Matías Guibert Heitner

Project

The Human Right to Flee

I traveled to Darién, Panamá in October 2024, with AfroResistance, a Panamanian-American NGO focused on educating and organizing for human rights, democracy, and racial justice throughout the Americas. I went to learn and make a film about the ongoing migration crisis in the Darién Gap, a previously-considered “impassable” rainforest between Panamá and Colombia which hundreds of thousands of migrants frequent every year on their journey to the United States. I interviewed experts, government officials, migrants and more.

Before embarking on this shoot, I’d spent months preparing and researching the conditions people face throughout the journey. Vulnerable migrants are robbed and extorted by armed mercenaries, coupled with a complete lack of state presence throughout the area and no access to vital resources such as food, water, and healthcare.

While in Panamá, I had the opportunity to interview migrants who had crossed the jungle just a day before. As we conversed, we learned that many migrants were lied to and told that crossing the Darien Gap would be a mere hike and they’d reach the United States within a week. In reality this treacherous hike was just the beginning of a long and dangerous road to the United States. There was no turning back, and, despite all of these factors, I was met with complete kindness. Their resilience reminded me of a concept I learned while in Panamá–Calypso, a genre of resistant music used to keep the stories of Afro-Antillean immigrants alive. Inspired by this, I intend on working with a composer to create a Calypso screen score adopting the genre’s rhythmic structure into the film.

With Trump entering office and uncertainty around asylum seekers’ status, this is a crucial moment for migrants in the U.S. These individuals arrive in the U.S. heavily traumatized and lack access to psychological help. I will be interviewing asylum seekers, giving representation to those who are often talked about, but rarely heard from. I’m taking what I learn to film with experts on issues that arise and create a more structured narrative for the film. Hardly anyone gets to visit the Darién Gap, and much less film it, so mixing this valuable footage with interviews in this vital time for refugees in the U.S. will serve as a way to preserve an oral history of this migratory human rights crisis.

Migrants are not a number or a headline, they are people. People who deserve the same exact rights and services everyone else is entitled to. They should not be punished for their sacrifices. In the words of a Migrant Reception Center worker I met with in Darien, “there is no such thing as illegal immigration. There is only irregular immigration. It is a human right to flee.”