Thompson-Hernández was raised by a single mother who at the age of 14 migrated to L.A. “That was me,” said Thompson-Hernández who now resides in the northeast region of L.A. (A still from ‘IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME’) The boy and his loved ones are able to call out the names of the various airliners based on their size or color because they are so embedded in their community. of Los Angeles-who is obsessed with the Greek mythical creature, Pegasus, as well as the airplanes that zoom over his neighborhood every day. The film follows a 12-year-old boy-played by Anthony “Lil Ant” Harris Jr. IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME is centered around the life of a family, specifically a father and son, who live in the Imperial Courts projects in Watts, which is located below the LAX flight path much like Thompson-Hernández’ childhood home. “… And we’re also being impacted by them in ways that we are breathing in these toxins and these gases, and they’re impacting our bodies, and I don’t think children are supposed to experience that. “You have groups of children who are imagining flying and imagining being in these airplanes, but yet might not ever get the chance to fly,” he said. For him, the irony of living in southeast L.A., a region made up of mostly working-class Latino families, is that it is one of the most economically under-resourced communities in the city. The 12-minute short explores Thompson-Hernández’ paradoxical relationship with airplanes. Thompson-Hernández, who wrote and directed the film, worked on it with two of his longtime friends, Michael “Cambio” Fernandez who served as the film’s cinematographer, and Susu Attar who was the production designer. IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME trailer x SUNDANCE 2022 JURY PRIZE from Walter Thompson-Hernandez on Vimeo. The Delta incident prompted him to make his first short film, IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME, which has been selected to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival taking place virtually from January 20-30. for ages now, but this one really did something to me,” Thompson-Hernández, 36, told Los Angeles. “These sort of toxic fuel dumps have been happening over southeast L.A. This exposure eventually caused him and many of his neighbors to develop asthma, he said.
This wasn’t the first time an airplane had dropped jet fuel onto his community, which is regularly exposed to toxic fumes from the busy airport, nearby industrial facilities, freeways, and a rail yard.
#FUEL JETTISON SKIN#
(Photo by Walker Lewis)īut the jet fuel dump- in which 60 adults and children were treated for skin irritation and breathing problems-reminded him of the hazard that planes have long posed on neighborhoods lying underneath LAX’s flight path. And when he was alone, he’d think about traveling somewhere far away. Sometimes, he’d gaze at them with his aunt from the porch of her home. The writer and director-who was visiting Brazil at the time-grew up in Huntington Park, one of several communities impacted by the Januincident.Īs a child, he and his friends would race the planes flying over their school.
When a Delta airliner dumped roughly 15,000 gallons of jet fuel on multiple neighborhoods and schools in southeast Los Angeles, Walter Thompson-Hernández was more than 5,000 miles away from home.
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