From 2012 to 2014, Iris Films’ executive director Pamela Harris embarked on a Fulbright Grant to Uruguay to gather documentary footage of the Afro Uruguayan population. She shot 60 hours of footage, and gathered a substantial amount of archival images and other resources.
This film is the result of that journey. Farías: an Afro Uruguayan Love Story, is an 11-minute documentary that invites viewers to the quiet rural town of Melo, where a man shares his memories of his mother who was, in her time, the last known living Uruguayan person born in slavery. What results is a nuanced meditation on mother-son love, the struggles of a people, and the deep connections between national histories and intimate life.
The project is directed by Pamela Harris and co-produced by Pamela Harris and the acclaimed Uruguayan-American novelist Carolina De Robertis.