CRITICAL PRAISE FOR HUMMINGBIRDS

“A remarkably vibrant debut that embodies the hopes and dreams of two bright young talents”
“What might seem like ‘random’ goofball stuff at first — singing, making tattoos, playing bingo — coalesces into a portrait of two creatives striving for change”
“A near-perfect time capsule of this one summer…in a space that’s liminal in more ways than one.”
– Indiewire: Critic’s Pick Review: A Buzzing and Vibrant Coming of Age Doc Shot by Two Best Friends in a Texan Border Town

“Not a social issue documentary, at least not directly….the laid-back presentation makes the political commentary register strongly from the periphery."
– New York Times Critic’s Pick Review: Two Friends’ Summer Along the Border

“A glowing self-portrait of friendship, a call to activism, a summer bestie comedy full of devilish antics, and a frank immigrant story, this bold slice of life defies easy categorization. As Silvia and Beba sing, dance, and make mischief, they seem to be daring you to try and slap a label on them, their challenging circumstances, and the complexities of their border town lives”
-rogerebert.com

“Playful and poetic”
“Something serious, vibrant and compelling courses through the levity”
”Has the sheen of summertime fun and the bright energy of creative focus for besties who are smart and terrifically likable.”
“Daring”
– The Hollywood Reporter ‘Hummingbirds’ Review: Border-Town Besties’ Inspired Self-Portrait
   
“To watch Hummingbirds is to consider the pantheon of great movies about dynamic duos of young female friends in all their love and anarchy, whether it’s Daisies or Ghost World. The DNA of those subversive classics abides in this stirringly independent production, in which a pair of young Mexican women—Estefanía “Beba” Contrera and Silvia Del Carmen Castaños—capture their own misadventures together over the course of a few months in 2019, living in the Texas border town of Laredo under the shadow of American immigration bureaucracy”
“Effervescent, fuck-you joy that feels contagious.”
The emotions that arise here from various candid experiences are the engine that drives this border-town buddy movie, full of hopes, dreams and resilience.”
– Fandor Keyframe

“A vibrant, infectious and surprisingly hopeful portrait”
“Voices don't come much more authentic than these besties"
“Sparky, self-confident, and unafraid"
“Personalities are allowed to shine as bright as the issues, making the film all the more immediate and powerful as a result.”
– Screen Daily

“An unorthodox, punk rock portrait of the immigrant experience"
“A refreshing coming-of-age story"
– The Moveable Fest

“mischievous and meaningful”
“the best movie I’ve seen about growing up on the border”
– Texas Monthly ‘Hummingbirds’ Is a Radical Border Documentary—One That’s Fun to Watch

“It speaks to the fearlessness of today’s youth having everything to lose and still being loud and proud within an environment overrun by border patrol and Christo-fascist white nationalists. Having each other allows them the courage to be themselves.”
– Hey, Have You Seen?

“a rich portrait of two young [friends] for whom the notion of home is a fragile, tenuous concept”
“Provides a welcome and necessary corrective to the sensationalist headlines of popular media depicting the border as a site of constant chaos and unregulated immigration”
"Offers up a new and potentially invigorating model for collaborative, mentorship-based filmmaking while depicting a shared summer of mischief, allyship, and activism”
– Film Obsessive Review: Hummingbirds Takes a New Approach to the Coming of Age Film

“If you combined the anarchic feminist energy of Věra Chytilová’s Daisies with the ironic attitude of Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World and add the loose hangout vibes of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, you might get something close to Hummingbirds, a delightfully feisty portrait of the friendship between two Mexican-American teens (one undocumented, the other not) in Laredo, Texas the summer after they graduate high school…Silvia and Estefanía are human fireworks who you’ll fall in love with from the film’s first seconds.”
“Perfectly captures the spontaneous joy and lazy, meandering conversations of warm summer nights in young adulthood”
– The Pitch Best Films We Saw at True/False

“Magical”
“In mood, the film evokes variously Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused (1993) and Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World (2001). But these two young women also engage with substantive political issues, though in a playfully subversive way, as when they disguise themselves, sneak onto someone’s yard, and alter the message of an antiabortion sign. Their film serves up the kind of wise-beyond-their-years insights into the nature of time, memory, and experience seen in Charlotte Wells’s much-lauded Aftersun (2022).”
- The Arts Fuse

“In their case youth is not wasted on the young, and in their delightful cinematic collaboration we follow along with great interest, buoyed by their infectious joie de vivre. Summer has rarely seemed so simultaneously laid-back and vibrant.”
- Hammer To Nail

“For a touching and subtle glimpse into the intimate moments of memorable characters that grow within their friendship. Their self-determination and playfulness, as both protagonists and authors, is inspiring. Their actions, jokes, songs, laughs, and bodies are political and necessary as a way of resistance.”
– Berlinale Generation International Jury statement Grand Prix Award for Best Feature Film