About The Film
PEOPLE IN THE FILM: Our main characters
TEAM: List of crew
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
UPDATE: Update on the characters
The United States government estimates that close to 10,000 undocumented immigrants enter the country on a daily basis. When hearing this statistic, most people think of adults coming to America looking for work and a chance at a better life.
But have you ever wondered how many of the 3.5 million undocumented immigrants who enter this country annually are children?
Every year, more and more children are immigrating to the United States without a parent or legal guardian. At any given time, an average of 700 unaccompanied minors are being detained by the U.S. Homeland Security Department (formerly known as Immigration and Naturalization Services or I.N.S.). The majority of the 85,000 undocumented immigrants under 17 arrested in 2003 were teenagers, although cases of children as young as 10 traveling alone have been reported. Some of these children come to the United States seeking asylum, others hope to be reunited with family members, and all are simply in search of a better future for themselves. Often, these children are running away from physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse from a parent, relative or guardian. Others are fleeing their countries because of persecution due to their religious beliefs or gender. Many are often homeless and/or orphans. These children are driven by a strong survival instinct assuring them that the United States is their last resource, their salvation. They are willing to risk it all for a chance at a new life. And they do.
PEOPLE IN THE FILM
Maria de Jesus is a 13-year-old girl from Puebla, Mexico. She has not seen her mother for seven years. Her grandmother, Adela, has raised Maria de Jesus while her mother, Irma, has been working in Chicago, IL.
Rene is a 12-years-old boy, from Puebla, Mexico. It’s been over a year since Rene last saw his mother who is now working in Chicago, IL. Along with his cousin, Maria de Jesus, they travel to the U.S./Mexico border with hopes of making it across to reunite with their mothers.
Irma is a single mother of five. Six years ago, Irma had to leave her children in the care of her mother, Adela, to migrate to the U.S. to work and send money back to her family.
Adela is Irma’s mother and Maria de Jesus’ and Rene’s grandmother. She has raised her grandchildren alone so their mothers can work in the United States.
Anayansi Prado – Director/Producer/Cinematographer - An award winning documentary filmmaker, Anayansi Prado was born in Panama and moved to the United States as a teenager. She later attended Boston University where she received a B.A. in Film. Her debut documentary, MAID IN AMERICA, about the lives of Latina immigrant women working as domestic workers in Los Angeles, screened nationally on the PBS Independent Lens series and in over 40 film festivals in the U.S. and around the world including: The Full Frame Film Festival, The Los Angeles Film Festival and The Havana Film Festival in Cuba.
In 2008, Anayansi completed her second independent production, CHILDREN IN NO MAN’S LAND, about the 100,000 unaccompanied immigrant minors crossing the U.S./Mexico border every year, which premiered at the Guadalajara International Film Festival. In 2007, Anayansi served as an executive producer on the Discovery en Español series Voces de Cambio, about humanitarian issues in the Latino community, which featured Carlos Santana and Edward James Olmos.
Anayansi has received a Rockefeller Media Fellowship and is the recipient of two Media Grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as well as grants from Creative Capital, the Paul Robeson Media Fund, Pacific Pioneer Fund, Independent Television Services (ITVS), Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), The Fledgling Foundation, Chicken & Egg Pictures, and was named one of three up-and-coming Latina filmmakers in the United States by Latina Magazine.
Anayansi is the founder of Impacto Films, a production company geared toward the production of documentaries with a social impact. Continuing with her vision of film and visual arts as powerful tools for social impact, she recently founded The Impacto Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to the empowerment of indigenous youths and their communities through hands-on training in photography, filmmaking, and digital media.
Anayansi is currently in production of GIVE US YOUR RETIRES, YOUR RICH, YOUR AMERICANS, a documentary that explores the growing phenomenon of Americans retirees migrating to Latin America, specifically to Panama, and the effects and challenges faced by both the retirees and the local Panamanian communities in which they live.
Anayansi is a member of The International Documentary Association (IDA) and National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP). She resides in Los Angeles.
Alejandro Valdez-Rochin – Associate Producer and Editor – Born and raised in Mexico City, Alejandro Valdes-Rochin has been based in Los Angeles for the past nine years. As a teen he landed his first job as an apprentice editor for Mexico’s first financial newscast, Monitor Financiero. Since moving to Los Angeles, Alejandro has worked in the cutting rooms of feature films such as 300, Moulin Rouge, Road to Perdition, and A Day Without a Mexican.
