leviathan

(2025) 18 mins
Written and Directed by Mark Ragunton

In a cold U.S. border holding room in 2018, Jairo (Moises Chavez) is separated from his six-year-old daughter. There, he watches other migrant fathers wait under the eyes of CBP officers. When the door opens for him, he’s taken to a quiet back room where Agent Torres (Ivan Jasso) waits with English-only forms that Jairo cannot read and is pushed for a signature that could decide everything.

background

In 2018, a “Zero Tolerance” policy at the U.S.–Mexico border led to many parents being separated from their children. Both adults and children were first placed in very cold Border Patrol holding cells — known as “hieleras” — before many were separated and routed to different facilities.

Processing relied on paperwork. Forms and instructions were often in English, interpreters and lawyers weren’t guaranteed at that first step, and parents were asked to sign documents they might not understand. Those signatures could affect what came next: continued detention, removal, or self-deportation, with or without their children.

LEVIATHAN focuses on one father inside that moment.

casT

MOISES

CHAVEZ

as JAIRO

EDGAR

ARREOLA

as LUIS

KEITH

OCAMPO

as DANIEL

EDUARDO

CARDOSO

as OFFICER GARCIA

DANI

HURTADO

as OFFICER MORALES

IVAN

JASSO

as AGENT TORRES

Concept

LEVIATHAN operates in two ways. It stands as a short film in its own right, and at the same time functions as a series of concept vignettes for a larger story. Each scene becomes a way to test and refine ideas on a smaller scale before carrying them into the longer version.

BUILDING THE WORLD

A chance to stage the hielera and processing center, noticing which details ring authentic, which fall short, and how these spaces might grow into full-scale sets.

SHAPING THE FILM

A chance to play with tone and rhythm, and to lean on cinematic tools like montage, voice-over, and scripted movement to capture feelings that facts alone cannot.

WORKING WITH EXPERTS

A chance to share the work with advocates, attorneys, and lived-experience experts in a way that builds trust, opens dialogue, and roots the project in real expertise and ongoing collaboration.

PROVING WHAT’S POSSIBLE

A chance to show that this world can be brought to the screen, while guiding the choices in design, logistics, and storytelling that lie ahead.

FINDING THE STORY

A chance to test characters and dialogue in motion, to see which emotional beats land and which ones fade, and to carry forward what feels most true.