My Two Voices

Marinela was born in Canada but was sent back to Colombia at age four. Her return to Canada as an adult has left her with the uncanny experience of relearning a place she once knew. In this compelling portrait, Marinela and two other immigrant Latina women share memories and feelings that have shaped their lives in the diaspora. Slowly, common themes and shared experiences emerge: a struggle with language (a sensual Spanish, a limiting English); a fraught relationship with memory (holding on to there while here); questions of belonging (in birth families and chosen ones). Shot in textured 16mm film, the women’s identities remain concealed as their voices guide the film’s carefully constructed vignettes. A unique and evocative portrait of migration, My Two Voices perfectly captures the multiplicity of an immigrant’s sense of being.