The Center
Six miles south of Mar-a-Lago, a small group is reuniting families torn apart by immigration enforcement and family separations. The Center follows Mari Blanco and her team from ICE raids to reunifications across borders, offering a rare look at a women-led organization holding families together amid fear and loss.
( in production )
When immigration enforcement activity increases in South Florida, parents can be detained without notice, leaving children in the care of relatives, neighbors, or friends. At the Guatemalan-Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach, staff begin locating detained parents and organizing the immediate aftermath.
The film follows Mari and her team through extended workdays, staying with phone calls, translation, and coordination as events unfold. Conversations move between English, Spanish, and Maya languages, and much of the work is shaped by waiting and incomplete information. The camera remains present as decisions are made in real time, moving from contemplative quiet moments to active detainments and raids.
The Center serves thousands of households, many of them Indigenous Maya. During periods of separation, staff assist with documentation, travel arrangements, and communication across borders.
Access to this work is granted through a formal partnership, allowing the film to observe spaces and processes that are rarely documented. The Center is a feature-length observational documentary currently in production, filmed through an ongoing collaboration with the Guatemalan-Maya Center.
Filming extends beyond Florida to Guatemala, where children reunite with parents months after separation. These moments appear within the longer rhythm of the organization’s work, where timelines vary and outcomes remain uncertain.
The Center is an intimate verite documentary, without narration or sit-down interviews. The story emerges through sustained observation of daily labor and waiting, revealing how family separations are navigated over time.
