The Ballad of a Hustler

America is a fleeting dream for immigrants, with or without papers. After 7 years in prison, Jonathan wants to get his life back. But instead of his family, friends and fiancée, he finds betrayal, mistrust, and a 6-year-old kid left alone after his illegal-immigrant mother vanishes.

Director's note: The Ballad of a Hustler was filmed at the tail end of the Trump administration, famous for its relentless persecution of immigrants. In 2020, we worked remotely from our homes to have a cut for festivals titled "Invisible" while North America transitioning governments and the pandemic kept pushing us back, but it wasn't a cut we were entirely happy with. But only now in 2022 we were able to go back to New York to shoot additional footage and head back to the cutting room with Felipe Lacerda, editor of the Academy Award Nominees "Central Station" and "The Edge of Democracy", to find a much more robust film, in an edit that is much more faithful to the original script.