Screenings Calendar
Host a screening and Q&A of impactful Sotomayor Productions films, showcasing powerful stories from underrepresented communities.
Support Our Work
At Sotomayor Productions, we’re committed to building a sustainable, community-rooted production company that tells the stories mainstream media often ignores. But we can’t do it alone.
Your support helps us fund new films, pay our team equitably, and bring powerful stories into classrooms, community spaces, and cultural institutions across the country. Whether it’s a one-time gift or a recurring membership, every contribution fuels independent filmmaking for collective liberation.
Got airline miles or hotel points you’d like to contribute? Reach out to us at info@sotomayorproductions.com to learn more about in-kind support.
Storyteller Initiative Fellows Showcase
Join Voice of Witness for an afternoon celebrating the power of community-centered storytelling.
This two-hour showcase invites you to experience the work of the Storyteller Initiative Fellows, who have spent the past year deepening their craft and advancing projects rooted in justice, memory, and collective action.
Each fellow will be joined by the collaborators who made their work possible, offering a rare opportunity to witness not just the stories themselves, but the relationships and processes that made them possible.
Kristal Sotomayor will present work from their audio documentary project exploring the impact of water privatization on communities across Pennsylvania. Drawing on oral histories from residents, activists, and policymakers, the project weaves investigative journalism with intimate, community-centered storytelling to challenge corporate control over one of our most essential resources.
feini yin will share "In Our Wildest Salmon Dreams," a multimedia project bringing together oral histories and visionary fiction from Salmon Protectors and BIPOC activists working toward fisheries restoration and food sovereignty. Rooted in relationship building and collective dreaming, the project honors the vibrancy and resilience of Salmon cultures while confronting the systems threatening their survival.
Come ready to listen, reflect, and be moved by the stories that remind us why narrative matters in the fight for a more just world!
Maryland Film Festival
“Las Cosas Que Brillan” screens at Maryland Film Festival on Friday, April 10 at 8:00 PM.
Poppy Jasper International Film Festival
“Las Cosas Que Brillan” screens at Poppy Jasper International Film Festival on April 14th from 12PM - 2PM at the Morgan Hill Community Playhouse.
Capital City Film Festival 2026
“Las Cosas Que Brillan” screens at the Capital City Film Festival as part of the ‘Pride in Motion’ Shorts program on Friday, April 17, 2026 at 6:00 PM at Riverwalk Theatre (228 Museum Dr, Lansing, MI 48933).
Second Sunday Workshop: Film Festivals & Distribution
Join Big Picture Alliance for a professional development seminar on film festivals and distribution, focused on how to successfully position and share your film with audiences. Featuring Kristal Sotomayor of Sotomayor Productions, this session will provide a practical, case-study-driven look at building a festival strategy, selecting the right festivals, crafting strong submissions, and navigating the festival circuit.
Expanding Sanctuary: Film Screening and Q&A
Join Voice of Witness and Sotomayor Productions for a special virtual screening of Expanding Sanctuary!
Voice of Witness is proud to host an online fundraising screening of Expanding Sanctuary, a documentary by Kristal Sotomayor that chronicles one Latinx immigrant community's remarkable and successful campaign to end the sharing of Philadelphia's police database with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At the center of the story is Linda Hernandez, an immigrant mother whose emergence as a community leader captures the courage and collective power it takes to change legislation and protect families.
We are hosting this screening as a deliberate act of solidarity with Sotomayor Productions, the company Kristal founded to continue producing Latino and immigrant-centered films and art, as they face shrinking opportunities to share this work in the current political climate. Your participation in this event directly supports both Voice of Witness and Sotomayor Productions in their ongoing commitment to these stories and the communities they represent.
We hope you will join us online to witness this story of resistance, belonging, and what becomes possible when a community refuses to be silent. Q&A with Kristal Sotomayor will follow the film screening.
