HARLINGEN, Texas (Border Report) — The filmmakers and subjects of a documentary that chronicled migrant disappearances and deaths near the border will be touring several cities in Texas.

The film, “Missing in Brooks County,” is slated to show at the following events and venues:

  • 6:30 p.m., April 16 at the Latin American and U.S. Perspectives Symposium at Baylor University in Waco.
  • 1 p.m., April 17, at the Texas State Capitol Auditorium in Austin.
  • 6 p.m., April 17, at the Univesity of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs in Austin.
  • 8 p.m., April 18 at the Entre Film Center in Harlingen.
  • 8 p.m., April 19 at the Hidalgo Pump House at the border wall in Hidalgo (outdoor).
  • 7:30 p.m., April 20 at the Freeman Ranch/Texas State University Human Decomposition Lab in San Marcos (outdoor).

Co-directors Lisa Molomot and Jeff Bemiss started their documentary about South Texas in 2015. They spent four years reporting it, and the film was finally released in the summer of 2021, after the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple previously told Border Report.

The 81-minute-long film has since garnered several awards, and is the most-watched documentary on PBS’ “Independent Lens,” Bemiss said.

Appearing for the showings will be several people who featured prominently in the film, including the two co-directors; Eddie Canales, of the South Texas Human Rights Center, which helps to assist families of missing migrants; Dr. Kate Spradlin, an anthropology professor at Texas State University and the director of the university’s Operation Identification program; and Priscilla Lugo of the Texas Immigration Law Council.

“We decided to tour with the film due to a total lack of empathy right now around the topic of migrants and immigration,” Molomot said.

The film shows the harsh and unforgiving terrain of Brooks County, about 80 miles north of the border with Mexico. That’s where hundreds of migrants go missing each year and many die after illegally crossing the border and trying to walk around a heavily armed U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Brooks County in the small town of Falfurrias.

“We believed if people could meet the families of the missing, they would feel differently about the border policies they are supporting,” Bemiss said.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.