For seven days in mid-March we returned to the U.S. / Mexico border region to continue our exploration of the cross-border migration story. With firm commitment to our founding premise— documenting on film the range of humanitarian response to international crises— we returned with our eyes (and camera lens and microphones) wide open, seeking to capture more of this essential dimension of a desperate drama, one that has cost the lives, and ended the hopes, of an estimated 600 people per year since 1995.

We hope you’ll have a few minutes to read about what we saw, did, heard and discovered on our latest adventure filming in the northern Sonora desert.

In overview: We flew into Tucson Thursday night, grabbed our rental car (an incredibly small, amazingly comfortable Fiat 500) and drove all night to Jacumba, a tiny border town in southern California; we then continued to San Diego, then back to the “Tucson sector” for the remainder of the week.

• We filmed at numerous locations on the border, where two things stood out in stark contrast to the remote nature of the places we were in: the ubiquitous presence of the U.S. Border patrol (18,000 agents in the Southwest sector), and the ominous presence of the Wall… a nearly 900-mile physical barrier, in some places 30 feet high and three subsequent layers deep.
• In one town hundreds of years and split in two by the border wall we talked to Mexican neighbors through the barrier, and captured footage of one little girl’s 9^th birthday party.
• We watched (and filmed) as migrants gathered in a campsite in Tijuana just on the south side of the “first fence” (the 12-footer) while Border patrol agents waited in vehicles and roved around on ATVs on the north side of the “second” fence (the 30-footer).
• We interviewed the executive director of a pro-bono law firm that offers free human rights counsel to migrant detainees.
• We accompanied multiple “good Samaritan” groups on various trails in California and Arizona as they deposited plastic jugs of water along the known migrant trails.
• We attended community meetings, marveling at the energy and commitment of the attendees, many of them American retirees giving volunteer service—often at great physical risk, and holding to a wide range of political perspectives—to a cause they believe in: a refusal to accept human suffering as just.
• We accompanied college groups on “alternative spring break,” contributing to the water-station effort.
• We spoke with a member of the Tahono O’odham nation (formerly the Papago) about the unique interplay between the policies and processes of three sovereign nations along the Southwest border(s).
• We followed fresh footprints (but discovered no migrants), examined migrant trash dumps (and the multiple reasons for their existence), regarded with solemnity several “rape trees” along the migration routes, and encountered heavily armed ATV-trolling Minutemen looking for migrants as we were (but with far different intentions).
• We saw and heard much about the lofty cost of “protecting our borders” ($3 billion in verifiable expenditures in just the Southwest U.S. sector in 2010), including a massive border patrol presence, the cost of constructing and maintaining fences and walls, and the payment of enormous fees to private contractors for detainment and transportation (by bus and airlift) back to the border or to would-be-immigrant countries of origin.
• And we learned so much more about the nature and character of those who are crossing, the great majority of whom are but simple people driven by life-risk and economic desperation, and who are very frequently captured and coerced at threat of death to serve as cross-border “mules” for drug traffickers.

We fully intended to “wrap things up” with this second trip to the border country. And pending a thorough review of all our notes and all our footage, we may in fact have what we need to complete a comprehensive program on humanitarian response to cross-border migration.

But we also returned fully aware of what we have not yet captured, or captured completely:

• The functions and costs of the immigration detention center system (200 such detention centers, many of them private, hold more than 300,000 people in detention each year)
• The day before flying home, we finally received clearance (for a later date) to interview representatives of the U.S. Border Patrol
• We found out about a “comedor,” or eatery, in Nogales (Sonora) where migrants being returned to Mexico are given food, shelter and a bed to sleep for a few days previous to beginning their next migrant journey… some to the North, some to the South, depending on the stamina, courage, and substance they have left.
• We have yet to encounter migrants on the trail (they usually travel at night), and while such an encounter carries risk (typically from drug runners and coyotes; rarely from economic migrants) it also promises depth and dimension to this story that we may not otherwise find.

More than anything, we have found an exciting, revelatory and engaging story—a human drama of great importance. We hope you’ll stick with us as we move forward, and we are grateful to any and all who have lent their support and offered contributions both material and emotional to this date.

