La nueva ola de añil (The New Indigo Wave). Niltepec, Oaxaca. 2023. 12:28 mins.
Directed by Karla Claudio, Cinematography by Monica Wise, Produced by Karla Claudio-Betancourt, Xavier Valenzuela Kat
La nueva ola de añil (The New Indigo Wave) follows residents of Oaxacan town Niltepec—whose name means Cerro del Añil or Indigo Hill—and the process of alchemizing the mesmerizing blue pigment known as añil from the jiquilite plant (Indigofera tinctoria).
Sun and Thunder: Colombian Cannabis Farms' Game Changer | Documentary | Voice of America Commission
Cauca, Colombia. 2023. 14 mins. Cinematographer, Co-Producer.
In one of the deadliest countries in the world for land defenders, Nora Taquinas (@nora_taquinas), mother of three and Indigenous Nasa activist, works with youth to create economic substitutes to illicit marijuana farming as part of an effort to weaken the power of armed groups. Her mission is the result of a 2019 massacre that Taquinas survived, strengthening her resolve to protect her community.
Once Upon A Bite: Grain Planet. S4 English Trailer
I field directed/produced four segments throughout Mexico, Peru and Bolivia for this nationally famous Chinese food documentary series from 2021 - 2023.
Cinematography by Maquesh CC.
Grain Planet Full S4 Full Trailer. Reel of our footage linked above and here
WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND - 2022. 71min. Cinematographer.
After a lifetime of bus rides to the US to visit his children, Julián quietly starts building a house in rural Mexico. In filming his work, his granddaughter crafts a personal and poetic love letter to him and his homeland.
Feature film directed by Iliana Sosa. Edited, co-written and co-produced by Isidore Bethel. Produced by Emma D. Miller. Cinematography by Monica Wise Robles, Judy Phu, and Iliana Sosa.
– SXSW, First Look (Museum of the Moving Image), Full Frame, Thin Line Fest, Phoenix Film Festival, RiverRun International Film Festival, North by North International Film Festival, Milwaukee Film Festival, the DocYard
– SXSW Louis Black “Lone Star” Award, SXSW Fandor New Voices Award, Thin Line Fest Emerging Filmmaker Award. Array and Netflix distribution.
- NYT Critic Pick, and Gotham Awards Nominee for Best Documentary feature
VICE: Después de la Tormenta // After the Flood. 2022 EMMY Winner. Camera Operator.
We won an Emmy for this hard hitting doc made in very tough conditions!
After back-to-back Hurricanes Eta and Iota destroyed their hometown in the mountains of Guatemala, this family was forced to migrate to the U.S. In the trek through Mexico, corrupt authorities and violent cartels preyed upon the little they had left.
Restore: How Central America is fighting drought with nature. El Salvador. 2023. 6:35 mins. Camera Operator.
Client work for UN Environmental Program with Tapi story, on the climate crisis and solutions northern triangle.
Lupita. Que Retiemble la Tierra — 2020 21 mins. Director, Co-producer, and Cinematographer.
Lupita is available on the Guardian: theguardian.com/lupita
A Tsotsil Maya massacre survivor becomes a spokesperson for her people amid a Mexican indigenous movement led by women.
Thank you to Sundance, MacArthur Foundation, The Ford Foundation, Women in Film Finishing Fund, and Swift Foundation for their support. Thank you to The Abejas de Acteal for access and collaboration.
Official Selection: Sheffield Doc/Fest, Ambulante, Guadalajara International Film Festival, Guanajuato International Film Festival 2020, Lebanese Independent Film Festival, Doc NYC and the March on Washington International Film Festival 2020. Lupita received the Honorable Mention for Best Short Mexican Documentary from the DOQUMENTA Festival Jury 2020 and best short documentary film in the emerging category of the March on Washington Film Festival!
Interview here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/05/lupita-powerful-voice-indigenous-woman-leading-movement
Niñas // Somos el fuego - 2021. 34 min. Cinematographer, Co-Director/Producer, Editor.
Premio GABO 2022 Winner as part of No Fue El Fuego Multimedia Project.
A documentary filmed over 4 years about the state crime in Guatemala that left 41 girls dead on March 8 (IWD) 2017 with Agencia Ocote, as part of a multimedia project of their complete reporting on the case. Funding in part provided by the IWMF.
Logline: In one of the deadliest tragedies in Guatemala since the end of its civil war, a fire in a state-run shelter killed 41 teenage girls and left 15 seriously wounded. Several years later, the remaining young survivors grapple with injustice, government negligence, and life as teenagers, unveiling how gendered violence, corruption and impunity pervade Latin America. This documentary intimately reveals the memories and nightmares, dreams and current realities of three young survivors, humanizing a politicized, re-criminalized and unresolved case.
Thank you for watching — I hope that putting faces to cases like these can create consciousness help demand justice for the atrocities that happen in this world.
