“The Things the Dust Remembers” (2026)
In Pre-Production | Recipient of the Oregon Film “Share Your Story” Grant
The Narrative:
A broken car on an endless desert highway becomes a vessel for memory, fear, and the quiet erosion of the American Dream. The Things the Dust Remembers follows a Man and a Young Girl stranded in the high desert as an ICE convoy approaches. What begins as a desperate race against a rigid legal system shifts into a surreal, internal odyssey. As the night deepens, the boundaries between memory and reality blur, and the girl discovers a way to see through the masks of authority to the fragile, human truths beneath.
“Thoughts are like that. They come. They float. They leave. Just watch the dust."
The Vision
Directed by Tony Altamirano, this film is a meditation on identity, displacement, and inherited trauma. Drawing from personal experience as a first-generation immigrant, the project rejects traditional cinematic "performance" in favor of radical presence.
It is a film of small spaces and vast silences:
The Container: Much of the story unfolds within the intimate, suffocating confines of a stranded sedan—a space holding decades of hope and failure.
The Speculative Lens: Using elements of magical realism to challenge the permanence of systems and the roles we are forced to play.
The Aesthetic: Naturalistic, observed, and vulnerable. A commitment to capturing the world not as it is performed, but as it is lived.
Production Notes
Currently in pre-production and slated for a Summer 2026 shoot, the project is supported by Oregon Film. We are operating under a "Small Crew/High Intimacy" philosophy to protect the emotional truth of the performances.
Stay Connected
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel for behind-the-scenes look at the visual literacy of this project, or check back here for production updates and the official release.
Director’s Statement: The Things the Dust Remembers
My work has always lived in the spaces between—between nations, between memories, and between the roles we are assigned and the truths we actually inhabit.
"The Things the Dust Remembers" is an attempt to capture the specific, quiet vibration of displacement. As a first-generation immigrant, I have often observed that the "American Dream" is frequently presented as a loud, bright, and solid promise. But for many, the reality is far more fragile. It is a series of inherited artifacts: a father’s old carphone, a mother’s cracked hands, a legal document that can be suspended with the stroke of a pen.
The Power of the Gaze
In this film, the protagonist’s journey isn't one of physical escape, but of a shifting perspective. We often treat systems of authority—like the border, the law, or the badge—as monolithic and immovable. I wanted to explore what happens when a child, guided by a mother’s lesson on presence, looks through the mask.
When the Girl watches the dust, she isn't just calming her breathing; she is realizing that even the most terrifying systems are composed of individuals who are just as suspended and unmoored as she is. The "magical" shift in the film—where the masks of authority collapse into a moment of human vulnerability—is not a fantasy. To me, it is the highest form of visual literacy: seeing the world as it is, rather than how it is performed.
A Cinema of Intimacy
Cinematically, I am moving away from the "spectacle" of migration. There are no sweeping scores or grand declarations here. Instead, we stay in the car. We stay with the dust motes. We stay with the silence.
I believe that truth is found in the "lowered voice." By keeping the production small and the performances grounded in presence rather than acting, we protect the vulnerability of the moment. We are not making a film about a "issue"; we are entering a moment that already exists in the hearts of millions.
This film is my way of watching the dust—not trying to stop it, not trying to change its course, but simply noticing how it moves in the light.