The Tribeca Film Festival will premiere “Home + Away,” the bold feature documentary produced by Bullitt Entertainment and directed by Matt Ogens. Following the search for the American dream on the extreme edge of the nation, “Home + Away” explores the lives of student athletes at El Paso’s Bowie High School, with dreams inspired by family, fueled by sports, and deeply complicated by the US/Mexican border – the fault-line between two worlds.
At Bowie High School, kids risk travel every day across the border from the drug war zone of Juarez, Mexico to their high school in El Paso that had been plagued by corruption and, like their students, is once more striving for greatness. Sports plays an integral role in the film and in their lives, as a way of building community and belonging, learning to overcome adversity, and build self-respect and confidence. Through their experiences, we begin to understand the precarious world of the borderland, and through sports we see their hopes, their heartbreaks and their triumphs.
Known for an evocative visual aesthetic where image and narrative are intertwined, Director Matt Ogens works across a variety of media including advertising, documentary, virtual and augmented reality. He was recently nominated for an Emmy Award for the docu-series “Why We Fight” (Verizon’s Go90 Network) and was also nominated for an Emmy® Award for the LA Louvre augmented reality museum for RYOT.
“I was drawn to Bowie High School as a paradigm of life on the border,” shares Ogens. “The heroes in this film show incredible courage and determination to triumph over adversities many of us couldn’t otherwise imagine. There’s something beautiful and poetic about their will, along with their extraordinary representation of the human spirit.”
“Home + Away” will enjoy its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, April 21st, 2018.
