“Missing in Brooks County” a documentary about the migrant crisis in the border will be screened at 6:30 p.m. in the Southmost Library on Tuesday to raise awareness on the issue.
The film follows the stories of two families searching for their loved ones who went missing in the fields of Brooks County and will be followed by a Q & A from local leaders who have been advocates to change policies that create these issues such as ACLU representatives.
The same event will take place at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Casa de Palmas Hotel in McAllen.
Lisa Molomot, producer and co-director, said the documentary started as a very simple idea such as making portrait series of forensic scientists who live in Brooks County and work with the bodies of the migrants who died as they made their way to their destination.
“We also think a lot of people don’t know this is happening. I live in southern Arizona, so the idea of migrant deaths is not a new thing to me. But, I think to most people living in America this is not something they really know about,” she said.
“If they saw what we saw, they would not recognize it as their country. … People should know what’s going on in their country. They should become angry when they find out that this happening, they should contact their elected officials, they should not tolerate this.”
The work behind this film started during the Obama administration when Molomot and Jeff Bemiss, both co-directors, started doing research on the migrant crisis.
They filmed during both the Trump and Biden’s administration.
“We wanted the audience to experience Brooks County. We are not journalists, we are filmmakers and we really wanted people to experience it,” she said.
“So, that meant getting real scenes, real things happening. Not just people talking about what’s going on but seeing what’s really going on and having an emotional experience with it.”
Bemiss said he wanted to feature the families that are being affected by these policies so that lawmakers could see the impact they are having when they lose a loved one.
“Any border policy that results in over thousands of deaths a year needs to be reexamined,” he said.
“We made the film because we felt that if lawmakers would see this, they would feel differently about the policies that they are creating.”
The event is free and open to the public.
For more information about the documentary and for future online and in-person screenings, visit missinginbrookscounty.com
WATCH THE TRAILER FOR MISSING IN BROOKS COUNTY
