ABOUT BACKGROUND DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT CAST

LEVIATHAN

Drama | 2026 | USA | 20 min | Spanish, English

While in border custody, a migrant father is processed and made to wait until an impossible choice is placed before him.

SYNOPSIS

In a cold U.S. border holding room in 2018, Jairo (Moises Chavez) is separated from his six-year-old daughter. There, he witnesses other migrant fathers wait under the eyes of CBP officers. When the door opens for him, he’s taken to a 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.

LEVIATHAN is currently in development and filming.

LEVIATHAN is the first in a slate of human-centered films on immigration, developed with and centered on the people who live it and those working for change.

background

In 2018, a “Zero Tolerance” policy at the U.S.–Mexico border led to thousands of asylum-seeking 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 forcibly separated and routed to different facilities.

During processing, the odds were stacked against parents. Most forms were only in English. Interpreters and lawyers weren’t promised. People were freezing, exhausted, and scared — and told to sign papers they couldn’t read. Those signatures decided what came next: keep them locked up, send them back, or push them to “choose” return — sometimes without their children.

LEVIATHAN is a film that focuses on one father inside that moment.

DEVELOPMENT

LEVIATHAN was developed alongside experts, not alone in a filmmaker’s bubble.

From the earliest story notes through the rough cut, we sat with former CBP officers, immigration attorneys, interpreters, and people who’ve lived these experiences — asking them to point out what felt off and what rang true.

Their feedback changed dialogue, the way the processing feels and affects migrants, officer behavior, and the intense pressure around English-only forms that parents were pushed to sign. Our aim was simple: be honest, reduce assumptions, and keep listening.

Concept

LEVIATHAN operates in two ways:

As a concept short film, to show how narrative filmmaking can show the lived realities of migrants on screen to meaningfully contribute to public conversation.
As a series of vignettes to examine injustices against immigrants, guiding what should scale into the larger film and impact work.

SHORT FILM

As a short film, LEVIATHAN tells a complete story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. It shows what this system feels like and gives one shared reference for audiences, partners, and future backers — how the story plays, how it looks and sounds, and what narrative film can add beyond news.

VIGNETTES

As concept vignettes, each scene acts like a small test. One centers on cold cells, another on language gaps, another on pressured signatures, another on separation. These moments make the harms easy to see and discuss, and they help the same group give feedback on what should grow into the larger film and impact work.

This proof-of-concept is a chance for the productionus to…

BUILD THE WORLD

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.

DEMONSTRATE NARRATIVE FILM

To demonstrate how narrative filmmaking can carry what documentaries and news headlines can’t — with tools like montages, music, sound design, and more.

WORK WITH EXPERTS

To share the work with advocates, experts, and those with lived experience in a way that builds trust, opens dialogue, and roots it in ongoing collaboration.

PROVE WHAT’S POSSIBLE

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

FIND THE STORY

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.