Asylum
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Feature | English | FRANCE - MEXICO - SPAIN
In association with MediaFusion Entertainment (USA)
Awards & Nominations: Finalist at the 2020 American Film Market's "Discover New Voices" in partnership with Winston Baker
Production Status: In Development
Genre: Social Impact Drama/Adventure
Tagline: Searching for a new life can be deadly!
Logline: Fleeing their country, Carmen and her mother join the Caravan of migrants, find themselves separated, and desperately searching to be reunited.
Writer: Carol Gomez-Robelo
Producer: Carol Bidault de l'Isle
Countries of production: France/Mexico/Spain
Co-production
Financing in place: 80% (In Equity and Tax incentives)
Duration (in minutes): 90
SYNOPSIS:
This Social Impact Drama is inspired by true events. In 2018, over 12,700 immigrant children were detained by the U.S. government, a record-number spread across 100 federally contracted shelters that is 5 times higher than in 2017. 2,500 of those children arrived with their families and were separated under the U.S. government's zero-tolerance policy in 2018. The remaining children in custody arrived as unaccompanied minors. More than 2,000 of those separated children have since been reunited with their families after a judge issued an injunction. Migrants traveling as part of a family group accounted for 58 percent of those taken into custody in 2018. In 2019, nearly 70,000 children were held in US detention centers, with no efforts to reunite families. In 2020, 666 children were not able to find their parents. The unsung heroes are the individuals and organizations that help refugees and immigrants This is the story of one family, why they risked it all to seek asylum.
The producers of the film would like to thank the following agencies that help refugees and migrants:
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ACLU - The American Civil Liberties Union
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Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project
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Border Angels
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CARECEN
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Kids In Need of Defense
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RAICES – The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services
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SALEF
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The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights
Inspired by true events and the story of the motion picture “The Search” directed by Fred Zinnemann, written by Richard Schweizer, David Wechsler, Paul Jarrico, Montgomery Clift, Betty Smith, Peter Viertel, and "The Grapes of Wrath", novel written by John Steinbeck, screenplay by Nunnally Johnson and John Steinbeck, directed by John Ford.
Writer:
Carol Gomez-Robelo has spent over 35 years in the industry, she is an award-winning producer (pka Bidault de l'Isle), specialized in financing and asset management. She started her career as a story analyst at Columbia, MGM & Paramount Studios; has worked in United States, Europe, and Latin America. She was born in Honduras and raised in the United States and France; fluent in English, Spanish, French and Italian.
Additional Story Consultant:
Carla Macal Montenegro is a Ph.D. student in Geography at the University of Oregon. She is studying the interconnections between borders, colonialism, and feminist geography. She received a Masters in Social Work from the University of Southern California in 2012 and a B.A. in Sociology at UC Irvine in 2008. Carla has been an adjunct lecturer in Sociology at East Los Angeles Community College (ELAC) since 2016. She is an educator involved in the pedagogy of liberation. She enjoys reciting social justice poetry with 3 Generaciones and Sin Fronteras group. Carla is also the creator of Ixoq Arte an herbalist self-preservation project to reclaim ancestral indigenous knowledge. She was raised in East Los Angeles and was born in Guatemala. For more info, visit her website:
