As a queer Latin American filmmaker shaped by exile and longing, I grew up listening to cassette tapes of my uncle’s songs, where he sang about wanting to become the seed of a Ceibo tree when he died. He was fighting against a dictatorship in Argentina when he disappeared. Decades later, when I was already living in the U.S., we received the news that his remains had been found. It was a profound experience to finally be able to bury him beneath a Ceibo tree, just as he had imagined in his lyrics.

A Place of Absence is the tree that grew from that seed—a poetic, observational documentary where the personal becomes political. As an immigrant to the U.S., I’m telling the story of other immigrants and women who are often unheard, who live in a place of absence, with the ache of never knowing what happened to their loved ones. In today’s political landscape, these voices are more urgent than ever and matter deeply.

I have so many hopes for this documentary. I want to open a window into the lives of women you've never heard of, and to create a bridge between the past disappearances under dictatorships and the present disappearances of migrants—a bridge that connects South, Central, and North America.

Inspired by Ana Mendieta and with a background in performance art, I crafted a cinematic experience where memory, ritual, earth, and body coexist in a poetic visual language. I wanted to pour myself into the screen, to be as honest and vulnerable as the participants in my film had been with me. I believe that if I can reach deep inside myself and uncover what’s buried, I might catch a glimpse of what lives inside all of us. I wanted to make a film that feels like a reflection of our souls, so the audience can see their own humanity mirrored on screen. I hope this helps us understand one another more deeply, and that maybe we can begin to care about strangers—about immigrants.

A documentary can be a seed. Just as my uncle planted one in me, I hope this film grows into a tree that offers remembrance, hope, and space to imagine a different future.