Lisa Molomot and Jeff Bemiss’ MISSING IN BROOKS COUNTY: SLO FILM FEST 2021 INTERVIEWS; experiences of doing a virtual film fest tour

Lisa Molomot and Jeff Bemiss’ MISSING IN BROOKS COUNTY, which shared the Best Documentary Jury Prize for the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, explores an aspect of the immigration issue that seldom, if ever, gets discussed or debated, or even considered.

That slice of this ever-controversial pie is the effort to identify the people who didn’t make it, those who died trying to cross the border or just after they had successfully made it into the states.

Brooks County, Texas – not a border town, but close enough to be a midpoint once immigrants have squeezed past checkpoints and rough terrain, but not quite to civilization, is infamous for the many that have died there – anonymously.

Whether it be via the families desperately trying to locate their lost loved ones or at least get the closure of knowing what happened to them, or being the fly on the wall as the forensics people sift through what would essentially be a mountain of bones to find their DNA needle in a haystack, Molomot and Bemiss show us people trying to remind us that those bones and those corpses were also people. It’s a heartbreaking reminder and one that is easy to lose sight of, but it is something that the people that appear in the film refuse to let go of.

 
Last year, I spoke with Lisa and Jeff and one of the film’s subjects during the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, so this time Jeff and I talked about his and Lisa’s experiences during their virtual film festival tour including doing a rare in-person screening at one point.

Jeff talks about potential impact partners and a write-up in a publication that came about due to screening virtually, as opposed to in-person.

He also discusses their strategy for representation at the various fests. We also talk about our shared fandom of the Film Collaborative’s great Jeffrey Winter.

Lisa Molomot and Jeff Bemiss’ MISSING IN BROOKS COUNTY: SLO FILM FEST 2021 INTERVIEWS; experiences of doing a virtual film fest tour