“There's No Place like Home.” So the saying goes, but for some home isn’t so welcoming. In Andrea Franco Batievsky’s documentary film Paolo, we are introduced to the adorable Paolo Reategui. Like the millions of other immigrants who've made New York City their home, Paolo is searching for his version of the American dream. He shares his spacious Brooklyn apartment with his sister and a friend, he parties at the city’s hippest gay clubs, and works in a high-end Manhattan boutique. He has a great group of friends and a wonderful relationship with his mom who lives in Miami. Yet amidst the skyscrapers, parties, and friends, something is missing from Paolo’s life: his roots. Paolo decides to return to his native Peru for the first time in nearly a decade, unsure how the homophobic society he left will react to him, or he to it. Anxious and excited, Paolo decides that he wants to find his father, the man who vanished while he was a child, and make peace with his past as he navigates his future. Beautifully shot and edited, with a wonderful indie-pop soundtrack, Paolo is an emotional ride through the seemingly ordinary life of a man in search of answers. In English and Spanish with English subtitles.

—Kareem Tabsch