Winner of the Oscar qualifying Award at San Francisco International Film Festival
Cesar Martinez Barba’s short film Dial Home shares a story of deported call center agents who make phone calls across the US-Mexico border. This topical documentary film won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Short Film; the Oscar qualifying Award at San Francisco International Film Festival and has screened at a variety of film festivals including Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Double Exposure Film Festival and Camden International Film Festival.
Within the walls of a Tijuana call center, a feeling of being in limbo pervades. Homesickness floods the telephone line as agents deported from the United States make calls across the US-Mexico border.
Director/Cinematographer/Producer/Editor César Martínez Barba is interested in non-fiction work that channels narrative and inventive approaches to filmmaking. He is drawn to stories about representation and the relationship between the United States and Mexico. Cesar’s editorial work has appeared at festivals such as HotDocs, Hamptons International Film Festival, and Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. His film ¡Chaporazzi! was broadcast on Season 2 of POV Shorts.
Producer Yadira Rodríguez Gonzáles has been working as an independent producer since 2006 and has been a university professor in diverse educational settings since 2008. In 2012, she was a recipient of the Baja California Cultural Development Program in the Cultural Heritage Promotion category for her first documentary film. Gonzales has collaborated with marketing and commercial agencies, on television programs for the Travel Channel and Discovery, as well as diverse documentary productions in the Baja California region.
Oscar Cimota is the protagonist of Dial Home. After being brought into the US at the age of 5, in November 2011 at the age of 28, Oscar was deported, without having the chance to grieve for his newborn son who passed away a day before he was deported. He hopes to give people a glimpse of what life is like after deportation with his social media platforms (TikTok, YouTube and Instagram) called Life After Deportation and wants to inspire deportees to not let their situations stop them from achieving greatness.
Dial Home is currently available to watch online on The New Yorker website.
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