TORN APART: SEPARATED AT THE BORDER DEBUTS OCTOBER 10 EXCLUSIVELY ON HBO

After escaping violence that claimed the lives of her husband and two uncles in Honduras, María was detained and separated from her 10-year-old son Alex for 70 days. Vilma fled from her abusive husband in Guatemala and was placed in ICE detention, while her 11-year-old daughter, Yeisvi, was put into foster care for eight months. The film tracks both women as they navigate a complicated system, fight orders of deportation and try to find their children, who were placed thousands of miles away. With the help of friends and family, pro bono lawyers and community volunteers, Vilma and María eventually reunite with Yeisvi and Alex, yet both pairs await uncertain futures as their asylum claims remain pending.
The film illuminates the laborious journey migrant families, including many women and children escaping violence and abuse, make to reach the U.S., only to be detained indefinitely and have their children transported to facilities hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away. Providing a human context to a fraught political issue, the documentary short reveals how arduous reunification is after separation for asylum seekers. Families detained at the border in 2018 were separated for an average of three months and some have yet to be reunited. 
Ellen Goosenberg Kent’s previous HBO projects include the Oscar®-winning “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1”; the Emmy®-nominated “Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq”; “Wartorn” and “One Nation Under Dog,” both of which earned Television Academy Honors®.
TORN APART: SEPARATED AT THE BORDER is directed and produced by Ellen Goosenberg Kent; edited by Luis Álvarez y Álvarez; producer, Xochitl Dorsey; music by Tyler Strickland. For Talos Films: executive producers, Elli Hakami, Julian P. Hobbs. For HBO: executive producers, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, supervising producer, Sara Rodriguez