I take you with me tells the story of Gerardo and Iván

"I Take You With Me" was directed by the American director, documentary maker and Oscar nominee - Heidi Ewing (Photo Sony Pictures)

(CNN Spanish) -

The winning film at the Sundance Festival 2020 "I carry you with me" ("I Carry You with Me") tells the story of Iván and Gerardo, who are a couple, and in the search for the American dream they cross the border of Mexico and the United States to settle in New York. 

Under the direction of the American documentary filmmaker Heidi Ewing, nominated for an Oscar, the film is based on the story of two friends of Ewing herself, who also makes her debut in the fiction genre with this film.

The actors Armando Espitia and Christian Vázquez and the director of the film spoke from New York with Zona Pop CNN to give us more details about the film.

"It is a true story that attracted me. It is based on the lives of my friends Iván and Gerardo, who live in Brooklyn. It seemed impossible to me that all these beautiful and important themes could coincide in a movie," says Ewing.

The plot shows the story of many Latino migrants who seek to cross the border with the United States to follow their dreams (Photo Sony Pictures)

A story of dreams and love based on a true story

Iván (Armando Espitia) is an aspiring chef driven by social pressure and the desire to excel.

He leaves his family in Mexico and his soul mate, Gerardo (Christian Vázquez), to start a hard journey in search of his dreams that will take him to New York, where he will go through his life as an undocumented worker and nothing will ever be the same.

"The story talks about homophobia and if we go deeper it talks about machismo and the role it plays in Mexican families today. Families show a lot of love, but it is culture and ignorance that makes machismo operate" , says Espitia.

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One might think that the closeness of the flesh and blood protagonists of this story would facilitate the work in the filming, by telling what they lived or felt at specific moments.

However, in this case it was not.

The director didn't introduce them until after filming ended.

"Heidi never introduced us to them and I think it was very successful of her, because we were representing an emotional memory. The film has this nostalgia to miss the family, which had to be left behind. It was a mystery that we all had to solve. days. Heidi found an essence in us that she needed. I wanted to meet Gerardo and have some reference to him, "explains Vázquez.

"I take you with me" is starring Armando Espitia and Christian Vázquez and is based on a real life story (Photo Sony Pictures)

Winner at Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival is the biggest on the independent circuit.

Screening a film there and winning recognition is the great ambition of projected stories.

"I take you with me" won the Innovator Next and Audience Next awards.

"Many people did not know until the end credits that they had seen the real Iván and Gerardo, because their dialogues are natural as a documentary. I filmed this long before the film where the fiction genre is included. I was very surprised that people did not realize it. It was not my intention. I tried to mix both genres, "says the director nominated for an Oscar in 2006 for the documentary" Jesus Camp. "

"When we saw the movie for the first time we were in Sundance Christian, holding hands. We cried, seeing how the audience reacted. I was very moved. There are scenes that are very strong and seeing how moved people were on that occasion was a wonderful feeling, "recalls Armando.

"I take you with me" can be seen at the moment only in some cities in the United States such as New York and Los Angeles, as well as in Mexico.

There is still no release date in the rest of Latin America.

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