The Shape of Absence Collection

Through Venida’s heart-wrenching lyrical poems and Bueno’s visionary storytelling, the film depicts the reality of the unbalanced NYC criminal justice system while honoring Kalief’s story to create a call to action for a change in the city’s prison system, reminding viewers of loss and possibilities. 'Real life is about push and pull,' Bueno says. 'Two steps forward, [one step] back. That’s a real thing. You can’t deny that that’s true. And that doesn’t mean you don’t still move forward.'

Karla’s sensitive portrait of her Indian migrant father, HN Shantha Murthy, and his lifelong chase of the American dream, arrives at a time when the immigrant issue has turned extremely fractious and distressing in the USA, threatening to rip apart the social fabric, making the film gain relevance (...) The migrant experience is central to Karla’s film but she frames it within the context of a family saga, more so a father-daughter dialogue of sorts. (...) Karla’s is a compassionate, caring and intimate look back at him, in which Shantha comes across as an extremely affectionate, warm, understanding and loving father. An admirable man that few in the wide world would have known but for his daughter’s film on him.

"A title that becomes more poignant as its tale unfolds, “Between Goodbyes” concerns the most important event that ever happened to the real people in this real story. And yet it is precisely a lack of hyperbole or hysteria—a quieting control, one might say — that makes it so moving.