In the recent years, Alejandro decided to explore editing documentaries. He edited MAID IN AMERICA, a documentary on the life of Latin American maids in Los Angeles, which screened at several festivals and aired nationally on PBS’s Independent Lens. He worked as editor and co-producer on Dorothy Day: Don’t Call Me A Saint, a documentary that explores the life of a single mom and Catholic anarchist that the Vatican is currently considering for canonization. Dorothy Day premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Wendy Ettinger – Executive Producer – Wendy is an award winning producer, director and casting director. Her first documentary, The War Room, directed by Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker, was nominated for an Academy Award®, and their second collaboration, Moon Over Broadway, was cited as Best Documentary of 1998.
Her first feature film, Eye of God, directed by Tim Blake Nelson, premiered at Sundance. Baby I’m Yours, her directorial debut, which follows the lives of three first-time mothers, led to an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, “What Your Mother Never Told You About Motherhood.”
Wendy served as Consulting Producer on Al Franken: God Spoke, directed by Chris Hegedus and Nick Doob (executive produced by D.A. Pennebaker), which debuted theatrically in 2006. She is currently collaborating with director Douglas Keeve (Unzipped) on a feature-length documentary, The Gramercy Park Hotel.
Wendy and her husband Derek Mclane were the recipients of the 2006 Michael Mendelson Award. She is on the board of Working Films and serves on the Board of the 52nd Street Project, a non-profit organization that brings theater professionals together with inner city children. Wendy also serves on the board of the Educational Foundation of America. She lives in New York City.
Judith Helfand – Executive Producer – An award winning filmmaker, activist and educator, Judith is known for her ability to take heedless corporate behavior and chemical exposure and make it personal, highly charged and very entertaining.
The Uprising of 34 (co-directed with George Stoney), Blue Vinyl (for which she and co-director Daniel Gold were nominated for two Emmys), and its Peabody award winning prequel A Healthy Baby Girl (a five-year-old video diary about her experience with DES related cancer) all explore home, class, corporate accountability, intergenerational relationships and the ever shrinking border between what is personal and what is part of the public record.
Judith recently completed co-directing/co-producing Everything’s Cool, a feature documentary about global warming and is in development on a feature doc about “unnatural disasters” and the politics of “crisis” through the story of the 1995 Chicago heat wave. She is co-founder of Working Films and Chicken & Egg Pictures. She is full-time faculty at New York University’s Undergraduate Program of Film and Television.
Julie Parker Benello – Executive Producer – For the past ten years, Julie has produced documentaries on health and environmental issues for television. In 2002, Julie co-produced the Sundance award winning HBO documentary Blue Vinyl – a film in search of the truth about vinyl (PVC), America’s most popular plastic. The film is part detective story, part eco-activism documentary, and part rollicking comedy all rolled into one.
In 2005, Julie founded Chicken and Egg Pictures with Working Films Co-Founder Judith Helfand and Working Films Board member Wendy Ettinger. Chicken and Egg Pictures is an innovative film fund and production company that provides grants and executive producer services for select nonfiction and fiction film projects by women filmmakers.
Julie also serves on the board of The Center for Environmental Health. She lives in San Francisco.
Heather Courtney – Cinematographer – Heather is a filmmaker, cinematographer and photographer based in Austin, Texas. Her film Letters From the Other Side, which uses cross-border video letters to tell the immigration story from the perspective of the women left behind in Mexico, premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in January 2006, screened at the South by Southwest International Film Festival (SXSW), and was funded by a Fulbright Grant and a grant from the Independent Television Service (ITVS). It is currently screening all over Austin, Texas at community-based venues with support from a grant from the City of Austin.
Her previous film, Los Trabajadores/The Workers, won the Audience Award at SXSW in 2001 and was broadcast nationally on the PBS series Independent Lens in 2003. In addition, it has screened at over 40 national and international film festivals and conferences, as well as at countless grassroots screenings in conjunction with immigrant rights groups all over Austin and the rest of Texas. She is currently producing the Texas segment of a national PBS documentary on the health insurance crisis.
Prior to receiving her graduate degree in film, Heather spent eight years writing and photographing for the United Nations and several refugee and immigrant rights organizations, including in the Rwandan refugee camps after the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Kevin Leadingham – Cinematographer – Kevin has established himself as both a steadfast and versatile documentary and reality television producer and director. Kevin first turned his attention to documentaries with the award winning documentary A Refugee and Me, shot on location in Thailand, followed by Witch Way to Hollywood, a look into the making of a Blair Witch Project spoof. Kevin then served as field producer and videographer on U. S. Marshals: The Real Story and The Hunt for Amazing Treasures III for TLC, and Lifeline: Las Vegas for Discovery Communications.
He has produced two independent documentaries: MAID IN AMERICA, a portrait of Latina domestic workers in Los Angeles, and Mama’s Gold, which documents a privately run orphanage in southern China.
Kevin’s resume also includes producing and camera credits for programs such as: A Second Look (E!); FM Nation (MTV); My Life is a Sitcom (ABC Family Channel); The Season: Oakland Raiderettes, Sidelines: LA Hoops and Totally Hooked (ESPN); NASCAR DRIVER: 360 (FX); Underweigh: Life Aboard the U.S.S. Peliliu (Travel Channel); Berman & Berman (Discovery Health Channel); The Bravest (Syndicated); Wife Swap (ABC); Playing It Straight and Next Great Champ (Fox). Kevin recently completed as supervising producer on the TLC reality series Sheer Dallas and is now working on a yet untitled program for A&E.
Robert F. Trucios – Composer – has been writing music for film since 1995. He is a dedicated and very dependable artist who, in the process of music making, has been given the opportunity to compose over 30 features and shorts, five of which have been within the past year. Classically trained in music theory and an accomplished instrumentalist in piano, woodwinds, and percussion, Robert writes and produces music with sonic qualities influenced by classical, romantic, and jazz, as well as hip-hop, electronic and traditional forms from Latin America, the Middle-East, and Africa. His music juxtaposes acoustic instruments with modern synthesis and sampling to create a collage of textures and moods for his scores. As every film is individual and unique, so is the music he composes for them. As a music producer he has produced songs for hip-hop, rap, world and indie rock albums and is currently working on the Augusto Polo Campos, Jr. album and pre-production on a tribute to Celia Cruz.
Lisa Y. Garibay – Production Consultation – Lisa was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, attended Amherst College in Massachusetts, and now lives in Los Angeles. Lisa produced the feature film Robbing Peter, which world premiered in competition at the 2004 Los Angeles Film Festival. Robbing Peter received four 2005 Independent Spirit Award nominations including one for the John Cassavetes Award, given to the producers of the Best Feature Under $500,000.
Lisa’s writing about music, film and Latino culture appears regularly in “Back Stage,” FILMMAKER Magazine, Dazed and Confused magazine, Mean Street magazine, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, SOMA magazine, and the Film Independent’s FIND magazine and website. In 2001, she was awarded a fellowship with the Sundance Institute’s Arts Writing Program. She is the founder and editor of ThenItMustBeTrue.com, an alternative outlet for journalists, filmmakers and musicians to discuss their art.
In 2003, Lisa’s feature script All For One was selected to participate in the first-ever National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP)/New York Latino Film Festival Latino Writers Lab, where it secured representation by ICM. Over the past four years, she has been directing and producing the documentary Sisters y Santos, focusing on activists battling violence against women along the U.S./Mexico border.
Lisa has also served as music supervisor on Robbing Peter, Carlos Portugal’s feature East Side Story and the documentary Downtown Locals, which world premiered at the 2006 Slamdance Film Festival. Her passion for music led her to create the management and publicity company LARGetc. along with her sister (a photographer) and brother (a musician/sound engineer).
In 2004, Lisa partnered with noted indie film consultant Peter Broderick to create FilmsToSeeBeforeYouVote.org. Lisa is also the founder of CineMás, a non-profit initiative linking independent film with education and community development. In addition, she is a co-founder of Grassroots Screening, which aims to connect social issues films with activist organizations and niche audiences to affect real change and augment distribution opportunities for independent filmmakers.
