Premieres on Independent Lens January 31, 2022!

Now streaming everywhere!
 

A Feature Documentary​

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Two families search for their loved ones who went missing in the fields of Brooks County, Texas after crossing from Mexico and find a sobering truth: the deadliest part of the journey is far from the border. 

Reviews

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"One of the most nuanced and disturbing...films about the immigration crisis."  – Boston Globe

"Exceptionally effective... The images speak for themselves"  – Film Threat

"A sobering piece of film."  – Film International

Awards

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Best Southern Feature • Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival

Best Documentary Feature • Ashland Ind. Film Festival

Best Documentary Feature • Toronto Arthouse Film Festival

Best Documentary Feature • San Luis Obispo Int. Film Festival

Best Documentary Feature • Newburyport Documentary Film Festival

Best Documentary Feature • Doc Boston Film Festival

Best Documentary Feature • Adirondack Film Festival

Best Documentary Feature • Thin Line Festival

Best Documentary Feature • Atlanta DocuFest

Best Documentary Feature • Lost River Film Festival

Audience Choice Award, Best Feature Film • Tacoma Film Festival

Audience Choice Award • San Luis Obispo Int. Film Festival

Press

TIME MAGAZINE

"More MIgrants Die Crossing the Border in South Texas Than Anywhere Else in the U.S. This Documentary Depicts the Human Toll"

THE GUARDIAN

"New documentary Missing in Brooks County looks at Falfurrias, one of the busiest immigration checkpoints in the the US..."

DEMOCRACY NOW!

“'Missing in Brooks County': Thousands of Migrants Denied Due Process at Border Have Died in Desert"

FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE

“The Rolling Tragedy of 'Missing in Brooks County'"

TEXAS MONTHLY

“Every Year, Hundreds of Migrants Die or Go Missing in Brooks County. A New Documentary Tells Two Families' Stories.'"

DAILY BEAST

“The Many Nameless Migrant Skeletons Buried Along America's Border"

TEXAS OBSERVER

“In 'Missing in Brooks County," The Migrant Crisis Haunts South Texas"

Texas Tour

THANK YOU TEXAS
FOR AN UNFORGETTABLE TOUR!

Newsletter

   Past Screenings

Ojai Film Festival

St. Louis Intl. Film Festival

DocUtah Film Festival

 Orlando Film Festival

Mystic Film Festival

University of Indianapolis

 Toronto Arthouse Film Festival

Adirondack Film Festival

Athens Intl. Film Festival 

Tacoma Film Festival 

Buffalo Intl. Film Festival 

Chagrin Film Festival

Aperture Virtual Cinema (Winston-Salem, NC) 

Jerome Indie Film Festival

 Footcandle Film Festival

Boston Latino Film Festival

Barbican London Theatre (UK)

U of Arizona DC Center for Outreach & Collaboration

State Theatre, Ann Arbor MI

New York Latino Film Festival

Newburyport Documentary Film Festival

Fort Myers Beach Intl. Film Festival

Alamo Drafthouse, Winchester, VA

The Loft Cinema, Tucson

Glendale Laemmle Theater (Los Angeles)

Alamo Drafthouse Houston

Atlanta Docufest

University Film & Video Association Conference

Doc Boston Film Festival

Maine Intl. Film Festival

Cinefestival San Antonio

Cine Las Americas Intl. Film Festival

Mountainfilm Festival

River Run International Film Festival

NorthwestFest Intl. Documentary Festival

Sarasota Film Festival

Arizona International Film Festival

Ashland Independent Film Festival

University of Wisconsin at Madison

XicanIndie Film Festival

Annapolis Film Festival

Cleveland International Film Festival

Foyle Film Festival

Thin Line Festival

Sonoma International Film Festival

Salem Film Festival

ACT Human Rights Festival 

Fargo Film Festival

 San Diego Latino Film Festival

Red Dirt Film Festival

San Luis Obispo Intl. Film Festival

Omaha Film Festival

Texas Christian University

Human Rights Watch Film Festival

Cinematters NY Social Justice Film Festival

Global Health Film Festival (England)

DOC NYC Film Festival

Rocky Mountain Women's Film Festival

New Haven Docs Special Screening

Lost River Film Festival

United Nations Assoc. Film Festival

Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival

Lake Worth Playhouse L-Dub Film Festival

Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival

Dallas Docufest (preview)

  •  Nov. 7, 2021  AWARD WINNER!

  •  Nov. 7, 2021

  •  Nov. 2 & 4, 2021

  •  Oct. 31 & Nov. 1, 2021

  •  Oct. 22, 2021  AWARD WINNER!

  •  Oct. 22, 2021

  •  Oct. 19, 2021  AWARD WINNER!

  •  Oct. 16, 2021  AWARD WINNER!

  •  Oct. 15-21, 2021

  •  Oct. 14, 2021  AWARD WINNER!

  •  Oct. 7-11, 2021

  •  Oct. 5-10, 2021

  •  Oct. 1-31, 2021

  •  Sep. 24, 2021

  •  Sep. 24, 2021

  •  Sep. 24-Oct. 3, 2021

  •  Sep. 24-Oct. 22, 2021

  •  Sep. 21, 2021

  •  Sep. 21, 2021 

  •  Sep. 19, 2021

  •  Sep. 17-29, 2021 AWARD WINNER! 

  •  Sep. 17, 2021  

  •  Sep. 12, 2021  

  •  Sep. 10-16, 2021 

  •  Aug. 20-26, 2021 

  •  Aug. 18, 2021 

  •  July 25, 2021 AWARD WINNER! 

