United States, 2021
Documentary, Indigenous, Immigration, Dreamers, Education
86 min, Color
English, Spanish, Mixtec, Zapotec; English subtitles

Mariposas del Campo shares the stories of indigenous Mixtec, Zapotec, and Purépecha teenagers from Mexico striving to change their families’ destinies in the strawberry fields of Oxnard, California. Through a stormy year of sanctioned racism and anti-immigrant policies, the documentary captures their journeys—with help from the characters’ own intimate videos—as they navigate cultural identity, parental expectations, economic challenges, and the justice needs of their migrant farmworker community. For young people whose lives have always been steeped in uncertainty, it takes a leap of faith to chase a dream.

Austin Premiere

https://www.ponyhighway.com/

Director’s Bio

Bill Yahraus and Robin Rosenthal are the husband-and-wife team at Pony Highway Productions. They’ve been collaborating on intimate films with self-contained communities since they ran away with the Tarzan Zerbini Circus in 1996. Their award-winning documentaries—made with the members of a traveling tent circus, a Hall of Fame racehorse trainer’s barn, and a team of Mexican American female equestrians—have aired nationally on PBS and toured internationally.

Credits

Producer: Robin Rosenthal, Adriana Campos-Ojeda, Dr. Elizabeth Villa Rosalez
Production Companies: Pony Highway Productions
Cinematographer: Bill Yahraus
Associate Camera: Anayeli, Joseph Becerra, Flavio Carranza, Ini, Maria Rosa Lopez, Esmeralda Mendoza, Maria Monjaraz, Patty, Robin Rosenthal, Clarisa Vasquez
Editor: Bill Yahraus
Sound Recording: Robin Rosenthal
Music Supervisor: Margaret Guerra Rogers

Print Source: Robin Rosenthal, r.rosenthal@att.net