Emoji have slowly infiltrated our modes of communication. Hearts, winking faces, and even fireworks are now part of our daily conversations: on Twitter, WhatsApp, our text messages and any other application that has a keyboard.

Unicode Consortium, this nonprofit organization is responsible for maintaining typed character encoding standards; therefore, Unicode is, in a way, the guardian of the current collection of emoji on your keyboard. They are the ones who decide what new emoji are added annually.

Between fascinating interviews with linguists, designers, emoji activists, and Unicode board members. This documentary follows attempts to gain acceptance for three new emoji, including a successful bid from a group of Argentines to get their beloved yerba mate. As Flor Coelho explains in the film, the caffeine-rich yerba mate drink is such a staple in her country that not a day goes by when she and her friends wish they could text each other with the emoji of yerba mate ”.

From designing the emoji and giving a presentation in Silicon Valley to worrying about internet commentators suggesting that users would simply use the yerba mate emoji as a substitute for a bong. finally, they would yell in celebration when they found out that their proposal had worked. Furthermore, just as the journey of the young girl who pushed for a Hijab emoji and the advocacy group who lobbied for a Period emoji, this documentary raises questions about the universalizing potential of these little pictorial representations.