We saw the pictures of the children detained at the border. But what happens to the children who don’t make it that far? What about those who get deported? Some children even get deported from Mexico. Luis Argueta, an academy award nominated Guatemalan filmmaker, was in Guatemala when the child refugee crisis story broke out.
He spoke with children who were deported and their families about why the dangerous trek up north can be worth it and what it can cost them. He shares their stories and testimonials with us.
Luis Argueta is a film director and producer whose work spans features, documentaries, shorts and episodic TV. He has also worked as commercial director, lecturer and teacher in the United States, Europe and throughout the Americas. Born and raised in Guatemala, Argueta is a U.S. Citizen and has been a resident of New York since 1977. His film The Silence of Neto is the only Guatemalan film ever to have been submitted to the Academy Awards competition and he is the only Guatemalan director to have received a CLIO. In April 2009, the British newspaper The Guardian, listed Mr. Argueta as one of Guatemala’s National Living Icons, alongside Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu and Singer/Songwriter Ricardo Arjona. In 2010, he released the first film in his Immigration Trilogy, abUSed: The Postville Raid (www.abusedthepostvilleraid.com) a film about the devastating effects of US immigration enforcement policies on children, families and communities. The film premiered on the PBS World program America Reframed on December 2012, won “Best Documentary Audience Award” at Cinemaissi Film Festival in Finland and has been presented at nearly 200 venues – including immigration and workers conferences, faith based communities, universities and colleges and 13 international film festivals. ABRAZOS (www.abrazosthefilm.com), completed in June 2014, the second film in his Immigration Trilogy, narrates the transformational journey of a group of U.S. citizen children who travel from Minnesota to Guatemala to meet their grandparents for the first time.
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