Some Girls (2017)

SOME GIRLS explores issues of identity within the Latina-American community by focusing on a group of troubled teenage girls in a Bronx-based suicide prevention program who feel rejected by mainstream America, but are transformed through an exploration of their roots. In the course of the film, shot over a four-year period, they use ancestral DNA testing to discover their ancestry and, in doing so, begin to rethink what and how they've been taught about history. Following the ancestral DNA testing, the girls embark on an expedition to learn more about themselves based on the results. On a trip to the Dominican Republic, the seat of the Americas, they explore issues of social justice, ethnic studies, real American history, identity, and belonging. Throughout the course of the film the girls are encouraged to rethink what a decolonized history looks like, recasting the telling while challenging the status quo. The participants are transformed, and, through them, the audience is challenged to rethink what it truly means to be an American while engaging with an underserved and marginalized community.