  •  July 21, 2021 AWARD WINNER!

  •  July 17, 2021 AWARD WINNER!

  •  July 12-18, 2021

  •  July 7-11, 2021

  •  June 9-13, 2021

  •  May 29, 2021

  •  May 6-16, 2021 AWARD WINNER!

  •  May 6-16, 2021

  •  April 30-May 9, 2021  

  •  April 20, 2021 

  •  April 17-18, 2021 AWARD WINNER!

  •  April 15, 2021

  •  April 11, 2021 AWARD WINNER!

  •  April 8-18, 2021

  •  April 7-20, 2021

  •  April 4-11, 2021

  •  Mar. 25-29, 2021 AWARD WINNER!

  •  Mar. 24-28, 2021

  •  Mar. 19-28, 2021 

  •  Mar. 19-28, 2021

  •  Mar. 18-28, 2021 AWARD WINNER!

  •  Mar. 13, 2021 

  •  Mar. 12-14, 2021 AWARD WINNER!

  •  Mar. 9-14, 2021  AWARD WINNER! 

  •  Mar. 2-14, 2021

  •  Feb. 26, 2021

  •  Feb. 2 - 8, 2021

  •  Jan. 14-18, 2021

  •  Dec. 1-6, 2020

  •  Nov. 11-19, 2020

  •  Nov. 13-21, 2020

  •  Nov. 13-15, 2020

  •  Nov. 6, 2020  AWARD WINNER!  

  •  Oct. 19, 2020

  •  Oct. 14-18, 2020

  •  Oct. 11, 2020  AWARD WINNER!  

  •  Oct. 9-17, 2020  AWARD WINNER!  

  •  Oct. 4, 2020

News

"Border Patrol tallies record 557 migrant deaths on US-Mexico border in 2021 fiscal year" - Oct. 29, 2021

"Missing in Brooks County: A tragic outcome of U.S. border and migration policy" (PODCAST) - Sep. 27, 2021

"Huge border influx brings fears of grim summer for migrant deaths" - June 3, 2021

"How Brazen Smugglers Are Fueling Record Numbers At The Southern Border" - May 3, 2021

"Following A Spike in Migrant Deaths, A New Law Could Help Identify the Dead" - Jan 5, 2021

   Participants   

MOISES ZAVALA

has come to Brooks County to search for his missing cousin Juan who made the dangerous crossing from Mexico and was last seen at a local ranch. Moises won't leave Brooks County until he finds his young cousin.

OMAR ROMAN & MICHELLE CHINOS
have returned to Brooks County to find out what happened to Omar's brother, who went missing after fleeing from Border Patrol.

ALEX JARA

is a Border Patrol agent who goes out

on regular searches to find migrants

lost in the brush. He wonders aloud

about how to manage the emotional

toll his job takes on him. 

EDDIE CANALES

is a retired union organizer who came out of retirement to open the modest South Texas Human Rights Center to deal with the missing migrant crisis. Canales is the only humanitarian help available in Brooks County, and his phone never stops ringing with families desperate to find their missing loved ones. 

DR. KATE SPRADLEY

is a biological anthropologist at Texas State University. With her team of graduate students and colleague Krista Latham, Kate is trying to process the scores of bodies which were recently found buried in mass graves in Brooks County. 

MICHAEL VICKERS

is a respected veterinarian and avid hunter who tracks and detains migrant trespassers on his land. He and his wife founded a paramilitary group that patrols ranches in South Texas. 

Take Action

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Learn more about Border Patrol's 'Prevention Through Deterrence' policy.

Write your representatives about the issue.

Donate to the South Texas Human Rights Center, which provides humanitarian aid to migrants lost in Brooks County.

Educational Sales

Click below to buy or rent the film for your educational institution or non-profit organization.

   Filmmakers   

JEFF BEMISS

(CO-DIRECTOR, PRODUCER)

is an award-winning, Oscar-shortlisted writer/director who has worked in shorts, features and documentaries. His work has aired on network television and PBS. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California film school and the L.A. Sanford Meisner Academy. Jeff is a Connecticut Artist Fellow and a Film Independent Fast Track Fellow. He freelances for disability and social activist clients and has taught film at Trinity College in Hartford, CT.

LISA MOLOMOT

(CO-DIRECTOR, PRODUCER)

 has directed and edited documentaries about the American Southwest in recent years including Precious Knowledge, The Cleaners, and Soledad. She has also focused on stories about education. Her hugely popular film School's Out has been an integral part of the movement for providing outdoor education for young children, and her recent short film Teaching in Arizona is an inside look at the teaching crisis in that state.

JACOB BRICCA, A.C.E.

(EDITOR, PRODUCER)

is an award-winning documentary editor who has worked on over a dozen features, including Lost in La Mancha (IFC Films) and the 2016 Sundance award winner The Bad Kids. He last worked with Molomot on her feature The Hill, which was broadcast on PBS. A member of the American Cinema Editors, he is an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona's School of Theatre, Film & Television.

Funders

Missing in Brooks County is funded by ITVS, Fork Films, and Engel Entertainment, with additional funding from Perspective Fund, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the LEF Foundation, the University of Arizona Office of Research, Innovation and Impact, Human Rights POV,  UA Hanson Film Institute, the Connecticut Office of the Arts, MountainFilm, and the University of Arizona College of Fine Arts. Fiscal sponsorship by the International Documentary Association.

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