This free screening is part of ACTION! Cinema as Connection, a series curated and facilitated by Penelope Uribe-Abee presenting documentary films and workshops by female filmmakers of color. ACTION! is made possible with the support of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Action! Cinema as Connection presents a night with documentary filmmaker Cristina Ibarra. Cristina will show completed works from her career as documentary filmmaker, and clips from her latest film: The Infiltrators. In this presentation, Cristina will speak about her personal process as a filmmaker and the journey to her collaborative experience as a co-director on the Infiltrators. Set to premiere at Sundance this year, The Infiltrators is a hybrid docu-fiction film depicting the true story of two young undocumented Americans who “infiltrated” a for-profit immigrant detention center. The documentary and film tour focuses on the true story of Marco Saavedra and Viridiana Martinez, two young undocumented immigrant activists who infiltrated a secretive for-profit detention center. By intentionally getting detained by the Border Patrol, Marco and Viri went into detention themselves to uncover cases of abuse, organize behind bars, and help other immigrants get free. FREE EVENT!

For 15 years, Cristina Ibarra has been making award-winning films for PBS addressing the border between Mexico and the United States. Her documentary Las Marthas (2014) premiered on Independent Lens. The New York Times called it “a striking alternative portrait of border life.” Her PBS documentary collaboration The Last Conquistador had a national broadcast on POV. Ibarra’s first short, Dirty Laundry: A Homemade Telenovela, won multiple awards and was broadcast on PBS. Ibarra has created mini-films with the NY International Latino Film Festival, Latino Public Broadcasting and the Latina collective, fulana.org. Her latest film, The Infiltrators, is set to premiere at Sundance this year.