Having been awarded the Golden Lady Harimaguada in 2009 for his film PRINCE OF BROADWAY, the American director Sean Baker returns to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival for its 21st edition, this time in person, to present a retrospective comprising four of his works and discuss them with our audience, allowing at the same time for the films to converse with each other.
With a unique take on the marginalized population of the United States (it should be noted that the term marginalized refers to the living conditions of that population and not to the percentage it represents), Sean Baker has devoted his filmography to capturing a latent reality in the life of a country that has been represented on screen many times as an ideal world; the place of opportunities that promised to live the dream to its natives and everyone who wanted to start a new life within its borders. Moreover, much of American cinema idealizes its production model, yet Baker positions himself at the margins of this model, opting for a cast of non-professional actors, an economy of means, and an aesthetic of decadence. These characteristic elements of his work have made him an essential director within the so-called American Independent Cinema.
Sean Baker has blurred the dividing line between genres throughout his career, as well as he managed to create hybrids between fiction and reality. Perhaps a structural problem on such a scale as the one suffered by illegals, down-and-outs, and immigrants in the United States is not something to be fixed overnight, we will have to learn to take it with a smile, if possible.
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