San Miguel High School students are turning their border immersion experiences into film through a collaboration between the school’s El Otro Lado program and CK Productions, learning firsthand how to tell stories of migration, identity and empathy through documentary filmmaking.

El Otro Lado, “the other side” in Spanish, allows students to explore the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration policies while producing a film that includes interviews with aid workers, attorneys, Border Patrol agents and judges.

Students also attended asylum hearings and delivered water in the desert while filming scenes for the documentary, which will be edited with help from the CK Productions crew.

The student documentary will be shown alongside CK Productions’ own film, “Backyard Desert,” about a Border Patrol agent who finds a dying migrant in the desert.

At a fundraiser for the collaboration earlier this month, attendees watched trailers for both films, with San Miguel staff discussing the partnership alongside actors and producers from “Backyard Desert.”

The documentary is expected to be completed in the spring.

“During the filming, I just did interviews when we went to the consulate,” San Miguel student Diana Alvidred told Tucson Spotlight. “The students got interviewed by the filmmakers afterwards about how we felt and how our perspective changed.”

Alvidred said she also helped conduct interviews at Border Patrol stations and with humanitarian aid workers, adding that the experiences solidified her stance on immigration.

“I’ve always believed that everyone should be able to come here for a better life, so my perspective hasn’t changed, but has made it stronger,” Alvidred said. “I didn’t go out to the border this time, but in my sophomore year, we went down to Nogales, and I saw a family eating breakfast on both sides of the wall. Afterwards, we actually saw someone climb over and get stuck at the top of the wall, and Border Patrol had to rescue them.”

Seeing the border in real life felt surreal to Alvidred, who had only viewed it on the news.

“But it also made me sad,” she said. “I believe that everyone who comes here just wants a life of potential.”

El Otro Lado Program Director Yithzel Valenzuela said the program was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the student documentary marks an important step toward rebuilding.

“COVID affected the program due to the closing of organizations, so the program was not able to run like it did,” Valenzuela said. “It stopped us from going out and visiting the organizations, visiting the courts, going with Border Patrol, and it also stopped other schools from visiting us, so it put the program on pause.”

Valenzuela took over the program in July and immediately began working to get it back on track.

“I knew what the program looked like before COVID because I had participated in the program at San Miguel (as a student), so I wanted it to get back to what I experienced,” she said.

As director, Valenzuela coordinates all activity between the students and nonprofits, the Mexican consulate and Border Patrol, making phone calls and setting up meetings so students can film and learn about the various groups’ work.

Valenzuela said the collaboration between San Miguel and CK Productions began just three days after she took over as director.

“We started planning our first trip to happen in September, and it went great,” Valenzuela said. “We’re already back, and we’re only going up from here.”

She said that after every outing, students engage in discussions and reflections about their experiences.

“My favorite thing is when the students surprise us,” Valenzuela said. “Sometimes when we would do the reflections, they would talk about things I didn’t think they realized, and I just think, wow, the students really understand and care about what they’re doing. It makes me feel very proud of it, and I am proud of our students because they engage with everyone we work with.”

CK Productions owner Ethan Felizzari-Castillo said he hopes to build on the collaboration with San Miguel. He and the crew spent the summer in Yuma filming desert scenes and will be in Tucson this spring to continue filming.

Castillo said he wanted “Backyard Desert” to be more than a film shot in Arizona, and the partnership with San Miguel helped achieve that goal.

“It was sort of an accident,” Castillo said. “We didn't think a school would want to collaborate with us, but we had a list of schools, so we sent out an email to San Miguel, and it just happened that they were looking for something like this. The rest is history.”

Castillo said the original plan was to partner with nonprofits, but after connecting with El Otro Lado, he realized they could make a bigger impact.

Castillo taught all the classes that students attended while filming the documentary.

“It’s even more impactful than working with a nonprofit because we’re helping the next generation, while also working with all of the partnered nonprofits that San Miguel already works with,” Castillo said.

Castillo also joined students on visits as part of the border immersion program, saying it left a lasting impact.

“Going to the border towns and going to the border immersion program allowed me to see all of the intricacies about the larger problem,” Castillo said. “Being in New York, we know the problem as whatever the media tells us is the problem. We don’t know the problem.”

Castillo said he enjoyed the program so much that the entire production and film team will host their own immersion program when they return to Arizona this spring.

“Our feature film has been something I’ve been passionate about, but it is completely revitalized because of San Miguel,” Castillo said. “The border immersion program changed the way I see not just the border crisis and migrant crisis, but the way I see the world.”

Castillo said he hopes to inspire students to make their own films one day, saying that the El Otro Lado program transformed “Backyard Desert” from a film set in Arizona into a project about education and shared understanding.

“My favorite moments during this program have been talking to the people who do this work,” Castillo said. “Interacting with the kids has also been special, but hearing from the people who have dedicated their lives to this work, it’s a beautiful thing to me.”

Colton Allder is a Tucson-based freelancer who reports for Tucson Spotlight. Contact him at callder1995@gmail.com.

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