ARTicle Films

In 2013, a ruling from the Dominican Republic's constitutional court effectively rescinded citizenship rights for over 200,000 Dominican-born residents of Haitian descent. A rise in populist politics also saw violent mobs springing up nationwide, committed to seeing the destruction of Black Dominicans who were already living under the constant threat of deportation. Bending to the weight of international outrage, the government established a regularization process—but only for a limited time. Racing against the clock, 23-year-old Pikilina must scramble to gather the documentation necessary to prove her birthright and secure citizenship for her two children. This horrifying look at the not-so-new face of nationalism comes more than 80 years after dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the slaughter of over 12,000 Haitians living on the northern frontier. With one woman's story of struggle, Massacre River offers a study on the precarity of Black life and the abhorrent fantasy of borders.