Mariana (Paola Mendoza) is determined to keep her family together. Her children, Gabriel (Sebastian Villada Lopez), 10, and Andrea (Laura Montana Cortez), 6, have grown up in Colombia without their father. He immigrated to the United States years earlier in order to make a better life for his family. Finally after many years of separation the family is reunited in New York City.

After coming home late from work one night Antonio announces he has found work in Miami and will be moving there…alone. He will send for the family when he is settled.

Days go by and Mariana does not hear from him. Worried and desperate, she goes to her only friend’s home only to find out Antonio is not coming back.  The rent is due, there is no food on the table and Mariana has fifty dollars to her name.  With no one to turn to, she must find a way, in a strange city where she barely speaks the language, to provide for her family, financially and emotionally.

Mariana makes homemade empanadas (meat patties), which she tries to sell on the streets, however this quickly fails.  With all options closing in on her, Mariana turns to the city’s trash, collecting cans in order to put food on the table. With Gabriel and Andrea working beside her, the family finds the most stability they have known since their arrival, and it is during these challenging moments that the family triumphs.

In entre nos, Mariana, Gabriel and Andrea take us on a remarkable journey where we bear witness to a family’s commitment to survival and their unrelenting hope for the American dream...one soda can at a time.

After working together on the award winning documentary film, Autumn’s Eyes, which Paola co-directed and Gloria co-edited, the idea for entre nos was born.  Paola kept coming back to one story, it was the story of Paola’s mother when she first arrived in United States. She had grown up hearing bits and pieces about her father’s abandonment but now Paola felt it was time to tell her mother’s story to the world. Having never truly explored her own family secrets and heartbreaking stories, Paola set out to talk to her mother first, to get her blessing and ask the hard questions.  Once Paola’s mother agreed, Paola and Gloria went to work to, capturing not only the pain, but also the inspiring hope of this remarkable tale of a family.  Their collaboration in writing the script lasted for two years and took them through Independent Film Week’s Emerging Narrative section where they took home the Grand Prize for the Panasonic Digital Filmmakers Award. This milestone placed a Panasonic HPX 500 camera package in their hands for the production of their film.  This brought them one step closer to making the movie. Soon after, entre nos was officially accepted into the Tribeca All Access program. This honor propelled them further where the filmmakers were able to participate in TAA’s On Track Program, where they had access to thousands of dollars worth of equipment at no cost. With the camera package and access to the equipment, Paola and Gloria hit the ground running to make entre nos.

Casting the film was a difficult task to accomplish. They hired the well renowned casting team Maria E. Nelson and Ellyn Long Marshall (Maria Full of Grace, Girl Fight, Real Women have Curves). From the onset they knew the characters of Andrea and Gabriel, ages six and ten in the script, were going to be very difficult roles to cast.  The characters required that the young actors speak Spanish perfectly, with a Colombian accent, plus they needed to be believable as brother and sister. The role’s complexity demanded them to have command of the craft of acting in addition to the fortitude needed to carry the film. Gloria and Paola were aware of two things; that they would be casting non-actors for these roles and that they would have scour the streets of Jackson Heights, Queens (a Colombian community) to find their kids.

After announcing the auditions in churches, community centers, on the radio, in newspapers and on every street corner in the community, the filmmakers first auditioned over 200 kids. It was at this open call that Paola and Gloria fell in love with Laura Montana Cortez for the role of Andrea.  Laura had arrived from Colombia only two years earlier, and at such a young age, her self-confidence resonated with the directors; assuring them she could handle such a demanding role.

While they had found their Andrea, they were still in desperate need of their Gabriel.  As luck would have it, the following weekend was the largest single Colombian cultural celebration of the year in Queens.  This event brings over ten thousand Colombians from the Tri-State area to mark their homeland’s independence. Under a blazing sun and hundreds of Colombian flags, the directors interviewed over 300 young boys for the part of Gabriel.  However, as soon as they met Sebastian Villada Lopez, they knew he was the one. Sebastian, while born in the US, he had a very strong personal and cultural tie to his parent’s homeland, handling the Spanish language with ease and authenticity.  Yet again, the filmmakers were blessed to have a child with such a wealth of talent.

The filmmakers had their co-stars, they had their camera, they had their crew and finally the film was ready to be made.  The journey from the night time sessions at the coffee shop to the streets of Queens was an amazing ride, one that would make Paola’s mother proud.