In the name of sending relief aid with hopes for recovery, we are bringing back LOS SURES to UnionDocs for a benefit screening alongside a few shorts from LIVING LOS SURES.

Proceeds from ticket sales and the bar will go toward the Maria Fund to send support through local grassroots organizations seeking to equitably distribute reconstruction efforts.

We will accept additional donations at the event, as well as encourage you to directly donate here to the fund below. The UnionDocs bar will be open with wine and beer, and we will have the backyard open after for mingling, more drinks and socializing. Come out to catch this film on the big screen with some of the filmmakers in attendance!

In the late 70’s and early 80’s, Los Sures was one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. In fact, it had been called the worst ghetto in America. Diego Echeverria’s film skillfully represents the challenges of its time: drugs, gang violence, crime, abandoned real estate, racial tension, single-parent homes, and inadequate local resources. The complex portrait also celebrates the vitality of this largely Puerto Rican and Dominican community, showing the strength of their culture, their creativity, and their determination to overcome a desperate situation. Beautifully restored, this documentary is a priceless piece of New York City.

Toñita’s (2013) dives into the microcosm of the Caribbean Club, also fondly labeled Toñita’s after its owner Maria Antonia Cay. The film zig-zags between nightlife and daytime activities at the club, and the testimonies of its regulars. Club scenes are interrupted with interviews of testimonies touching upon a specific issue, such as the history of the neighborhood, gentrification, Nuyorican music and dance, and Puerto Rican identity.

Álvaro (2014) is a meditation on memory and perseverance in the midst of personal and communal change. As seasons pass, 75-year-old Brooklyn resident Álvaro Brandon traces a quotidian path between the vacant lots of his community in order to feed 40 stray cats. While he navigates changes in his neighborhood and in his relationship with his wife as she succumbs to Alzheimer’s Disease, his routine assumes Sisyphean proportions, suggesting, alongside his unwavering generosity, a deeper search for present meaning in the face of an impossible future.

A careful camera observes a community performing the routine of their everyday lives, on the streets and inside the shops of Los Sures, New York. This routine environment is the stage for Rosemary’s 16th birthday, an unrepeatable event of a girl in transition. This short observational film intersects common rituals with a once-in-a-lifetime event, reflecting the passage of time in a tight-knit Dominican community. Through extreme close-ups, the camera plays the role of a sort of macro observer from the inside looking in, and sometimes looking out of, a densely layered and populated area where a community calls home.

If you would like to make additional donations for Puerto Rico, please feel free to support the Hurricane Maria Community Relief & Recovery Fund!

The Hurricane Maria Community Relief & Recovery Fund will be housed at the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD). One hundred percent of monies raised will be used to support immediate relief, recovery, and equitable rebuilding in Puerto Rico for the communities hit hardest by the storm. The Fund is governed by organizations like Puerto Rico-based Taller Salud, the G8 of Caño Martín Peña, and other local, grassroots organizations. The Fund will support organizations working with these hardest hit communities in Puerto Rico.