Querida Fátima
A decade after the murder of her 12-year-old daughter, Lorena Gutiérrez refuses to let Fátima's story disappear. Camping outside Mexico's National Palace, she waits for an audience with the country's first female president, carrying a question that has nagged at Lorena for years: What does justice look like when nothing can bring back your child? Lorena is among the directors of this documentary that transforms personal grief into a deeply intimate act of remembrance and resistance. The film moves between Lorena's recollections, her family's struggle, and the stories of other mothers who have also lost daughters to violence, creating a portrait that is as much about love and memory as it is about the search for accountability. Most importantly, Fátima emerges as no mere statistic, but as a girl with dreams, a daughter remembered with tenderness and determination. This triple Guadalajara International Film Festival award winner is a powerful testament to a mother who never imagined becoming an activist but found in that fight a way to keep her daughter's memory alive. - João Federici
Director/s
Jesus Quintana
Jesus “Chucho” Quintana is Lorena Gutiérrez’s husband and partner in the struggle. He is a quiet force behind the fight for justice, always making sure that his wife and her allies are supported with all the important things that are critical to the movement, both great and small. From driving to hearings or finding lunch, or watching over the protest campsite, Don Chucho is happy to always make space. He is the embodiment of positive male ally in the fight to end gendered violence
Rodrigo Reyes
Rodrigo Reyes is a Mexican-American director, recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Creative Capital Award, and the Rainin Artist Fellowship, as well as a Mellon Arts Fellow at Stanford. His film 499 (2020) won Best Cinematography at Tribeca and the Special Jury Award at HotDocs. In 2022, he won the Best Film Award at Sheffield DocFest with Sansón and Me, which broadcast as the season-opener of Independent Lens.
Su Kim
Su Kim has won multiple awards at Sundance and was nominated for an Academy Award® in 2019 for Hale County: This Morning, This Evening. She received an Emmy in the Outstanding News and Current Affairs Documentary category, as well as two Peabody Awards, and was part of the producing team for the Academy Award-winning documentary short Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl) (2019).
Dawn Valadez
Dawn Valadez is a second-generation Xicana, social worker, and resource wrangler. In documentary filmmaking, Dawn is the producer/co-director of The Pushouts (2018), winner of the 2019 Imagen Best Documentary Award, and Going on 13 (2008). Some of the films they have produced include Vivien’s Wild Ride (2025) and Hummingbirds (2023). Dawn is also the proud co-director the BAVC Media Makers Fellowship, where she supports the voices of emerging filmmakers.
Lorena Gutiérrez
In 2015, Lorena Gutiérrez lost her daughter to a brutal feminicide. Fátima was only 12 years old. Since this loss, Lorena and her family have endured displacement, threats, harassment, and the death of their youngest son. After more than 10 years of struggle, Lorena has become recognized as an exemplary voice for victims of feminicides in Mexico. Collaborating closely with the National Citizen Observatory for Feminicides (OCNF, a leading law-clinic and advocacy nonprofit), Lorena has won significant victories in court. In May of 2025, she won a major ruling from the Mexican Supreme Court recognizing the rights of thousands of victims’ families across the country to receive reparations and restitution. She has collaborated on documentary films, including the award-winning feature 499 by director Rodrigo Reyes.