Film shown @ Wild & Scenic Film Festival about homelessness wins an Oscar

“Inocente,” directed by the team of Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, won the Oscar for documentary short on Sunday. It aired at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival on Friday, January 11, the same night as “How the Kids Saved the Parks.”

“Inocente” follows a homeless, undocumented immigrant teenage girl in San Diego as she relentlessly pursues her dream of becoming an artist.

With heart and wit, the film explores the issue of homelessness among youth while also capturing the power of art and ambition. The work has aired on MTV. The filmmakers were previously nominated for their documentary feature “War Dance” in 2007.

We enjoyed the film. It still resonates with me. And our 10-year-old was riveted too. He said he learned a lot about homelessness from it.

We saw the film at The Center for the Arts in Grass Valley on the festival’s opening night. Now the festival is showing films in Grass Valley and Nevada City (where it originated).

Kudos to the Wild & Scenic Film Festival. It was the only Oscar-winning film that our family saw together for the 2012 awards season.

The trailer is here: