B​order South is directed by Raúl O. Paz-Pastrana, who over the course of five years filmed the migrant routes from southern Mexico to the U.S. Mexico Border. The film highlights Gustavo Lopez Quiroz, a Nicaraguan migrant trying to cross into America through Mexico, and Jason De León, a US anthropologist seeking traces of others who never made it. Paz-Pastrana assembles a vivid portrait of the thousands of immigrants who disappear along the trail. Border South reveals the immigrants’ resilience, ingenuity, and humor as it exposes a global migration system that renders human beings invisible in life as well as death.

​Border South will be screened at the Jim Santy Auditorium in conjunction with Kimball Art Center’s current exhibition, In the Shadow of the Wall. Included in the exhibition is the Undocumented Migration Project’s participatory installation, Hostile Terrain 94. The Undocumented Migration Project, a nonprofit directed by Jason de León, ​created Hostile Terrain 94 as a powerful act of remembrance and awareness. Composed of thousands of toe tags, each one represents a migrant who has died trying to cross the Sonoran Desert of Arizona since the mid 1990s.

Since 2019, Hostile Terrain 94 has been presented internationally at more than 100 locations, each time completed by local volunteers. ​ We invite attendees of Border South to join us in this effort following the screening of the film. The physical act of writing out the names and information for the dead invites participants to reflect, witness and stand in solidarity with those who have lost their lives in search of a better one. 

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/281996452