Stories

But 20 months later, Gaby, who directed Paper State: Undocumented, Unafraid, Undeterred, and three members of her crew—fellow grads Martin Couch, Ashlei Hardenburg and Kelly Nguyen—stood on a red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival as the film was named Best Student Documentary at the American Pavilion’s Emerging Filmmaker Showcase.

In the film, four teens from the Hudson Valley talk about their lives as undocumented immigrants, voicing their frustration at being unable to work legally or obtain financial aid as they pursue their goal of going to college and, as one of them put it, “become a part of the American Dream.”

Paper State: Undocumented, Unafraid, Undeterred by Elena Gaby, NY from NFFTY on Vimeo.

It was the fourth time in the recent years a Vassar film had been honored at the American Pavilion at Cannes. A short horror spoof, Night of the Loving Dead, directed by Nick Chianese ‘14, and Still Here, a documentary directed by Alex Camilleri ’10, both won Best Student Film at the Emerging Filmmaker Showcase. And Henry & Anthony, a narrative film directed by Spencer W. Richards ’10, was an Official Selection in 2011. Paper State has also been shown at four film festivals in the United States: the Boston-Latino Film Festival at Harvard University, the National Film Festival for Talented Youth in Seattle, the Kingston (NY) Film Festival and the Vassar Film Festival.

Gaby and her crew all say this recognition has opened some doors for them as they launch their professional careers. “Our emails are getting answered a lot more quickly since Cannes,” says Gaby, who is working as a researcher for a New York City television documentary company. But they’re equally gratified that the film’s acclaim is raising awareness about immigration issues.

“Every time I show the film, someone comes up to me and thanks me for educating them about immigration,” Gaby says, adding she hopes to expand the 25-minute film into a full-length documentary.

Winning the award at Cannes has been empowering, she says. “From the day we got there, the message was, ‘Welcome to the club—you’re a filmmaker,’” she says. “We were treated as people in the business, not as students.” This message was reinforced during intermission of the showing of the documentaries when actress Jessica Chastain, star of the Oscar-winning feature film, Zero Dark Thirty, addressed the filmmakers. “She told us we didn’t get there by accident, that we had earned it,” Gaby says.

Nguyen, who was the editor on the Paper State crew and now works as an editor for a film production company in Los Angeles, says that as she soaked in the excitement at Cannes, she reflected on the hard work she and the rest of the crew had done to make the film. She says she sensed they were doing something special when they began to bond with the young immigrants who would star in the film. “They were articulate and passionate and committed to the project, and I admired them for their courage in speaking out,” Nguyen says. “But they were also kids about our age who were just a lot of fun to hang out with.”

She says she was “shocked” the students had agreed so readily to talk about their lives on camera, and she was captivated by their passion: “They told us their stories laughing, and they told us their stories crying—it was an emotional experience for all of us.”

Back from Cannes, Gaby says she’s determined to continue to raise public awareness about the need for immigration reform. When the film was shown at the Boston-Latino Film Festival, she recalls, an immigration lawyer stood up during the question and answer period and thanked her for “getting all the facts straight” about immigration law.

 “That’s the kind of thing that’s been the most gratifying about what’s happened with Paper State,” Gaby says. “The glitter and excitement of Cannes, meeting all those movie people, that was great. But I want the film to make a difference.”