New film explores love and healing beneath the LAX flight path

A new film set in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts examines what it means to grow up, love and heal beneath the constant traffic of Los Angeles International Airport.

"If I Go Will They Miss Me," written and directed by Walter Thompson-Hernández and starring Oscar nominee Danielle Brooks, opened in U.S. theaters on Friday. It follows a family searching for connection in the working-class community.

The project grew out of an incident six years ago, when a Delta Air Lines jet bound from Los Angeles to Shanghai dumped 15,000 gallons of fuel over the city of Cudahy and nearby neighborhoods after experiencing engine trouble. A lawsuit filed by teachers at Park Avenue Elementary School said the fuel fell like raindrops, causing skin and lung irritation among staff and children. Delta agreed to a $79 million settlement last year.

Thompson-Hernández, who grew up near the airport, said the episode shaped his approach to the story. He described the daily arrival of roughly 800 planes at LAX as a source of both aspiration and fear, and pointed to his own asthma. The film, he said, sets love against pain and healing against hurt, asking how the same person who helps you grow can also take away your innocence.

The feature expands on his award-winning short of the same name, which earned a jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2022. At its center is Lil Ant, played by newcomer Bodhi Jordan Dell, a boy who regards his distant father with reverent admiration, comparing him to Poseidon and Odysseus. Brooks and J. Alphonse Nicholson play his parents, Lozita and Big Ant, characters loosely based on friends of the filmmaker.

Lil Ant reflects Thompson-Hernández's own childhood, when he did not know his father and constructed mythologies around who he might be. He said he later realized other children in his neighborhood did the same, and that the boy's longing for a father who lacks the tools to love him is what makes the story universal.

The film is layered with symbolism drawn from Greek mythology, along with recurring images of planes, ocean waves and shades of purple and blue. Thompson-Hernández frames the story with the city's blue sky, which he treats as a representation of hope and a tribute to his hometown.

Brooks, nominated for an Oscar for her supporting role in the 2023 musical "The Color Purple," described the production as a breath of fresh air that let her show a different side of her craft. She said she wants audiences to see that art can help them recognize themselves and reflect on their own lives.

Before turning to film, Thompson-Hernández worked as a journalist for The New York Times, documenting Southern California subcultures and exploring his dual Black American and Mexican-American identity. His 2020 nonfiction book "The Compton Cowboys" focused on a group of Black American cowboys preserving Black Western heritage in that city.

He said his work is sometimes described as highlighting overlooked communities, but that he sees himself simply documenting the families he grew up around — people he describes as loving, beautiful, complicated and in need of stories that reflect their fullness.

Repair sits at the heart of the film. Thompson-Hernández recalled a scene in which Lozita apologizes to Lil Ant for failing to protect him during a tense exchange with his father, and said he did not grow up in a household where people apologized to one another. He framed the film as an exploration of how to break a harmful cycle and build a healthier one, and of questions he has carried his whole life.