Film details

Synopsis

Border mechanisms that act on migrants are many.  Moving from shelter to shelter and hopping on trains, they head up north across Mexico to reach the United States and Canada. During the U.S election, migrants are more than aware that it could be their last chance to cross the border.
Following their trajectory, Destierros draws a path of reclusion. A path where time remains the longest road between two places.

Credits
Direction : Hubert Caron-Guay
Photography : Etienne Roussy
Editing : Ariane Pétel-Despots
Sound Design : Samuel Gagnon-Thibodeau
Sound Recording : Hubert Caron-Guay
Sound Mixing : Alexis Pilon-Gladu
Music : Colin Stetson
Production : Hubert Caron-Guay (Les Films de L’Autre)

Financial Partners

Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec

Conseil des arts du Canada

PRIM

Sodec Québec

Les Films de L’Autre

Les Films du 3 Mars

Director's statement

It’s 2014, and I am volunteering at a migrant shelter in Southern Mexico, not far from the Guatemalan border.

These people are heading for the United-States and Canada, but they must first go through Mexican shelters. Most of them come from Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Salvador; although you can find some Africans who came via South America with a hope of then heading north.

To counter the strategies lain down by cartels and migration authorities, migrants share information on the best and worst routes to take, and on the financial resources needed to pay criminal gangs for the tolls they charge.

Such hardships create insecurity. Shelters serve as checkpoints at the end of every leg. This segmentation gives the migrants a chance to catch their breath before they move on. For those who reach the next point, the physical and emotional damage induced by what happens between any two shelters can lead to grave disruptions. Traumatic experiences can entirely reshape their behavior. Each shelter is a much-needed breather where they can get in touch with those inner transformations.

As I follow migrants on their journey, I intend on exposing both the visible and invisible barriers they face. On the one hand, I seek to unravel the complexity of the power structures affecting them from within and without. On the other, I remain mindful of any moment of introspection that should arise from the exhaustion. In the end, the whole movie builds up on an endless collapse, rooted in everyone’s confusion.

Direction

Hubert Caron-Guay

Hubert Caron-Guay is a producer, director, screenwriter and visual artist. He participated in the foundation of the Épopée group in 2010 where he coordinated and directed the most of his art project until 2015. His practice as a visual artist is at the intersection of cinema and installation art.

 

Filmography

 

Resources (2021/ 99 min)

Destierros (2017 / 90 min)
Fractures (installation) (2014 / 287 min)
Rupture (2014 / 150 min)
Insurgence (2013 / 137 minutes)
L’État du monde (2012 / 84 minutes)
L’État des lieux (2012 / 205 min)
L’État du moment (2011 / 95 minutes)