Julián – Screening

Julián loves things that sparkle. Jewelry. Fish. Fabric. Mermaids. The sparklier, the better. So when he arrives in Brooklyn to spend the summer with a grandmother he barely knows, it doesn’t take long for him to discover that her apartment — and the neighborhood around it — might contain unexpected treasure. When he encounters a group of local girls preparing for a Coney Island Parade, Julián decides he’s a mermaid. And, really, why wouldn’t he?

Academy Award-nominated director Louise Bagnall brings Jessica Love’s picture book Julián Is a Mermaid to the screen, beginning with a child’s glorious capacity to imagine and following that creative urge somewhere deeper. With glitter on its fingers and a big open heart, Cartoon Saloon gives Julián a visual language as exuberant as his imagination — color spills across sunlit Brooklyn, plants overflow, water shimmers, rings glitter, and vivid textures make the everyday feel full of possibility.

With his Abuela, Julián discovers the rhythms and histories carried within her Brooklyn apartment and Caribbean heritage. Some are worn proudly — others have been tucked away. As Julián finds the courage to show more of himself, Abuela is confronted with parts of herself she has kept hidden. His freedom to imagine himself into being asks something of her, too — what does it mean to love someone without trying to shape them into something safer? Sometimes a mermaid is just a mermaid. And sometimes, a kid has found a way to show you exactly who they are.