Table Sessions: Kristal Sotomayor’s “Expanding Sanctuary”
Journey Arts’ beloved Table Sessions returns in April, curated by award-winning filmmaker Kristal Sotomayor. Prime yourself for an ebullient evening with the boisterous sounds of the kumbia-klezmer-punk collective Mariposas Galácticas, whose music is inspired by their Ancestor’s shared roots in “radical joy.” Then sit forward for a screening of Kristal’s short film Expanding Sanctuary — the winner of the 2024 BlackStar Philadelphia Filmmaker Award — which flips the script on the current moment by telling the story of an immigrant mother’s triumphant fight for safety for Philly families. And, of course, leave filled not only with joy, but with a delicious dinner by the James Beard Award-winning Chef Cristina Martínez of South Philly Barbacoa.
Social Justice Initiative’s 2026 Film Series
“Expanding Sanctuary” screens at University of Illinois’s Social Justice Initiative on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 from 6:00 - 8:30 PM at the Chicago Justice Gallery (1344 S Halsted).
CAMRA Screening Scholarship Media Festival
“Don’t Cry For Me All You Drag Queens” screens at CAMRA Screening Scholarship Media Festival (SSMF): Portals on March 28th from 4-5:15pm as part of the Queer Memory & Urban Genealogies program.
Film Screening & Panel Discussion: Expanding Sanctuary
Join us for a film screening & panel discussion of “Expanding Sanctuary”!
SPE Media Festival
Don't Cry For Me All You Drag Queens screens at the 2026 SPE Media Festival from March 20-21, 2026 at the Courtland Grand Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia during the Society for Photographic Education Annual Conference.
Watsonville Film Festival
“Expanding Sanctuary” screens at Watsonville Film Festival on March 13, 2026, 5:00 - 7:00 PM PDT at CineLux Green Valley Cinema (1125 South Green Valley Road).
Week of Abolition Screening
“Expanding Sanctuary” screening with Temple University Beasley School of Law on Thursday, March 12th at 12:00 PM.
West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival
“Don't Cry For Me All You Drag Queens” has been selected for the 2026 West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival taking place at Canady Creative Arts Center in Morgantown, West Virginia from March 5th-8th, 2026.
Duke Beyond Borders Movie Night
“Expanding Sanctuary” screens at Duke University’s Trinity Movie Theater for a special presentation with the Duke Beyond Borders student group on February 25th at 6PM.
Acacia Center for Justice - Expanding Sanctuary Screening & Q&A
Join us for a special screening of Expanding Sanctuary, a powerful documentary that follows immigrant families and grassroots organizers in South Philadelphia as they fight to protect their community from detention, deportation, and displacement. Through intimate storytelling and on-the-ground advocacy, the film reveals how local organizing can create real pathways to safety and dignity.
The screening will be followed by a live conversation with the filmmaker, protagonist and Acacia Center for Justice exploring how legal advocacy, community organizing, and storytelling work together to defend immigrant rights.
Donations will be spilt between Acacia Center for Justice and Sotomayor Productions, which is fiscally sponsored by 501(c)(3) nonprofit CultureTrust Greater Philadelphia.
Lost River Film Fest
Don’t Cry For Me All You Drag Queens screens at the Lost River Film Fest on Friday, February 6 at 5:15 PM as part of the LGBTQ Shorts block showing at The Price Center (222 W. San Antonio St).
Second Saturday Workshop: Budgeting & Fundraising
Join Big Picture Alliance for the next "Second Saturday" monthly professional development series! This month's topic is Budgeting and Fundraising with Kristal Sotomayor of Sotomayor Productions. The session offers a case-study based overview of building a short film budget, exploring grants, campaign strategies, and navigating the current landscape of film fundraising followed by a discussion and Q&A.
Black Box Presents: Voices of the Mexican Diaspora In Partnership with Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival
Join us for an evening of contemporary cinema examining the lived experiences, histories, and community power of the Mexican diaspora. Co-curated with Erick Barragán, the program features short and feature-length works that navigate labor, memory, migration, and collective organizing across Mexico City, Puebla, and Philadelphia.
Storytelling in Practice: Films & Podcasts as Liberation
Hear from documentary filmmaker, journalist, and curator Kristal Sotomayor!
