Mountains
Monica Sorelle
The dutiful demolition worker Xavier is planning his big dream: leave the old house in Miami’s Little Haiti where he lives with his wife Esperance and their son Junior. He finally wants to move into a larger and more luxurious home. Xavier is loyal and hardworking and has enjoyed great respect in the community for decades. Junior, on the other hand, keeps his stand-up comedy ambitions secret from his parents and often clashes with his father and his values.
As his own employer's wrecking ball comes closer and closer to the family's old home, the consequences of gentrification becomes noticeable and Xavier's loyalty is put to the test.
In her feature film debut, director Monica Sorelle creates a unique and lively study of Little Haiti as a world subjected to merciless change. Mountains is quite possibly a style-defining point in a new era of American indie film.
21 April 2024
18:00 h, Mal Seh'n Kino
More information
| Direction | Monica Sorelle |
| Country | USA |
| Year | 2023 |
| Duration | 95 min |
| Language | English, Haitian Creole, Spanish with English subtitles |
| Production | Robert Colon |
| Cast | Atibon Nazaire, Sheila Anozier, chris Renois |
| Camera | Javier Labrador Deulofeu |
| Script | Monica Sorelle, Robert Colon |
| Editing | Jonathan Cuartas |
| Music | Dyani Douze |
Tribeca Film Festival 2023, Toronto International Film Festival
About the director
Monica Sorelle is a Haitian American filmmaker and visual artist born in Miami. She has produced multiple films that have screened at festivals internationally and is a member of filmmaking collective Third Horizon, which showcases Caribbean stories and storytellers. Mountains (2023) is her debut feature.
Press reviews
„In her directorial debut, Mountains, the Miami-born creative gives the world a beautifully-shot film about a construction worker tasked with demolishing homes in his own Miami neighborhood, the vibrant Haitian-American enclave of Little Haiti. The nuanced story, which won a Special Jury Mention at the Tribeca Film Festival, uses one family to illustrate what happens to a minoritized community that is being pushed out of their 10-feet-above sea level, yet close to the ocean homes in a beach-front city that is looking to build on hurricane-safer land.“ (Forbes)
The director about the film
„The film asks you to take care of that knowledge, take care of your community, take care of the people that are being affected in these ways, and be mindful of how you show up. This is definitely a David versus Goliath situation, and I cannot pretend that I have any real solutions here. But I think being a very mindful, good neighbor is one step. Making sure you preserve your culture and your neighborhood's history is another. Even though this is a specific story about Little Haiti, I think had we known 20 years ago, there could have been things done to sort of protect the citizens there. But because we were all caught off guard, we got caught in this tsunami. So there is a call to action so others can begin community organizing before it’s too late.“ Monica Sorelle in an interview with RogerEbert.com
International Feature Film Program
