About this Event
Special Screening of short films If I Go Will They Miss Me + Pipas (Kites), and an in-person Conversation with filmmaker WALTER THOMPSON-HERNÁNDEZ
About the films:
If I Go Will They Miss Me
A boy sees ghostly figures of other boys in his neighborhood as he grapples with his father's distance. These visions uncover hidden connections between them and their shared heritage.
Pipas (Kites)
A 25-year-old Rio gangster named Duvo seeks redemption through conversations with his guardian angel in this magical realist tale of life in the favelas.
About the filmmaker:
Thompson-Hernández has written for The New York Times, where he was a multimedia subculture reporter. At The Times, Thompson-Hernández wrote about the Compton Cowboys, who eventually wrote a book revolving around them, The Compton Cowboys: The New Generation of Cowboys in America's Urban Heartland, published in 2020 by HarperCollins. His work has additionally been featured in NPR, BuzzFeed, The Guardian, and Remezcla.
In 2022, Thompson-Hernández directed the short film If I Go Will They Miss Me which had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Award. It was then expanded into a feature-length film of the same name starring J. Alphonse Nicholson and Danielle Brooks, and premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
In 2025, Thompson-Hernández directed the documentary Untold: Shooting Guards for Netflix, revolving around an incident involving Washington Wizards teammates Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton. That same year, he made his narrative directorial debut with Kites, which premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, where it received a Special Jury Mention for Viewpoints
Doors & Varsity Bar open at 6
FREE Admission - Sponsored by the Fine Arts Activity Fee, School of Media Arts.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Varsity Center, 418 South Illinois Avenue, Carbondale, United States
USD 0.00
