It’s a really interesting documentary short. It makes you sad, hopeful then it brings out the anger, after listening to what these families have been doing and going through for so many years.
Hasta Encontrarlos, is a documentary short film done by 23 year old filmmaker Jean Chapiro, who won a Student Academy Award for this short. She is a journalist and filmmaker from Mexico but based in the U.S. Her documentary follows the tireless search of the Salcedo and Córdoba families to find their missing loved ones in Mexico.
Hasta Encontrarlos (Till’ We Find Them), Since 1964 over 290,000 people have disappeared in Mexico and over 110,000 have not been found. Thousands of people across the country are still looking for their loved ones, especially mothers who will not rest until they find their children. Three years after her daughter, Rubi, went missing in Orizaba, Veracruz Mexico, Araceli Salcedo decided to start a collective in her own community. Today there are over 350 members in the group, and 90% of them are mothers. Together they have successfully found 15 people alive, returned 71 bodies, and spotted 53 clandestine graves in the past year. However, most of these women have not found their children. One of the coping and healing mechanisms that Araceli created for the mothers in her collective are muñecos sanadores or “healing dolls”. The dolls represent each of their children and serve as a tool to help them navigate the void that their loved ones left behind.
If you get a chance to see it, check it out.
