Amidst organized movements across the Americas, a filmmaker examines grief shaped by unresolved loss, while unpacking her uncle’s disappearance during Argentina’s Videla dictatorship. Presented by Panta Rhea Foundation.
Director: Marialuisa Ernst
Runtime: 86
Fest Year: 2026
Interweaving reflections about the disappearance of her uncle Guillermo, a leading voice in the resistance against Argentina’s 1970s dictatorship, with the resilient movement of the Caravan of Central American Mothers of Missing Migrants, director Marialuisa Ernst connects shared experiences across the Americas, from Bolivia to the Mexico-U.S. border. With a warm gaze and unrelenting spirit, Ernst follows the mothers as they visit sites along the migratory trail and march in protest, denouncing human rights violations and demanding their children not be forgotten. A Place of Absence reveals what emerges when solidarity deepens and by bridging three generations of her family’s matriarchy, Ernst opens a space for healing. A focused vision leads us through a specific kind of loss—one that lives within a place in our bodies marked by complex grief, unfettered by time, slowly defined by absence. (AT) Presented by Panta Rhea Foundation.