THE LONG LABOR
A life-affirming journey of birthworkers and indigenous farmworkers coming together to support one another through ceremony, tragedy and joy.
Synopsis:
After losing her mother during childbirth, a Mexican immigrant grows up to become a women’s health nurse practitioner and a certified midwife. Tired of dominant definitions and limitations on how to care for her patients, Maria leads a group of women who are unapologetically challenging this system and advocating to restore indigenous wellness customs in farmworker communities. This movement sets in motion a chain of mutual aid practices that go beyond birth, as their town gets hit by a historical flood and a pandemic. This life-affirming journey is an invitation to reimagine care practices grounded in dignity and agency for all.
Directors Statement:
Brenda and Consuelo were deeply influenced and inspired by Maria and her mutual-aid work in their community during the pandemic. They are all Mexican immigrants living in Santa Cruz County, California.
In 2020, Maria was effectively mobilizing people to support indigenous and immigrant farmworkers at the height of the pandemic, by providing basic necessities and handmade organic healing remedies. These were some of the most vulnerable essential workers in the country, ineligible for many forms of government aid. The filmmaking team started out as volunteers and supporters of María’s work, where they immediately recognized the transformative message of Maria's life-affirming leadership and vision. Her work centering care and leadership of those in the margins seemed particularly hopeful at a time of an unprecedented health crisis that overwhelmed our support systems. Our five year journey documenting the work of this remarkable midwife and health nurse practitioner shows the significance and beauty of a community that is rarely seen nor heard in mainstream media. In times when immigrants, women’s rights and healthcare access are increasingly at risk, this film weaves these issues together and shines a light on how our rights are interconnected. The Long Labor offers a glimpse of hope and possibility of care practices grounded in dignity, community and ancestral healing.
Creative Team
Consuelo Alba (Director/Producer)
Consuelo is a Mexican documentary filmmaker based in California. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Watsonville Film Festival (WFF), a non-profit arts organization offering year-round programs and support for local filmmakers since 2012. She is an award winning-documentary filmmaker. Her short El Andalón / The Healer screened in more than 30 film festivals worldwide, received seven awards and was broadcast on Mexican public television.
Her documentary work focuses on cultural identity, healing and social justice. She is a recognized cultural leader in Santa Cruz County. Her Festival work has been funded by California Arts Council, the Bay Area Funders for Equity in the Arts, Creative West and Color Congress.
Brenda Ávila-Hanna (Director/Producer)
Brenda is a Mexican filmmaker based in California. She is a recent Sundance Producers Lab Fellow, a Rockwood/Just Films fellow and part of the inaugural cohort of DOC NYC’s “Documentary Industry New
Leaders.” Brenda’s work as a director and producer has been funded by ITVS, The Sundance Institute, The Redford Center, the Ford Foundation, BAVC and the Central Coast Creative Corps. She recently produced Emergent City (Tribeca 24/ PBS) and directed Libertad (NYLFF 25). Brenda is an active member of BGDM, Color Congress, and the Video Consortium Mexico. She is a professor at UCSC and a board member of the Watsonville Film Festival.
Eugenia Renteria (Cinematographer/Producer)
Eugenia is an award-winning Mexican filmmaker whose work explores identity, culture, and social justice. She was selected as a mentee in the PBS Ignite Mentorship and as an inaugural fellow of the Cine Se Puede Fellowship, and she received the 2024 Nexties Award for Visual Artist of the Year. Her directing credits include Amor en Cuarentena, Strawberry Picker, Tierra Fértil, Fake It ‘Till You Make It, and a PBS Sound Field episode on Sierreño music, which was nominated for the 36th Image Awards. Her films have screened at the Mill Valley Film Festival, New York Latino Film Festival, San Diego Latino Film Festival, ShortsMexico, and numerous others. She is a two-time winner of the New York Latino Film Festival’s Best Futuro Web Series Award. Eugenia is the founder of Inspira Studios and a proud alumna of Cal State Monterey Bay.
Elisa Leiva Anderson (Editor)
Elisa Leiva Anderson (b. 1991) is a filmmaker and editor from Santiago, Chile. Rooted in a family history of political struggle, her work often engages with legacies of resistance, the poetics of exile, and the unstable boundaries of nonfiction. Her most recent film as editor, Towards the Sun Far from the Center, premiered at the Berlinale and screened at New York Film Festival, among others. She holds an MFA in Documentary Film/Video from Stanford University (2023–25) and a B.A in Film & Television Production from the University of Chile (2011–16).
For five years, she was Head of International Relations at CinemaChile, representing Chilean cinema at over 40 international festivals—including Cannes, Berlin, and Rotterdam. This experience informed a decolonial framework that questions dominant paradigms of film circulation within Global South and Latin American contexts.
