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.