Maggie (Angela Sarafyan) is a teenage runaway fleeing her family; David (Jesse Garcia) is a teenage illegal immigrant in search of his. When their paths cross, both are alone in the City of Angels, a place where some come to dream and others to hide. A bus drops off Maggie in downtown Los Angeles late one night. She is unsure of where she’s going; only knowing that she’s not going back home. After wandering the dangerous streets for hours, she finally falls asleep in the one place that seems safe – the garbage dump behind a strip club. It’s there that she’s discovered by David, who works as a janitor at the club. He brings her in to let her use the bathroom and a kind stripper, Esther (Bai Ling), takes pity on Maggie, cleaning her up and begging David to take her home that night so she has a warm place to sleep. Maggie and David at first are suspicious of each other, but soon find they have more in common than they think and realize that their only chance of survival in the city may be if they stick together. In spite of themselves, they fall in love and together they struggle to find the courage to dream and hope again. Their blossoming love eventually lowers their defenses, allowing them to reveal their painful pasts to each other. Along the way they encounter hunger, desperation and danger. However, they also find kindness in a local librarian, Susan (Debi Mazar), and the family they never had with Esther. But when Maggie seeks out her mother’s (Dana Delany) help the truth catches up and she has to decide to face her past or keep running. “A Beautiful Life” reminds us that a life is not just the singular story of one person. Rather, it is the story of all the lives that intersect with our own and enrich it. (Source)
Find more trailers and clips on our homepage.
Nine-year-old Carlos aka Carlitos is one of the countless children left behind by parents who come to the U.S. seeking a way to provide for their families. His mother, Rosario, has worked illegally as a domestic in Los Angeles for four years, sending money home to her son and mother to give them a chance at a better life. When the death of his grandmother leaves young Carlitos alone, he takes his fate into his own hands and heads north across the border to find his mother. As he journeys from his rural Mexican village to the L.A. barrio, Carlitos faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles with a steely determination and unfettered optimism that earn him the grudging respect and affection of a reluctant protector, a middle-aged migrant worker named Enrique. The unlikely pair finds its way from Tucson to East L.A., but the only clue Carlitos has to his motherâ??s whereabouts is her description of the street corner from which she has called him each Sunday for the last four years. Unaware that Rosario is only hours away from returning to Mexico to be with her son, Carlitos and Enrique desperately comb the vast unfamiliar city for a place he has seen only in his imagination. (
UNDER THE SAME MOON (LA MISMA LUNA) tells the parallel stories of nine-year-old Carlitos and his mother, Rosario. In the hopes of providing a better life for her son, Rosario works illegally in the U.S. while her mother cares for Carlitos back in Mexico. Unexpected circumstances drive both Rosario and Carlitos to embark on their own journeys in a desperate attempt to reunite. Along the way, mother and son face challenges and obstacles but never lose hope that they will one day be together again. Riggen’s film is not only a heartwarming family story; she also offers subtle commentary on the much-debated issue of illegal immigration. (