The U.S. documentary short Águilas has won the Fotokem Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival.

The film follows the Águilas del Desierto, a volunteer group that searches for missing immigrants in the southern Sonoran Desert in the border state of Arizona. Once a month Aguilas members, including construction workers, gardeners and domestic laborers, set out to investigate the potential, tragic tragedies of immigrants who risk their lives in hopes for a better life in the United States. 

The film is directed by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Maite Zubiaurre, two college professors for whom immigration is an important element of their professional, artistic and activist work.

Guevara-Flanagan is an associate professor at the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television who has been making documentary films on gender, death and the Latino community for nearly two decades. For her part, Zubiaurre is also a UCLA professor, teaching European languages and transcultural studies, Spanish and Portuguese, digital humanities and urban humanities. She also leads a collaborative project on migrant death and border activism and art. Zubiaurre is the author of Talking Trash. Cultural Uses of Waste, a book about contemporary litter and its meanings and artistic possibilities.

The Fotokem Award jury members were actress/singer Jackie Cruz of Orange Is the New Black, HBO and HBO Max Director of Content Acquisition Amanda Trokan and actor/writer/director Edson Jean (Grown, Moonlight).

A total of four awards were handed out to shorts at the 20th edition of LALIFF.

The Fotokem Award for Best Direction of a Live Action Short Film went to Gabriela Ortega for In Case I’m Next about systemic racism against and attacks on Black lives in the name of law and order.

Kristian Mercado’s Nuevo Rico took the Best Animated Short Film Award. The film revolves around a brother and sister who discover a secret that propels them to reggaeton stardom only to discover the heavy prices of fame.

Also, Victor Orozco Ramírez received the Special Jury Recognition for Innovative Storytelling for his film Revolykus, a German/Mexico co-production.

Twenty-four shorts competed at LALIFF, hailing from countries like Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Chile Mexico, Spain and the United States. The fest ran June 2 through 6 in Hollywood.

Featured Photo: Águilas (Credit: LALIFF)

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