The School of Hope
Type/Status
Feature Documentary
Post-Production
Director/Producer
Amy Martinez
Producer
Chelsea Hernandez
At the U.S.-Mexico border, where cartel violence and U.S. policy collide, a one-room school in a migrant shelter becomes a lifeline for three asylum-seeking children and the school founders who fight to keep it open.
Synopsis: In Matamoros, Mexico, where cartel violence and shifting U.S. immigration policies shape everyday life, The School of Hope tells a coming-of-age story about three children - Genesis (10), Alex (12), and Ulises (12) - seeking stability and belonging in a one-room classroom inside a migrant shelter. While waiting nearly a year for asylum appointments, the children find moments of joy, friendships, and lessons not only in reading and math but also in understanding their emotions and coping with trauma. The School of Hope captures the small but profound ways education and community transform their lives, from the excitement of mastering a new word in English to the courage of dreaming beyond borders. Interwoven with the children’s stories are the daily struggles of the school’s American founders Felicia Rangel-Samponaro and Victor Cavazos, who cross the border from Brownsville, Texas each day navigating cartel-controlled streets and scarce resources to keep the school open. Through vérité scenes and candid moments, The School of Hope is a moving portrait of resilience that reveals the radical power of education to nurture hope even in the most precarious places.
Director: Amy Martinez is an Emmy®-nominated Mexican American filmmaker, with a long successful career in documentary features, series and branded content for works featured on Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, PBS, and National Geographic whose production work was selected for the 2020 Telluride Film Festival. She has produced acclaimed documentaries such as FARMLAND (Netflix), directed by Academy Award winner James Moll and A WHISPER TO A ROAR (Prime). Currently developing a career as an independent film director based in Austin, Texas, after years of living and working in Chicago and Los Angeles, Amy is drawn to stories that center dignity, joy and tenderness discovered in unexpected places, especially centered on women’s interconnected care for one another and their communities. She is an active member of the Documentary Producers Alliance, Video Consortium and Brown Girls Doc Mafia. Originally from South Texas, Amy is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Producer: At the heart of Chelsea Hernandez’s storytelling are themes of community, representation and social justice. Named as one of Texas Monthly’s “Texas filmmakers poised to usher in a new Golden Age of Texas cinema” and DOC NYC’s “40 Under 40” class of 2021, Chelsea has directed and produced award-winning feature and short documentaries for over 15 years and produced television docuseries for El Rey Network, Paramount+ and PBS. She is a National Emmy-nominated Director for her first feature documentary BUILDING THE AMERICAN DREAM (SXSW, PBS), Winner of the 2021 Silver Telly Award for Social Impact, an 8-time Lone Star Emmy Winning Director, Producer and Editor, an SFFilm Rainin Grant Recipient, Warner Media 150 Artist, Winner of the David Carr Award for Truth in Nonfiction Filmmaking, and a fellow of Firelight Media Doc Lab, Tribeca All Access, BAVC National Mediamaker, Gotham Week and NALIP Latino Media Market. As director and producer, Chelsea’s second feature documentary BREAKING THE NEWS, a co-production of ITVS is streaming now on Independent Lens/PBS. Chelsea is also a founding member of Tejanas in Film, a collective that aims to support and uplift Latina and Latinx filmmakers living and working in Texas.
Director of Photography: Monica Wise is a freelance Colombian American documentary filmmaker and video journalist based in Mexico City. She has produced documentaries with The Guardian, NYT and the BBC, among other outlets. Her first short documentary LUPITA, about a Maya massacre survivor, premiered at the Ambulante festival in Mexico, Sheffield Doc/Fest and Doc NYC in 2020, receiving awards from several others. She was a cinematographer on Netflix’s TRIALS OF GABRIEL FERNÁNDEZ (2018), Iliana Sosa’s feature WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND (2022 SXSW award winner, NYT Critic Pick and Gotham Awards Nominee for Best Documentary feature), AFTER THE FLOOD (2022 Emmy Winner) and NIÑAS // SOMOS EL FUEGO (2022 Premio Gabo Winner).