Directed by: Sebastián Lasaosa Rogers
Country of Origin: Guatemala, Mexico, United States
Runtime: 01:13:57
Juanita has been unjustly detained in Reynosa, Mexico for over seven years, accused of a crime she didn’t commit and forced to confess in a language she didn’t understand. This intimate portrait follows Ana and Pedro, Juanita’s aunt and uncle, on their thousand-mile journey from the highlands of Guatemala. With the help of their Maya Chuj community and a network of Maya interpreters, they fight for Juanita’s freedom and demand justice from the Mexican authorities, a cause that became internationally recognized for its defense of migrants’ rights and language justice.
Sebastián is a Spanish-American filmmaker and cinematographer based in Brooklyn, NY. Freeing Juanita is his directorial feature debut. As a cinematographer he has lensed documentaries such as The Art of Making It (2021) which won an Audience Award at SXSW. His documentary short film Esquilas en la montaña (2017) premiered at the New Orleans Film Festival. Sebastián got his start in film while studying Anthropology and Film at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, TN where he made his first bilingual videos supporting social justice and workers’ rights campaigns.