Trailer and film online here (CC for subs): https://nofueelfuego.agenciaocote.com/documental/
The Mexican women who kicked out the cartels. Short Doc for The Guardian. Cherán, Mexico. 2021. 6:21 mins. Director and Cinematographer.
Produced by Andrea Murcia and Monica around the 10th anniversary of the Cherán uprising. Photo Credit: Andrea Murcia.
Adelaida Sánchez is a member of the community police force in Cherán, a Purépecha indigenous town in Michoacán, Mexico, which declared itself autonomous in 2011. When the town was under siege from illegal logging, cartel criminals, and corrupt authorities and the men of the town stood by and did nothing, it was left to women to lead the fightback. On the tenth anniversary of the uprising, Adelaida patrols the town and its forests, providing an oasis amidst the murder, kidnap and extortion across the state…
T Magazine: I filmed and directed this short home tour video for the NYT T Magazine with Dirk-Jan Kinet. The Flemish designer invites T into his home in Mexico City’s Centro Histórico. Full article here. August 2020.
BBC Reel: The Maya world untouched for centuries. 3 Part docuseries Shot, field produced and edited by me.
Released: 18 NOVEMBER 2020, Shot and Produced Summer 2019.
Archaeologists have suspected there was more to the Maya sites - Tikal, El Zotz and Holmul. But it wasn’t until recently that proof came – in the form of Lidar, a type of remote sensing technology. Still is a BTS shot by Jesús López.
Niñas documentary excerpt published in Nómada on March 8, 2020, 3 years after the anniversary of the tragic fire in the state run shelter, Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción in Guatemala. Still by co-producer Victoria Bouloubasis. Made with the support of International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF)’s Adelante Reporting Initiative. Also produced by Lucía Reinoso Flores, shot by me, edited by Marlén Ríos-Farjat and me.
Three years after a fire in a state-run shelter for minors killed 41 girls, the judicial process in Guatemala is still stalled and the victims’ families and 15 survivors still seek justice. With IWMF support, Victoria Bouloubasis and I are making a documentary with their testimonies. Today, Nómada publishes a clip. From Nómada: One of the most frightening tragedies in Guatemala hasn’t sparked much empathy in a society used to abuses of power. Documentary filmmakers Monica Wise Robles and Victoria Bouloubasis offer part of their audiovisual project with testimonies from the Hogar Seguro, for the right to break silence and the search for dignity. (Video in Spanish)
[Español] Una de las tragedias más espantosas de Guatemala pareciera no despertar empatía en una sociedad acostumbrada a los abusos del poder. Las documentalistas Mónica Wise Robles y Victoria Bouloubasis presentan este trabajo audiovisual con testimonios sobre el Hogar Seguro, el derecho a romper el silencio y la búsqueda de la dignidad.
Este reportaje fue realizado con el apoyo de la International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) como parte de su iniciativa de Adelante en América Latina. Producido también por Lucía Reinoso Flores, fotografiado por mi, editado por Marlén Ríos-Farjat y mi.
‘Roma’ star Yalitza Aparicio on balancing acting and activism. Mar 19, 2020. Camera Operator.
Financial Times: Mexico's migrant crackdown. December 18 2019
The FT's Central America correspondent Jude Webber travels to the Mexico-Guatemala border to meet migrants desperate to make it to the US and the 'coyote' people smugglers profiting from their pain. Has Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador caved in to threats from Donald Trump - turning his country into a 'border wall'?
Produced, directed and edited by Ben Marino; reported and produced by Jude Webber; second camera by Monica Wise-Robles; fixer and local producer, Benjamín Alfaro Velázquez; graphics by Russell Birkett; color grade and sound mix by Anastasia Cipolla; production manager, Nasim Asadi; executive producer, Joe Sinclair.
BBC TRAVEL: Colombia’s indomitable ‘horse whisperer’
By Gena Steffens & Monica Wise. May 24 2019
Multimedia Project. Production, video and ambient drones by me. Colombia has long been home to one of the most rugged and machista cowboy cultures on Earth. Today, Natalia Salazar is breaking barriers from the backs of horses. Image by Gena Steffens.
The Guardian: La Caravana: On the road with the migrant caravan. November 2018.
Thousands of migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala head north hoping to find work and a better life in the US.
Shot and Produced by me. Edited by Mariano V. Osnaya.
The Intercept: New Limits on Asylum for Domestic Violence Cases Are Devastating for Guatemalan Women. Collaboration with Cora Currier thanks to support from the IWMF.
The Guardian: Dead or imprisoned for having an abortion: fighting El Salvador's brutal laws – video
The total ban on abortion in this deeply religious Central American country means that women have been jailed over miscarriages, or died as a result of unsafe terminations. But amid growing protests, politicians may finally bow to pressure to overturn El Salvador’s draconian anti-abortion laws. I shot this with Victoria Bouloubasis on an IWMF Fellowship.