Flick Film Festival
"Expanding Sanctuary" is screening at Flick Film Festival from December 2nd to 7th in Miami, Florida.
Movement Movie Night with Amistad Law Project, Juntos, and VietLead
“Expanding Sanctuary” screens at Movement Movie Night with Amistad Law Project, Juntos, and VietLead on Saturday, November 22 from 4 PM - 7 PM at Vox Populi.
Barnes Foundation Young Professional’s Night
Sotomayor Productions films screen at the Barnes Foundation’s Young Professional’s Night on Friday, November 21st from 7 – 11pm.
Centre Film Festival
"Don't Cry For Me All You Drag Queens" screens at Centre Film Festival on Nov 16th at 10:45 AM at The Rowland Theatre.
Revolutions Film Series Presents Expanding Sanctuary & The Infiltrators
Revolutions Film Series Presents “Expanding Sanctuary” and “The Infiltrators” on Tuesday, November 11, 2025 from 7:00pm - 9:30pm at the Landis Cinema (Buck Hall - 219 N. 3rd Street).
OutReels Cincinnati
“Don’t Cry For Me All You Drag Queens” screens at OutReels Cincinnati on Sunday, November 9, 2025 at 1:00 PM at the Warsaw Federal Incline Theater (801 Matson Pl, Cincinnati Ohio 45204).
Latina Discussion Group Screening
“Expanding Sanctuary” screens with Latina Discussion Group at Dickinson College.
Hobnobben Film Festival
“Don’t Cry For Me All You Drag Queens” screens at Hobnobben Film Festival on Saturday, October 25th at 1:15 PM at the Main Theater.
Philadelphia Mosaic: Immigrant Film Showcase
The Philadelphia Mosaic: Immigrant Film Showcase screens Expanding Sanctuary and Status Pending at Esperanza in collaboration with Esperanza Immigration Legal Services. The films serve as a centerpiece in an evening of Latin food, live music, and conversation highlighting stories of resilience, activism, and the cultural richness of Philadelphia’s immigrant communities.
Black Bear Film Festival
"Don't Cry For Me All You Drag Queens" screens at the Black Bear Film Festival on Sunday, October 19 at Triversity - The Pride Center (201 W. Harford St., Milford, PA).
Bucks County FilmFest
"Don't Cry For Me All You Drag Queens" at Bucks County FilmFest on Saturday, October 18th at the County Theater.
The World Is Watching: A Queer History Showcase
“Don’t Cry For Me All You Drag Queens” screens as part of Frameline’s “The World Is Watching: A Queer History Showcase” streaming October 11–31, 2025.
Santa Cruz Film Festival
“Don’t Cry For Me All You Drag Queens” screens at the Santa Cruz Film Festival on Friday, October 10th at 7:30pm at The 418 Project.
Appalachian Queer Film Festival
“Expanding Sanctuary” screens at Appalachian Queer Film Festival on Saturday, October 4th at 1:30 PM at the Frank Center at the Shepherd University (260 University Dr, Shepherdstown, WV 25443).
Monadnock International Film Festival
“Don’t Cry For Me All You Drag Queens” screens at Monadnock International Film Festival on Saturday, October 4 at 12:30 PM at the SHOWROOM (20 Commercial Street, Keene, NH 03431).
People’s Media Camp: Screenings of Archival Shorts
“Don’t Cry For Me All You Drag Queens” is screening at People’s Media Camp as part of the Archival shorts program on Friday, October 3rd from 5-10pm, co-presented with cinéSPEAK at the Calvary Community Center, 4703 Baltimore Ave, Philadelphia, PA, 19143.
Films Shaped by a City
Marian Bailey’s vibrant new mural, Films Shaped by a City, celebrates some of the key films and film-related organizations that have impacted filmmaking, film presentation, and film-related training in Philadelphia.
Penn for Immigrant Rights Presents "Expanding Sanctuary"
Join Penn for Immigrant Rights for a screening of Expanding Sanctuary and a community dialogue on activism and civic engagement.
Screening & Event Photos