustice. Valentina’s TikTok videos interwoven through cinematic shots of Koke’s life in Tijuana and Mirasol and Jorge’s harsh new realities not only tie together the story, but do a unique job of including the audience as her followers.

Following its limited theatrical release, America’s Family will be available to stream on all VOD platforms and on Blu-ray and DVD for North America December 5.