A reel life experience

A new independent film, “Transient,” written and directed by Alexander Stockton, will screen from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Edinburg Conference Center at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance.

“Transient” is a fictional film about a young man who is deported from the only home he has ever known and will do everything to go back.

Stockton studied film and economics at Dartmouth College and graduated in 2015. Living in the Rio Grande Valley most of his life, he heard stories of people entering the country illegally. He lived in McAllen until he moved away to college. So, when he was looking for character ideas, the story of a  person living here illegally formed. The process took two years.

He started to write the script at the beginning of 2014 and started filming that summer.

The film takes place outside of Austin in a fictional town, where the main character Franky lives.

“The entire film was filmed in Texas and we shot for the majority of it around Austin and then another portion of it, we filmed in the Rio Grande Valley,” Stockton said.

UTRGV theater performance junior Ana Sofia Rodriguez is the lead actress of the film. She plays a character named Alex, who befriends Franky and guides him in the small town of Durazo.

“It was definitely my first full-length feature film but I had done theater since middle school so I was already used to acting,” she said. Rodriguez auditioned for the film when she was a senior in high school.

The film interested Rodriguez because she can personally relate to the story, having previously  been here on a tourist visa, but has now become a resident.

“I really liked that a story like mine and like so many other people’s is being told,” she said. “And that in itself encouraged me to be part of more projects that are related to this topic. Doing ‘Transient’ sort of encouraged me to keep doing more related projects.”

The film is intended to motivate people, spread the message of what those living in the country illegally go through, and show what home means for them.

“We definitely wanted to kind of expose people to the issues that undocumented immigrants face,” Stockton said. “[It’s] intended for audiences in the United States who don’t realize what undocumented immigrants go through.

“It’s definitely intended for people who are passionate about these issues, about immigration reform or about helping undocumented immigrants and giving them a tool, this art piece that they can use to help mobilize people and spread their message and cause.”

The film has been screened in many places throughout the country.

“We played at the Beverly Hills Film Festival,” Stockton said. “Last year, we played at Social Justice Film Festival in Seattle. So, we played our film in different film festivals last year and now we’re releasing the film and screening it across the country.”

Stockton hopes that “Transient” can make people more accepting of those living illegally in the United States and  realize that they are just doing their best to live a good life.

“There have been a lot of things that have brought us to the media’s attention and the public’s eye in recent years,” he said. “We started this film before any of that and these issues have been relevant for all this time and I’m just glad so many people care about this now, and I’m hoping that this film can make a difference in some small way.”

With the screening coming up, UTRGV students were asked for their opinion on people living illegally in the United States.

Julie Viveros, a junior majoring in interdisciplinary studies-bilingual education, said immigrants who want to come here should not be deported because they came here to have a better life and work hard to put their families through college.

“It’s like the American dream,” she said. “If you [want to] come and work that’s fine, but I don’t think that people should be just kicked out just like that.”

Anthropology senior Olivia Salazar said immigrants migrate for a reason.

“I don’t see anything wrong with undocumented immigrants,” Salazar said. “They migrate for a reason because their homeland is not great economically. There is no way they can benefit, so they come to America just to find work that most Americans don’t want.”

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/transient-rgv-screening-tickets-32952024392.