“Ileana’s Smile,” the true story of a community living in a garbage dump in Nicaragua, is certainly not light summer fare. But the documentary, framed around the life of a little girl named Ileana, does offer a sliver of hope for what can be done to help such people who have literally been tossed in the thrash.
For director Brad Corrigan, a founding member of the band Dispatch and a longtime community activist, that light shone through in the months when Ileana, her sister and other children from La Chureca were able to spend time as regular kids at a safe house a few hours from the dump.
“For a good seven or eight months, these kids were not in the trash heaps,” Corrigan says. “They were not in the fire. So it was like, you know what? That’s something. And in their short lives, that’s a pretty significant percentage, and for the sake of their parents, maybe everyone caught a glimpse of something that they could hope for instead of going back to what they knew.”
The film begins when Corrigan visits the largest open-air landfill in Central America to perform at a youth rally. He was overwhelmed by the unspeakable conditions but also overcome by the smiling little girl, Ileana, who knocking on his car window.
The film follows the struggles, including rampant glue-sniffing addiction, of Ileana and her sister Mercedes, as well as Corrigan and other volunteers’ efforts to open the safehouse.
While the safehouse lasted less than a year, it inspired the opening of Ileana’s School of Hope, a primary school built in 2018 near La Chureca. All of the money viewers spend on streaming “Ileana’s Smile” will go toward expanding the school.
“In 2018, there were, I think, 160 kids right out of the gates. And now we’re at 202, something like that, just the absolute max,” Corrigan says. “And in the last three years, there’s been a waiting list to the point where some parents have even come and spent the night outside the school the night before it’s opening to see is there room for my child to come in? So we are grateful that it’s at max capacity and at the very same time, we’re heartbroken that there’s not enough room for all of the parents to have their kids there. So right now it’s K through six and our goal is to have it K through high school.”
The land for the new school has been purchased, “but it’s a $1.6 million capital raise,” he says.
“So we’re calling the film a film to build a school. We’re believing that the film will actually be the way to open people’s eyes to child vulnerability. And then also all of the funding that’s raised from renting the film, or if someone wants to donate after having seen the film, or if there are corporate screenings somewhere and funds are raised, 100% of those proceeds go directly to the school.”
He adds: “Just watching the film is a form of activism, because if you pay $12.99 or $7.99 or whatever it is to rent or buy the film, all of that money is going to the school. So please, just watch the story and hand the story off, and you literally are building the school with us one brick at a time.”
The film features an original song by Dispatch called “Darker Light” as well as a cameo by Rodrigo y Gabriela, and a score that includes performances by Stefan Lessard (Dave Matthews Band), Jake Shimabukuro, Reinaldo DeJesus (Antibalas), Tim Snider and Dave Preston.
For options to view “Ileana’s Smile,” learn more or donate, click here.
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