- Welcome to POV .
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut .
It's no secret that being a teenager can be challenging
but for fifteen-year-old Ashley Pavon,
a Mexican American girl living on California's Central Coast,
the challenges are almost too many to fathom.
In tonight's film Fruits of Labor,
we see just how hard life can be
for this daughter of an immigrant mother
who just wants to be the first in her family to go to college.
If finding a way to pay for college
isn't a big enough challenge,
imagine trying to graduate high school
while being the breadwinner for your family,
working two jobs:
one a graveyard shift at a food processing plant
and helping raise three younger siblings
all while living in substandard housing
where you have to share a single bathroom
with 12 other families.
To add to all of that, Ashley does all this
while U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement raids
threaten to tear her family apart.
Somehow, this resilient teen
still manages to see the beauty in her surroundings.
When not the subject of an award-winning documentary,
Pavon works diligently on food security and justice
for her community with the Agroecology Network.
Fruits of Labor is directed by Emily Cohen Ibanez,
who calls her film
a lyrical meditation on coming of age.
Her debut feature gives us a glimpse
at lives seldom represented in popular media.
The director uses a vérité style
and co-wrote much of the film's material
along with her leading lady, Pavon.
Through her film, Cohen Ibanez asks and answers the question,
"What does it mean to live a dignified life
as a working-poor young woman of color
in the wealthiest nation of the world?"
We're about to find out.
Fruits of Labor starts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.