An O’odham script-to-film that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2021 is now available to screen online for free after a few years on the festival circuit.

“Burros” is an emotionally resonant 16mm narrative short film that centers around a 6-year-old O’odham girl who comes across a migrant girl her age who was separated from her father near the Mexican border on the Tohono O’odham Nation. The girls become friends over the course of a day, even though they don’t speak the same language.

O’odham culture plays a significant role in “Burros.” Every actor in the film is from the Tohono O’odham Nation, and Virginia Patricio, who acts in the film, co-wrote the O’odham song she sings. Executive Producer Larry “Bear” Wilson, from Sells, received a Red Nation Honors Film Consultant Award for his work on the film. The other executive producers are Eva Longoria, Sandra Condito and Tohono O’odham Nation member Camillus Lopez.

Highlighting Border Issues

“Burros” writer and director Jefferson Stein told O’odham Action News that before writing the script, he didn’t know anyone from the Tohono O’odham Nation in southern Arizona, and he had never been there.

“The relationship was built by making [the film] together,” said Stein.

Stein was doing research on U.S.-Mexico border issues in 2015 when, he said, he came across an article about the militarization of the border and the consequences of its bisection of the Tohono O’odham communities on the U.S. and Mexico sides.

“This fracturing of family moved me in a way I couldn’t really let go of,” Stein shared. “It led me to want to learn more, and I did for a few years after that, including learning why the Tohono O’odham are in the news so often, which is that their 62-mile border had become a deadly migrant corridor.”

This new understanding of the complex issues surrounding the borderlands led to the script going from a writing exercise to pitching the idea to producer Liz Cardenas in Dallas.

Cardenas and Stein would travel back and forth to meet during preproduction. The two eventually secured a time slot on the Sells District Council meeting agenda after Wilson was elected Sells District Chair. The Council approved the film, and from there the team obtained permissions at the community and district levels to shoot the film across the Nation and at the national level from both the executive and legislative branches, according to Stein.

Casting O’odham Actors

“In the film, I wanted the world of the border that we typically hear about to stay in the background and put a kid who just wants a friend front and center,” said Stein.

In stepped young O’odham actor Amaya Juan, who plays Elsa.

Casting directors noticed her while she was playing on a local toka team, a talent she displayed in the film. Her aunt is her real-life coach. The film crew had the whole team come out for an afternoon and play toka for the movie.

Casting notices were placed at a grocery store. Patricio, who plays Elsa’s grandmother, came to help with the casting process but said she didn’t want to audition.

“I knew she’d be perfect,” recalled Stein.

“She told me to find someone else, and we tried, but eventually I had to literally beg her, and she agreed. I’m so happy she did, because she’s just so amazing in it. The song she sings, she and I wrote together with Camillus [Lopez].”

Stein said people kept telling him he had to find the “O’odham Tom Cruise” to play Elsa’s dad. He had no idea who that was.

“That’s how I met Rupert Lopez, a Tohono O’odham police officer who also taught kids, and he was perfect for it.”

For the music, Stein went online and found “All Day,” by Franco Habre and Tohono O’odham hip-hop artist Alex Soto of Shining Soul. Soto is the director of the Labriola National American Indian Data Center at the Arizona State University Library. Stein reached out to Soto and was given the okay to use the song, as he wanted some kids to be rapping in the film.

“That image of the two girls on the tank, with a Border Patrol SUV driving by and two high school kids rapping their song, really captured how I was feeling about the border at that time,” said Stein.

The rest of the music in the film is courtesy of Canyon Records.

Preproduction for the film lasted about a month. Stein said that during this time he lived in Tucson and commuted almost every day, meeting families, walking through the desert, casting roles and hearing stories.

“That kind of collaboration was what made it so special to me, and I feel so grateful we were able to make it the way we did,” said Stein.

“It’s been one of the most moving and important experiences of my life.”

“Burros” can be viewed online for free at burrosthefilm.com/watch.

This article has been updated.