Award-winning documentary A Place of Absence opens in theaters in New York on Friday, October 16 at Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film, introducing a lyrical, deeply affecting portrait of mothers searching for their disappeared children across the Americas. Filmmaker Marialuisa Ernst joins Anita and Leticia—two Central American mothers—on a perilous journey along the migrant trail, weaving their present-day struggle with her own family’s history of loss under Argentina’s military dictatorship.
ABOUT THE FILM
Decades after her uncle’s disappearance during Argentina’s military dictatorship, filmmaker Marialuisa Ernst embarks on a journey that mirrors her family’s unresolved grief. She joins Anita and Leticia, two mothers from Central America who have spent years searching for their missing children along the migrant trail through Mexico and the United States. Their quest forms the emotional core of A Place of Absence, a documentary that traces the interwoven legacies of forced disappearance, migration, and generational trauma across the Americas.
SYNOPSIS
A Place of Absence is a lyrical, evocative documentary exploring the enduring grief of ambiguous loss. The film follows the Caravan of Mothers of Missing Migrants on their 2,500-mile journey through Mexico as they search for their disappeared children. These mothers transform grief into activism—visiting shelters, brothels, mass graves, and government offices, holding up photographs of their children, and demanding answers and justice.
Their struggle mirrors that of filmmaker Marialuisa’s family: her uncle Guillermo disappeared during Argentina’s dictatorship, leaving her mother in limbo for decades. Constructed as a cinematic essay, Marialuisa weaves her family’s story through poetic narration with that of the Caravan Mothers, creating a portrait of collective mourning and resistance.
We meet Anita, whose son disappeared sixteen years ago, and Leticia, searching for her daughter Merza for fourteen years. Scenes of intimate rituals, vérité encounters, and artistic installations of flowers and photographs show how the mothers cope with absence and transform grief into action.
The film illuminates the human cost of disappearance, the intergenerational trauma it creates, and the courage and solidarity forged in response. By centering the voices of mothers, A Place of Absence becomes both a meditation on loss and a call for collective remembrance and justice.
CREDITS
- Director / Producer / Writer:
- Marialuisa Ernst
- Film Participants:
- Anita Zelaya
- Leticia Martinez
- Yolanda Ernst
- Executive Producers:
- Kirsten Johnson
- Cecilia Aldarondo
- Susan Margolin
- Melanie Greenberg
- Composers:
- Miranda y Tobar
- Co‑Producer:
- Brenda Avila‑Hanna
- Consulting Producers:
- Jennilie Brewster
- Set Hernandez
- Patricia Benabe
- Rachel Elizabeth Seed
