Amidst the backdrop of city monuments, skylines, gas stations and underpasses that any Tucsonan will recognize, a University of Arizona professor tackles issues of identity, citizenship and growing up in her short film, “Alma.”

Professor Yuri Makino has had plenty of experience telling stories through film. Growing up in what was then the small agriculture city of Ukiah, in Northern California, Makino began making films in her childhood, shooting on super eight film.

Around age 5 or 6, she won an award in a children’s film festival.

"That was my first introduction to film-making early on," she said. “Growing up that was a real big part of my family, making things."

In high school, she began experimenting with drama and photography.

"I liked photography but it was just too isolating for me," Makino said. “I was also into performing but I never felt quite comfortable in front of the camera.”

Out of high school, she enrolled in the at UC Santa Barbara in California and then went on to pursue her Masters of fine arts at NYU. It was during this time that she realized she could incorporate both

“I loved New York but I felt like I never fit in on the East Coast and I wanted to move out West."

The idea for her short film “Alma” came to Professor Makino after returning from a film trip to Guatemala to visit her mother. She made the acquaintance of a woman whose undocumented sister was caught and deported back to Mexico, a country she barely knew.



While the woman was eventually able to return to the states through a program in the '80s, known as “Agriculture Amnesty,” she carried the embarrassment of her deportation experience with her for the rest of her life.

Over a ten year process with co-writer Gretchen Maurer, Makino wrote the feature length script for the film, which eventually was narrowed down into a short film due to budget constraints. With the assistance of executive producer Vicky Westover, Makino was able to raise the $35-40,000 it cost to shoot the film.

"The idea with the short [film] is it had to stand on it's own but also deal with the similar themes and issues of the feature script," Makino said. "It's an investment in the future production.

The short has screened at over 13 festivals and received an Accolades Award in the Short Fiction category, as well as "Best Immigrant Story" at the Humboldt Film Festival.



Makino also received a "Best Director" award at the Reel Sisters film festival. She is currently reworking the script with her co-writer, updating the setting from 1986 to modern times. Yet the heart of the film will remain the same.

“Coming from my own multicultural background, issues of identity are very important to me,” Makino said. Her father is Japanese and her mother is Swiss.

"The film shows the border between different cultures, not just the physical border."

"This theme can be seen in other work by Professor Makino and it
will most likely be a theme in her future work," Westover said. "It is very much what her life as a filmmaker is about. At one festival screening on the East Coast, an audience member said that she found it hard to believe that Alma didn't know that she was undocumented."

However, when the film screened in places like California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, the audience had a different reaction. Those who live in border states are “more aware of the challenges of immigrant life,” she said.

"It's about personalizing the situation so people have compassion for other people," Makino said. "It's a long process, but I hope eventually this will happen."

To view a trailer of Alma, visit the website of cinematographer Gonzalo Amat and click on "Movies" then on the trailer "Alma"

Here is an interview with Yuri Makino. Click on the arrow to start the video.