What We Leave Behind – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND – Review by Martha K Baker

September 28, 2022September 28, 2022 Martha K. Baker documentary, Iliana Sosa, Julián Moreno, What We Leave Behind

Iliana Sosa created a poignant portrait of one old man in What We Leave Behind. The old man is Sosa’s grandfather. Julián Moreno was born in 1930 and died in 2019. For much of his adult life, Moreno hitchhiked and/or rode buses every month between his home in Mexico to El Paso, Texas, to see his children. Sosa, a former Bill Gates Millennium Scholar, presents her grandfather’s life for inspection from morning to night, birth to death. She does so with great compassion.

Festivals Interviews

Iliana Sosa on WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND (SXSW 2022) – Leslie Combemale interviews

March 22, 2022March 22, 2022 Leslie Combemale documentary, Iliana Sosa, Julián Moreno, sxsw 2022, What We Leave Behind

What We Leave Behind is a wonderful tribute by a granddaughter to her grandfather. Filmmaker Iliana Sosa created her new documentary to celebrate Julián Moreno, a man who had worked as a bracero during World War II, continued to work with his hands until very shortly before his death, always deeply loved his family, and had a clear sense of himself and the world. Through her film, which features footage taken over years of visiting her aging grandfather at his home in Durango, Mexico, Sosa offers a powerful understanding of her own family, and allows us to consider the legacy handed down to all of us by our elders, and what they, uniquely, leave behind.