Local award-winning film ‘First Time Home’ shines light on plight of farmworkers

When Seth M. Holmes was growing up on the South Hill during the 1980s, the Lewis & Clark High School graduate dreamed of becoming a physician or an anthropologist, not a filmmaker.

Holmes, 46, is a medical doctor and an anthropology professor at USC. The latter is the reason he made a moving, award-winning film, “First Time Home,” which earned a Rising Voices Film Award from the Portland Film Festival in November and a Spotlight Film Award last week.

Holmes produced an extraordinary film directed by a group of young Indigenous Triqui, who are second-generation immigrants.

“We’re excited, thrilled and surprised that we won another award,” Holmes said while calling from his Los Angeles office. “None of us had made a film before we worked on this project. But we thought this would be an important film to make.”

“First Time Home” is the story of four cousins who learn that their grandfather in Mexico is gravely ill. They travel from Burlington, Washington, and Central California to their family’s ancestral village in Oaxaca for the first time.

Holmes, a University of Washington alumnus who earned an ecology degree in 1997, applied for a grant so his teenage filmmakers could learn how to use equipment to capture the scenery and the interviews with their parents and grandparents.

“I had no idea how to use the cameras when I first saw them,” Noemi Librado said while calling from Burlington. “I had never seen anything like them. But we were taught, and I learned quickly how to shoot. I can’t believe I’m a director. I had no idea this would turn into a big thing.”

Librado, a 17-year old high school student, was just 12 when she learned how to use the camera. “Once I figured out what to do, I was excited since we had an important story to tell,” Librado said.

It’s a story of family, but it’s bigger than that. “First Time Home” shines a light on how significant those who pick our fruit and vegetables are to our health. The paradox is how taxing it is for the workers. It’s conveyed in the film and Holmes’ book, “Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States.”

“This is all about showing how much we need the fruit and vegetables they pick so we can stay healthy and that they work in adverse conditions,” Holmes said. “It’s just not fair.”

Filming commenced in 2016 just before the Trump administration took over the Oval Office. “The Trump campaign was all about building a border separating America from Mexico,” director Esmirna Librado said while calling from Burlington. “In my opinion, instead of spending billions building a wall, use it to help make farmworkers’ lives easier. Raise the minimum wage.”

Librado is attending Skagit Valley College. “I’m going to school for nursing,” Librado said. “My goal is to provide health care for farmworkers.”

Her sister, Noemi Librado, already has a head start on her potential career. “I want to continue with film,” Librado said. “I want to go to school and work on writing. I’m working on a children’s book.”

Holmes would love a hometown screening of “First Time Home.” “I’m hoping something happens back in Spokane,” Holmes said. “If not, the film can be seen starting Feb. 17 at https://mothertongue.si.edu/. But it would be great if ‘First Time Home’ plays in the Spokane area at some point.

“My parents live in Kendall Yards, and I go back up there a few times a year. I love my hometown. It’s such a beautiful place. I just want as many people to see our film. They need to understand that farmworkers help our health get better while their health gets worse. Something has to change.”