Emily Cohen Ibañez is a Latinx Colombian-American filmmaker who earned her doctorate in Anthropology with a certificate in Culture and Media at New York University. Her film work pairs lyricism with social activism, advocating for labor, environmental, and health justice. Her films have screened at Bogotá’s International Film Festival, the Sante Fe Independent Film Festival, the Roxie Movie Theatre in San Francisco, the Society for Visual Anthropology, and universities internationally. She screened “Bodies at War” in 22 rural Colombian municipalities affected by landmines. She also contributes cinematography to independent films, including “Bronx Obama,” which won Best in Fest at AFI Docs.

“Fruits of Labor” is screening at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival, which is taking place online March 16-20.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

ECI: “Fruits of Labor” is a lyrical coming-of-age story about a young woman’s struggle with family obligations, work, and personal desires for freedom.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

ECI: I’m a Latinx filmmaker long dedicated to the struggle of farmworkers in the town where Ashley, protagonist and co-writer, lives. After 2016, I noticed an uptick in ICE raids in Ashley’s community and saw a marked increase in United States-born children working in agricultural fields and factories, replacing their undocumented parents.

Stories of mixed-status families living under the daily terror of ICE is largely ignored in news media. When the news covers current immigration issues, it tends to focus on the geographic location of the U.S.-Mexico border and the detainment of asylum seekers. Less often, we learn about how the border exists in physically distant places but nonetheless terrorized by ICE and the constant threat of family separation.

W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?

ECI: I want people to think about what it means to live a dignified life, for working families in this country and transnationally. I invite viewers to think about the global food chain that too often devalues the essential labor of picking and packaging food. My hope is that the documentary serves as a poetic invitation to re-imagine work.

I’d like to switch the equation, not look for deferred value but rather value workers and working families as full human persons. Essential workers should be free from fear at the workplace, from poverty, and from the inability to pursue higher education.

I also want people to fall in love with Ashley and her family and find bits and pieces of identification with what it means to come-of-age.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

ECI: Funding. It’s always funding for indie filmmakers in the U.S. — for emerging filmmakers like myself, it’s common to piece together grants, crowdfunding, and the goodwill of individuals.

Cultural work is devalued in this country: as emerging filmmakers we are often seen as recipients of charity rather than fully valued for the hard work that goes into making a film, especially for directors who put their hearts and souls into a film for years. There’s a lot of discussion about sustainability in the field, but to truly make this career in filmmaking sustainable, we’ll have to reimagine work and the making of art as a form of valued work.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? (Is it a studio film, a crowdsourced film, somewhere in between?) Share some insights into how you got the film made.

ECI: At first, no one would fund my film. It’s hard to get funding at the development stage and early shooting of the film. I crowdfunded on Seed&Spark and was able to raise $15,000. I passed out flyers on the street and partnered with local businesses like taquerias to push the funding campaign forward.

Six months after that, I started to get fellowships and grants, which primarily financed this film along with not paying myself appropriately for the hours I put in.

My hope is that the next film may be a little easier to fund, but many filmmakers say they are back to square one again.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

ECI: I love the form. I love storytelling. And I want to change the world by re-envisioning it.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

ECI: Best advice: Keep going

Worst advice: Once, a seasoned producer told me to abandon my project immediately because I would never get funded. That person was wrong and I’m glad I ignored them.

W&H: What advice do you have for other women directors?

ECI: Don’t be afraid to take the limelight. Own your craft and your work. As women, we often internalize the idea that we should apologize for having a vision and a voice. It’s nonsense and yet a constant struggle.

Let’s support each other to be able to freely do the work we are meant to do.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

ECI: Right now, it’s “Nomadland.” Chloé Zhao is a master at interweaving fiction and documentary and she’s brilliant. In “Nomadland,” she captures the ethos of the current cultural moment of America — where labor has become so flexible and devalued that perhaps we are returning to a nomadic life where relationships are like passing light on ethereal landscapes.

W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how?

ECI: I was lucky to have shot most of “Fruits of Labor” before COVD-19 so I could stay focused on the edit with my team. I also have been making short films during this time.

Yes, I am keeping creative, but I do not ever want to adjust to the COVID life. While I enjoy some aspects of being homebound, I find this way of living exhausting. I don’t think we as a country and world have even begun to understand the magnitude of what we are going through.

W&H: The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — negative stereotypes. What actions do you think need to be taken to make Hollywood and/or the doc world more inclusive?

ECI: Hire women and people of color as directors, cinematographers, composers. There are several listservs to find crew and projects to support. Sites to check out: Brown Girls Doc Mafia and Array Crew. Also, make a point at festivals to mingle with people who don’t look like you or share your same heritage; ask about their work.