When Time Stops - Directed by Anna Castagnaro & Sebastian Ortiz

Project Type: Short Film

Project Title: When Time Stops

Brief Synopsis: Caught in the middle of a decades-long struggle with Pilsen, Chicago’s fight against gentrification, Ximena walks home to her daughter and her complicated ex Raul holding a 48 hour eviction notice. Taking place just weeks after Raul is released from prison, he’s come back to his hometown Pilsen to stay at Ximena's home with their daughter Lupita. While in training for a construction job and in constant bickering with the duo, he strives to assimilate to the free world and find his place in the family to prove that his fatal crime 20 years back was worth reconciliation. We travel through events on the day before and day of the eviction. Ximena, as a single mother for most of Lupita’s life, copes with the burden of mediating a relationship between Lupita and Raul to provide her with a father figure she never had. Lupita has mixed feelings as she resents Raul and has been wanting to leave Pilsen to go abroad, but also has a deep attachment to her home. We witness opposing personalities of each person at an awkward dinner. When Ximena slips out, we learn that she’s been hiding eviction notices in her room for a couple of months in order to maintain a facade of stability. Meanwhile, Lupita and Raul bond over the similarities of their loneliness in trying times, and he explains that he was in prison due to a robbery he committed out of necessity from the unaffordability of his still-changing neighborhood. At the climax when a slew of movers march into their home unannounced, they all join forces for the first time and fight against the movers to get their home back, as they were secretly paid by the landlord for a manual eviction. The family successfully kicks them out, but freeze as they’re approached by a team of police cars.