When filmmaker Monica Villavicencio moved to Atlanta, she didn’t expect to find one of the South’s most culturally dense immigrant corridors along Buford Highway — a stretch more often recognized for its restaurants than its family networks or after-school life.
Her new PBS/POV Shorts documentary “La Orquesta” offers a ground-level view. The 20-minute film follows a full school year inside the Buford Highway Orchestra, a free after-school music program founded by retired teacher Juana Alzaga. The children in the orchestra, many from Latin American immigrant families, gather weekly to learn violin, viola, cello and bass in a program that operates entirely through grants and donations.
Villavicencio first encountered the orchestra after an invitation from We Love Buford Highway, the nonprofit that supports the program. What she saw there — families greeting one another, young musicians tuning up, parents filming from folding chairs — signaled a story she felt was missing from public narratives about the region.
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