América

Three brothers confront the chasm between adolescent yearning and adult responsibilities when brought together to care for their charismatic ninety-three-year-old grandmother in this feature-length documentary debut from directors Erick Stoll and Chase Whiteside. Diego is a young circus artist living away from his family in a dull landscape of tourist beaches and all-inclusive resorts when he must return home suddenly. His grandmother, América, fell from her bed, causing his father to be jailed under accusation of elder neglect. Diego sees poetry and purpose in this tragedy. He believes América, despite her immobility and advanced dementia, fell willfully, to bring the separated family back together. He reunites with his estranged brothers and leaves his old life behind. But now they face the considerable challenges of freeing their father from an opaque court system bereft of moral authority, and learning to be caretakers for someone who may not understand who they are. And yet the greatest challenge might be learning to work together. As the brothers clash over money and the distribution of labor, difficult questions take the foreground – who decides what becomes of América? and how long will they put their lives on hold to care for her?