Esery Mondesir’s Haitian Trilogy documents intimate livelihoods across the Haitian diaspora: Una Sola Sangre (2018) interweaves observation with testimony to create a rich portrait of the Galde family in Cuba, who negotiate their Haitian identity in various ways. Pariah, My Brother, I Follow You, Show Me the Route to the Springs (2019) and What Happens to a Dream Deferred? (2020) depict immersive experiences of Haitians in Tijuana, Mexico, who are confronted with the US-Mexico border following their completion of “The Route” through South and Central America.

A complex portrait of a city and its inhabitants, Brett Story’s The Hottest August (2019) gives us a window into the collective consciousness of the present. The film’s point of departure is one city over one month: New York City, including its outer boroughs, during August 2017. It’s a month heavy with the tension of a new president, growing anxiety over everything from rising rents to marching white nationalists, and unrelenting news of either wildfires or hurricanes on every coast. The film pivots on the question of futurity: what does the future look like from where we are standing? And what if we are not all standing in the same place? The Hottest August offers a mirror onto a society on the verge of catastrophe, registering the anxieties, distractions, and survival strategies that preoccupy ordinary lives.

The respective documentary filmmaking practices of Mondesir and Story are elaborated in conversation, reflecting on how they work with subjects and communities before the camera, the ethics of documentary filmmaking, and how forms of experimental storytelling fit within their broader creative practices.