Since mid-October 2017, more than 5000 Tzotzil indigenous people in Chalchihuitán have been displaced by paramilitary activity triggered by a territorial dispute. Automatic gunfire, burnt houses, and people hiding in the mountains for 2-3 months. This is the same set of events that happened before the Acteal massacre 20 years ago in Chiapas, Mexico, when 45 peaceful Tzotzil indigenous people were killed by PRI-aligned paramilitaries while local security forces stood by and let it happen.
Here are some testimonials I filmed in Chalchihuitán, the day before the Acteal Anniversary.
And here is the full report on Animal Politico which came out the day after they left the camps.
Read my colleague Katie Schlechter’s report that came out on the anniversary of the Acteal massacre here: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/mexico-renewed-land-dispute-displaces-5000-chiapas-171222163355229.html
OZY: CREATING A SAFE SPACE FOR WOMEN IN MEXICO CITY
I made this video about the tough young women who run “Punto Gozadera,” a lesbo-trans-feminist restaurant, club & community in the heart of Mexico City. I asked these “lesbofeministas” to share their model of a queer safe space with the world. Mexico ranks among the worst countries in the world for violence against women; six women are killed due to their gender every day. This short features women who work tirelessly to maintain a safe space for their community in a state that is not, “en un estado de femicidio tan cabrón," or within a terrible state of femicide. Image: https://www.hannahcauhepe.com/
This sixth International Jazz Day concert was filmed at the Gran Teatro in Havana, Cuba and streamed live around the world in April of 2017. Hosted by Will Smith, this concert was a true coming together of cultures - the melding of Afro-Cuban and American jazz. I shot behind the scenes and on the streets for the PBS special and BET broadcast.
AJ+ Deportados Unidos En La Lucha. Only another deportee will understand what it's like to leave a life behind in the U.S. Now they're helping each other. I shot and produced this video about this collective that continues to support deportees in Mexico City.
THE ATLANTIC: A Migrant Farmworker's Words for Trump. Originally titled Una Mala Hierba // A Bad Weed. Reyna is an organic farmer in Ventura County who is a strong defender of environmental justice and farm worker rights. I shot/directed.produced this as part of the America Heard Webseries. It was featured as an editor's pick on The Atlantic and was one of the channel's most watched videos. Edited by Pilar Timpane.
TELESUR: Women as the Backbone of the Standing Rock Resistance. The women of #NoDAPL have been the backbone of this movement and are part of a larger story. This is our most watched and shared video of the four shorts I co-produced for TeleSUR at Standing Rock.
Reportaje for TeleSUR: Mujeres, la base de lucha contra el proyecto "Dakota Access"
NBC Latino, Humanizing America: Standing Rock
I shot and produced this video for The Futuro Media Group and NBC Latino with journalist Maria Hinojosa and tribal rights attorney and Bernie Sander's advisor Tara Houska.
2017 DOCUMENTARY STORYTELLING REEL
History Now: SOIL Haiti Video. My footage of Soil Haiti’s work was also used to showcase their accomplishments with their award at the 2016 Stockholm’s Eat Forum.
PBS: America By The Numbers: The New Deciders. I was the AP and Second Camera on this hour long PBS special on the changing electorate in the US, which premiered September 6th, 2016. Trailer here.
TELESUR: The Water Protectors Who Stayed at Standing Rock. I produced this video for TeleSUR English while at Standing Rock early January 2017. Water protectors at Standing Rock fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline are showing resilience as hundreds continue to stay at the camps braving harsh storms and sub-zero temperatures.
Did Something Right Tim is a pest control business owner and farmer in Fillmore, CA. While he doesn’t like Trump, he voted Republican because he didn’t want to cross party lines. I directed, shot and produced this as part of the America Heard webseries that launched on Inauguration Day 2017.
Bob’s Bernie Hens. I directed/shot/produced this short film as part of the America Heard Webseries. Bob Shepherd lives a sustainable life as an organic chicken farmer in the Republican farmer town of Fillmore, CA. He loves his hens and says they love Bernie too, “they are working girls after all.”
TELESUR: Trump & DAPL, C0-produced for TeleSUR English. Indigenous people and environmental activists scored a huge victory last December, when they pressured former President Barack Obama’s administration to bring construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (#DAPL) to a temporary halt. But now with Donald Trump as President, many say the fight is just beginning.
PBS: America By The Numbers: The New Deciders. I was the AP and Second Camera with host Maria Hinojosa on this hour long PBS special on the changing electorate in the US. It premiered September 6th, 2016. Trailer here.
Mood Ring Productions Produced The Posture Studio Presents: Austin Green
Mood Ring edited The Center's Women's Event 16 Promo
I shot Behind the Scenes of this Playout NYC Brand Video
The Posture Studio Presents: Michel Bellici
BTS Playout NYC Brand Video
Tyke Dance Artist Spotlight and Dance Film Teaser