Cannes (France), 17 Apr Spanish documentarians Nuria Clavero and Aitor Palacios won the Buyers Coup de Coeur prize at the Cannes television market, MIPTV, today with their documentary “La Caravane”, about the caravans of migrants to United States.
News of the massive displacement of people traveling from Honduras to the United States in 2018 caught the attention of the two young men, who, aged 21 and 24, were in Puebla, Mexico, doing a swap university to specialize in the production of documentaries.
“We saw the news that the caravan was passing through Mexico and we became curious as documentarians to meet the migrants”, who were then in Mexico City, Clavero told EFE.
They both met by chance Yuri, the protagonist of their documentary, a 19-year-old Honduran eight months pregnant who, with her two-year-old son and her partner, was trying to reach the United States to flee the violence. they suffered in their country. .
“They already had motives and proof that they were in danger in Honduras, they had murdered several members of their family”, underlines Palacios.
The two people from Girona decided to accompany them on their way and joined for a month the group of migrants with whom the family was traveling, still very far from the United States.
“We slept in the camps with them, we walked with them. It was very immersive work and that’s what you can see in the documentary, you feel like you’re inside the caravan, as if we were another migrant, because we made it work,” says Clavero.
During their experience, they worked with Mexican audiovisual professionals, such as photographer Miriam Ortiz or sound engineer Barak Arias.
The family managed to cross the US border after a failed attempt. “Even if Yuri is about to give birth, push a little harder to cross the border,” Palacios points out.
Yuri would give birth 24 hours later, on American soil, and currently lives with her family in New York.
Funded with their savings and the private investment they were able to raise through the documentary film competitions they participated in, the film is now recognized alongside the Swedish documentary “Little Scandinavia” on the MIPTV television market, which takes place this week in the city of Cannes, and hopes it will open the door to buyers interested in the feature film.
For now, they will continue to work in their own production company, Cabal Films, with which they are currently producing a documentary on the situation of unaccompanied foreign minors in Spain.
“Our goal is to continue doing this type of engaged documentary work,” concludes Palacios. EFE
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