DOCUMENTARIES

LA BESTIA

I was recently invited to help with a film production documenting a small group of healers offering their services at a migrant shelter in Celaya, Mexico. The experience altered me at a core level. It shifted my perspective. Over the course of the shoot, I became increasingly resolved to offer my time and skills on a deeper level, and to bring more awareness to the hard truths about migration and the heartbreaking difficulties the people encounter along the way. As Americans, we’re accustomed to the statistics and political rhetoric surrounding immigration. We read the storylines and hear the arguments about our southern borders. We’re bombarded by the numbers. The sheer volume of people making their way north for a new life is staggering. And as the numbers grow, so too does our disconnect from the individual experience. We see the totals, not the toddlers; the zeros and commas, instead of the mothers and brothers. We forget that behind every integer, is a face. We forget these are people. People with dreams. People with friends, and people with families. People hoping to carve out better lives by risking life and limb on an arduous journey northward to capture a sliver’s stake in the remaining vestiges of the ‘American Dream’.