Alzira's Story

(2000) documentary

This is a documentary by Christian De Rezendes about his grandmother, Alzira de Jesus Soares, and her experiences immigrating to Rhode Island from Portugal as a sixteen-year-old in 1929. Alzira married a man from Valley Falls and, laboring over four decades, eventually sponsored twenty-four of her relatives—two bothers, two sisters, and their children—in their immigration to the U.S. The story is told through interviews that were recorded in the mid- to late 1990s, old photos, and home videos.

Alzira's Story was shot on location in Portugal; Attleboro, Massachusetts; Slatersville, North Smithfield; Pawtucket; and Woonsocket. It premiered in July 2000 at the Tourism Council Visitor's Center Theatre in Pawtucket, at the start of the Rhode Island International Film Festival, and had its television debut on Rhode Island PBS in 2004.