Paul Espinosa – Advisor – Paul Espinosa is an award-winning filmmaker and producer and currently a professor of Chicano/a studies at Arizona State University. He has been involved with producing films and documentaries for over 25 years. In 1997, he formed Espinosa Productions, a film and video company specializing in documentaries and dramatic films focused on U.S./Mexico border topics. Espinosa has produced, directed, written and hosted numerous programs for public televisions stations as a senior producer and executive producer. His productions have been widely reviewed in national and regional publications including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Paul’s major national production credits for PBS include: California and the American Dream, (Producer/Director/Executive Producer – 2006), a four hour series examining the dynamics of culture, community and identity in one of the most diverse regions in the world; The Border (Producer/ Writer/Executive Producer-1999), a two hour news magazine about contemporary life along the U.S.-Mexico border; Taco Shop Poets (Producer/Writer/Director-2002), a segment for Visiones: Latino Art in the U.S., a three-hour series examining all genres of Latino art; The U.S.-Mexican War: 1846-1848 (Senior Producer-1998), a four-hour, bi-national documentary series with KERA-TV in Dallas, commemorating the 150th anniversary of a war which was a pivotal event in U.S.-Mexican history; …and the earth did not swallow him (Producer/Executive Producer-1996), a feature length American Playhouse drama funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, relating a year in the life of young Mexican American boy and his migrant farmworker family.
Paul has shared his expertise, experience and social activism at many universities and community centers across the Americas. In 2000 he was named a Regents Lecturer at the University of California at San Diego. He formerly served on the Boards of the Media Arts Center of San Diego (as president and co-founder) and the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers National Board (as treasurer). Paul previously served as a Board Member of the California Council for the Humanities and as a member of the Documentary Jury for the Ninth Annual Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, Cuba.
Lyn Godfarb – Advisor – Lyn Goldfarb is the Producer and Director of The New Los Angeles, one of four documentaries in California and the American Dream series, which she executive produced with Paul Espinosa and Jed Riffe. The Series was broadcast nationally on PBS in April 2006. The Premiere of The New Los Angeles was co-hosted by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Council President Eric Garcetti and former LA First Lady Ethel Bradley. The New Los Angeles was awarded a CINE Golden Eagle, nominated for an IMAGEN Award for Best Documentary and nominated for Best Documentary at the San Fernando Valley International Film Festival. The New Los Angeles was featured at: Nosotros American Latino Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival, Big Muddy Film Festival, San Fernando Valley International Film Festival, Other Venice Film Festival, Miami Women’s International Film Festival and the San Diego Latino Film Festival.
Lyn is the Producer of Holy Image, Hallowed Grounds: Icons from Sinai, produced for the J. Paul Getty Museum to accompany the Icons from Sinai exhibit. Lyn is executive producer, producer, director (with Deborah Ann DeSnoo) and writer (with Joan Owens Meyerson and Deborah Ann DeSnoo) of the three hour series Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire, produced with Devillier Donegan Enterprises (DDE) and PBS as part of the Empires documentary series. She is executive producer, director and producer (with Margaret Koval) of the four hour The Roman Empire in the First Century, also part of DDE and PBS’s Empires documentary series. She was awarded an AFI Enhanced Television Workshop fellowship for The Roman Empire in the First Century.
An award-winning documentary filmmaker specializing in history and social issue documentaries, she began her career as producer and historian for the Academy Award nominated documentary “With Babies and Banners” (with Lorraine Gray and Anne Bohlen), which was showcased on television and in festivals worldwide.
Her awards include: Academy Award nomination, two Emmy Awards, two duPont-Columbia Awards, Peabody, Producers Guild of America Kodak Vision Award, IDA Distinguished Documentary Award, a Golden Mike and awards from the American Film Festival, Mannheim International Film Festival, Festival du Cinema Portugal, London International Film Festival and Nyon International Film Festival.
Lyn served three terms on the IDA Board of Directors and is a member of the DGA and WGA/w.
Born in Panama, my family and I moved to the United States when I was a teenager. I didn’t speak English; I lived the immigrant experience, first hand, adapting to a foreign culture and living in a city ten times larger than my entire home country. In 1996, I graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in film and became the first member of my family to attend and graduate college. Needless to say, my experience as an immigrant in the U.S. greatly impacted my life as a citizen and an artist. As a filmmaker, I am re-exploring the immigrant experience through my work.