Illegal Immigration. Politics. Humanitarian Response. Art. Technology. Poetry.

The Project:

At the border, the difference between humanitarian service and illegal activity is not always black and white.

Reaching well beyond politics, this full-length documentary film will go deep into the heart of an unusual and fascinating humanitarian response to U.S.-Mexico cross-border migration: a high-risk, highly mobile and highly sophisticated network of volunteers from the north side of the border that is caching water supplies, distributing recycled cell phones running encrypted GPS trail-finding software, even sending transmissions of haiku poetry— to keep trans-border migrants from dying in the desert.  To some, it is a dramatic, selfless and inspirational effort that gives new and poignant context to the phrase “the Art of Survival.”  To others, such action irresponsibly induces illegal border crossing, tantamount to aiding and abetting unlawful conduct.  This project approaches this controversial topic on the premise that the line between inducing illegal activity and providing true humanitarian service is not as clearly delineated — not as easy to draw— as either side might claim.

The film will examine the social, legal, and humanitarian aspects wrapped up in this difficult topic.  It will tell the stories of immigrants crossing the border and of the volunteers attempting to save their lives (some of whom have been arrested and prosecuted for their conduct), all while seeking to discover where true “humanitarian service” ends and where irresponsible conduct begins.  Help us examine this emergent facet of the exploding international controversy by assisting in this pre-development phase of a scheduled full-length documentary film. We have begun an initial period of filming, including b-roll at the border and interviews with humanitarians and activists. This material is currently being used to develop the promotional trailer and other materials in support of the larger funding campaign for the full documentary film production.  The project is fiscally sponsored by the Center for Independent Documentary (documentaries.org) and is eligible to receive tax deductible donations under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code.

The Art of Survival: Life and Death on the Tinaja Trail will establish a journalistically balanced context for the many viewpoints surrounding trans-border migration into the U.S.A. But its focus will be the humanitarian perspective that sets this story apart from the rest: people are dying in the desert and others are trying to save their lives. Read more about the Tinaja Trail below, then, please, help us produce this powerful, groundbreaking story that is ultimately about persistence, creativity, and compassion.

And please, don’t just make your donation, help us share the word. Use the social media tools above to share the Art of Survival with others. Thanks so much! We look forward to building our relationship with you as we make this powerful story come to life.

The Context:

Natural water sources in the American Southwest are extremely rare and, where they do exist, often extremely hard to get to (think: bottom of the “Grand Canyon,” for instance). For centuries, survival in this unforgiving land has hinged on one’s ability to locate natural cavities or wind-carved cisterns in rocks called tinajas (tee-NAH-hahs). Capturing rain during the rare desert storm, and shaded from the sun, these catch-basins— often only inches across, centimeters deep, and teeming with insects and their larvae— are precious, lifesaving treasures to desert-dwelling animals … and desert-traversing humans.

It seems reproachfully paradoxical, then, that this region would today host the primary trail of hope for thousands of people seeking gainful work, physical security, and the promise of a future free of fear. It’s a desperate journey— one that has cost the lives, and ended the hopes, of an estimated 600 people per year since 1995.

It is likewise a politically supercharged arena; a legal, moral and political maelstrom poised like a flame near a tinderbox of sentiment.

For years, individuals and organizations have dropped water containers along popular routes of migration (and been arrested for “littering,” or for trespassing on federal land), have searched the desert for dying immigrants, and provided other forms of lifesaving aid, including supplying the occasional transport to emergency medical facilities (where they have been arrested for assisting another’s illegal entry into the country).

But the latest tool in this humanitarian effort is clearly the most unusual; a technological tinaja: modified cell phones running encrypted, live, virtual-mapping software. Being developed as “a Mexico/U.S. Border Disturbance Art Project” by the b.a.n.g. lab, a group of researchers at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Michigan, the shape-shifting transmissions will guide desert-crossing immigrants to water stations and the safest route through the desert while reciting inspirational poetry for aural stimulation.

Please help us produce this powerful, groundbreaking story about persistence, creativity, and compassion.