Connect with Distribution

A Place of Absence

Directed by:

Marialuisa Ernst

Produced by:

Marialuisa Ernst and Brenda Avila

Production Company

Escandalosa Cine & A Place Films LLC

Contact:

  • Year

    2025

  • Length

    89 min

  • Country

    Bolivia and United States / On site

Synopsis

Decades after her uncle’s disappearance during Argentina’s Dirty War, a filmmaker joins the Caravan of Mother, a group of Central American women traveling the migrant trail in search of loved ones who vanished trying to cross the US-Mexico border

  • Marialuisa

    Ernst

    Director

    Queer South American filmmaker based in NYC creating intimate, political cinema rooted in performance art. Their work explores memory, loss, and identity across borders. A PLACE OF ABSENCE, their debut feature, is supported by Tribeca, NYSCA, NYC Women’s Fund, and major doc fellowships.

  • Brenda

    Avila

    Producer

    Brenda is a recent Sundance Documentary Producers Lab Fellow and a Points North Fellow. She was in the inaugural cohort of DOC NYC’s “Documentary Industry New Leaders,” a 2021 Rockwood/Just Films Fellow and a 2019 BAVC National Mediamaker. She recently produced Emergent City Tribeca ‘24/POV.

Other projects

I Will Never be a Cop

Project Chile / On site

You? Mom?

Project Brazil / Online

Pablo from Chill-e

Project Chile / On site

The Safest Place

Project Chile / On site

The Wind Will Blow

Project Brazil / On site

Unveiling the Cosmos: the Rubin Observatory

Project Chile, Spain and Germany / On site

Saving Patagonia

Project Chile / On site

Ako

Project Mexico and Brazil / On site

A Place of Absence

Project Bolivia and United States / On site

Exotic

Project Uruguay and Chile / On site

Landless Children

Project France and Chile / On site

just stay silent

Project Brazil y Colombia / On site

ARCHAEOLOGY OF TORTURE

Project Brazil, France and Norway / On site

Our fur baby Moma

Project Uruguay / On site

Película sin fin, 1995

Project Chile / On site

Asteroid 2518

Project Chile / On site

The Capture: The Incredible Story of the Lawyer Who Made It Possible

Project Chile / On site

Gil’s Passage

Project Brazil / On site

Owner of nothing

Project Argentina and Bolivia / On site

Sketches of the End of the World

Project Chile / On site

Gondola

Project Chile / On site

The Last Guató

Project Brazil / On site

The young shaman

Project Brazil / On site

Way to freedom

Project Argentina / On site

When the Fog Advances

Project Chile / On site

Masters of Sound

Project Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Peru

The other voice

Project Argentina - Spain / On site

The Fabulous Time Machine

Project Brazil / Online

Widows of Living Husbands

Project Brazil / On site

Undetectable

Project Brazil / On site

The Harpsichordist

Project Brazil / On site

Bombs

Project Chile / On site

VERTICAL HEARTBEAT

Project Colombia, Bolivia, and Nepal / On site

Daughter of the Sun

Project Costa Rica / On site

Taki Onqoy

Project Peru / On site

Fighting a Pink Plague

Project Chile / On site

The abyss of the wind

Project Argentina, Costa Rica and Guatemala / On site

Sons: The memory that remains

Project Chile and France / On site

Analog Zambra

Project Chile and Mexico / On site

Where the Sun is Born

Project Honduras / On site

Queen of the People

Project Colombia / On site

Víctor Saldaño vs US

Project Argentina / On site

Smell of Diesel

Project Brazil / Online

The island in silence

Project Mexico / On site

Jailers

Project Brazil / On site

A Body for Waldirene

Project Brazil / Online

South Pole Explorers

Project Chile / On site

A Path of Thorns

Project Mexico / Online

Nature of Color

Project Brazil and Chile / On site

TELEANALISIS: Images of an Invisible Country

Project Chile / On site