Paula Hung

Project

Rosa: Do you follow the expectations of tradition or follow your heart? An immigrant mother and lesbian daughter, Elena and Rosa stand on opposite sides. In the aftermath of coming out, Rosa is desperate for Elena to see her for who she is as she clings to the expectation of what could have been. On the day of her senior homecoming, Rosa takes her last opportunity to fulfill the classic high school experience and successfully asks out the “it” girl of the school. As she prepares for the dance, they must redefine their relationship between the strains of tradition and love if Rosa is to attend with her mother’s blessing.

“Rosa” is a coming-of-age short film inspired by the unique nook of the Latine diaspora that is both queer and isolated in suburbia, where the atmosphere of a predominantly white, heteronormative, upper-middle-class neighborhood forces families to find kinship among themselves, and where any disruption to their bond becomes a threat to their community.

Growing up in Northern Virginia, the feeling of isolation and otherness was normal to me, and then only exacerbated by the realization of my own Queerness. The story of “Rosa” is informed not only by the interrogation and examination of my own positionality regarding my role as the eldest daughter of Venezuelan immigrants but also by my friends and family members who have found themselves in similar positions on both sides of the story. With “Rosa”, I hope to present a radically empathetic story that presents the possibilities of mutual, transgenerational kinship and healing, and the resolution of queerness and Latinidad.