The School of Hope

At the Texas-Mexico border, The Sidewalk School defies seemingly insurmountable odds to offer free education, safety and security to vulnerable child asylum seekers.
Type: Short Documentary
Status: Pre-Production
Director/Producer: Amy Martinez
Producer: Chelsea Hernandez

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The School of Hope
Synopsis:We enter The Sidewalk School at a child's eye level. Little by little cumulative scenes reveal its students are in Matamoros, Mexico at the border of the U.S. waiting for a chance to seek asylum and facing huge stress. Yet, even after long, unimaginable treks fleeing violence, persecution, and climate change, in this makeshift space childhood can still safely function. Children form friendships, enjoy play, form a beloved community, process strong emotions like fear and rage, experience trusting multigenerational connections, and learn. We'll follow two students as they flourish through vibrant moments of connection with supportive teachers, many of whom are former asylum seekers themselves.The story shifts to show the school's founders, Felicia Rangel-Samponaro and Victor Cavazos wrestling with daily pressures. Perspective broadens. All around the children is danger. Violence, racism, hostility, the cartel. Felicia and Victor get the sick to treatment, deal with emergencies, speak out against racist denial of care. As first responders and care workers providing a vital community hub, they bear witness to realities and decry disinformation. The enriching environment Felicia, Victor and their team provide is like a precious oasis subsisting precariously amid life-threatening circumstances and hateful policies as they strive to provide a DIY solution in a vacuum of care.



Director:Amy 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).