I’ve found that people who immigrate to the U.S. do so because they are looking for a better quality of life, often willing to pay any price to survive – even if this means leaving behind their loved ones or risking their own lives. In my debut documentary, MAID IN AMERICA, I explore intimately the lives of three Latina immigrants who leave their families and young children behind in search of a better life in the United States. Ironically, these women find work in homes taking care of other peoples’ families and helping raise other women’s children. This award-winning film screened nationally in 2005 on the PBS series, Independent Lens.
With the release of MAID IN AMERICA, I had a chance to travel across the country doing screenings and presentations revolving around the issues of immigration and globalization of motherhood. It was during this time, while traveling along the border, that I learned first-hand about unaccompanied minors crossing from Mexico into the U.S. I believe this is one of our countries greatest human rights issue, as each year hundreds of lives are lost by men, women and children trying to create a life with greater opportunities. I decided to pick-up where MAID IN AMERICA left off and tell the stories of the children left behind. And so, CHILDREN IN NO MAN’S LAND was born. And there was no better time for this film.
Due to the current state of world affairs and particularly those in relation to immigration, terrorism and the U.S., the mainstream media outlets in this country tend to portray the situation at the U.S./Mexican border with negativity. Mainstream media shows vigilante groups shooting unarmed men, women and children as they cross the Arizona desert dehydrated and tired as the solution to our problem. Or the building of a 20-ft-tall iron wall along 2,000 miles of the border as the best alternative to keeping poor people from coming to this country to work or reunite with their families. In times like today, there’s a great urgency for documentary films to give an alternative perspective to situations that are often portrayed one-sided.
Yet today more than ever, as an independent filmmaker I feel challenged to bring to life my visions for this very same reason. It seems almost anti-American to address issues such as immigration and the border in a different light. Some might call it propaganda, when in reality it’s just another outlet to perhaps help America find more reasonable solutions to the problems at the border. It is imperative that documentaries lead the way in bringing a true understanding, open dialogues and spark solutions to this situation.
I believe projects like CHILDREN IN NO MAN’S LAND will give Americans the opportunity to see another side to the story – a side they probably would not see anywhere else. Through these children’s journey’s, we’ll bring forward human stories that will touch people regardless of their social, legal or economic situation; stories in which we can see beyond numbers and see real human beings.
Ultimately, the aim of CHILDREN IN NO MAN’S LAND is to serve as a way for people to see the similarities among us human beings, not the difference. To see that the men, women or children who are crossing the border illegally are doing so because they are hungry, tired and desperate or want to be with their families. They are not acting any different than any of us would under similar circumstances. CHILDREN IN NO MAN’S LAND can be used as a strong tool for people to begin talking about peaceful and fair solutions regarding undocumented immigration. And at the same time, this film captures a piece of American history as it unfolds in these times of misconceptions, confusion, and ultimately, transition.
Maria De Jesus
In the film…
After attempting to cross the border twice with her cousin Rene, Maria de Jesus finally reunites with her mother in Chicago. To her surprise, she does not like her new home and is having a difficult time adapting. Will Maria return to Mexico?
Since then…
Prado reports: “Maria de Jesus is currently in high school in Chicago and has a very active and healthy social life. She no longer yearns to return to Mexico and is happy with her new friends, school, and home.
Rene
In the film…
Travels across the border with her cousin Maria de Jesus to reunite with his mother. Upon his arrival in the U.S., Rene feels out of place and wants to return to Mexico. Will Rene eventually adapt to his new surroundings?
Since then…
Prado reports: “Rene is doing very well in school. He’s a straight A student. He likes Chicago now and doesn’t think often about returning to Mexico. He has a girlfriend and continues to play soccer.”
Irma
In the film…
Irma is single mother who left her children in Mexico to come work in the U.S. in order to send them money for food, clothing and school. Once reunited with her daughter Maria de Jesus, who she hasn’t seen in six years, Irma has to deal with the fact that she has to get to know her daughter all over again and some friction arises between them.
Since then…
Prado reports: “Irma continues to watch over Maria de Jesus and explains that the transition for both of them was a challenging one. As of today, both mother and daughter are getting along and if anything, just dealing with the basic dilemmas of the teenage years. Irma is glad to have her daughter near her again.”
