La Tierra de Sueños
New York City, New York | Film Short
Biography
La Tierra de Sueños is a short film about migration, memory, and ancestral dreams. As our communities face ongoing displacement, deportation, and erasure, this story uplifts our communities resilience and beauty. La Tierra de Sueños is a reminder that our voices, art and truths belong and matter.
La Tierra de Sueños
New York City, New York | Film Short
Biography
1 Campaigns | New York, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $5,385 for pre-production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
100 supporters | followers
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La Tierra de Sueños is a short film about migration, memory, and ancestral dreams. As our communities face ongoing displacement, deportation, and erasure, this story uplifts our communities resilience and beauty. La Tierra de Sueños is a reminder that our voices, art and truths belong and matter.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
La Tierra de Sueños | Land of Dreams is not just a film, it’s a homecoming. This is a story rooted in the Brown immigrant experience where migration is not just a dream, but a journey of memory, identity, and longing. It’s about the quiet courage it takes to start over, and the deep love that fuels that leap. Telling this story is honoring that lived experience. May it be remembered forever.
I wrote this film from my own family's story, from the duality of leaving and belonging, from the ache of separation and the joy of becoming. It's a reminder that every step forward is guided by those who walked before us. La Tierra de Sueños is soft, powerful, and necessary. A testament to the resilience of our communities, and a celebration of our right to dream boldly in Mexico, California, New York and across the globe.
My name is Katherine Bahena-Benitez (they/she). I am a queer Mexican Indigenous multidisciplinary artist whose love for storytelling is rooted in the legacy of my parents and ancestors journeys of migration, resilience, and resistance. My family’s story lives in my bones and telling our stories through art is not just my responsibility, it is my revolution. By being an artist and creating stories such as La Tierra de Sueños , is also my way of healing my inner child. Each frame, each poem, each project is a prayer of healing for my inner child and a love letter to all immigrant and undocumented youth.
With La Tierra de Sueños, I write and create to say:
You are seen. You are sacred. You are loved. I will protect us, always.
La Tierra de Sueños was born from that fire. It’s a film I carry every day, not only in memory but in lived experience, alongside my parents and community. I know what it means to long for the motherland while building one through art. Having created worlds through writing, performance, and theater, film is now the next language I’m using to speak truth to power. La Tierra de Sueños is a poetic reclamation of the immigrant dream. It’s for those caught between worlds: between what was left behind and what is being built now. It is a reminder that even in leaving, we carry power, and that we, as immigrants and children of immigrants, deserve to dream out loud. It is our right. We are currently living through a time of heightened violence and hostility toward our immigrant, mixed status and undocumented communities, and I feel now more than ever is the time to tell stories such as La Tierra de Sueños. Now is the time for cinematic ritual. Now is the time for art rooted in liberation. Now is the time to share our truth to be shared. Because the time for change is not some day, it is now. When we are no longer here, our stories is what will be remembered.
Supporting La Tierra de Sueños is a commitment to new voices, to truth-telling, and to art that dares to desire a different world. Because when our most vulnerable are harmed, we are all impacted and together, we can shift culture, not just mirror it. This is your chance to amplify a story that hasn’t been told like this before, urgent, beautiful, tender, rooted in truth and lived experience. Years from now, we’ll look back and say: in the midst of uncertainty, we still dared to dream and speak out loud. We still dared to create liberating and impactful art. To that I say, we don't need to build alone. Let’s build this world together.
We are currently in pre-production for La Tierra de Sueños. The script is locked and our core team is assembled. This fundraising campaign is our next crucial step. It will directly support production costs including crew stipends, equipment rentals, location fees, transportation, food, and set design. This is what will allow us to bring the world of La Tierra de Sueños to life with care, beauty, and integrity.
Once funded and filmed, the short will enter post-production at the end of October 2025, with a target completion date of November 1. After that, we plan to:
- Submit to film festivals to share this story with wider audiences across the country and globally.
If we surpass our goal, our stretch funds will go toward:
- Post-production enhancements like professional sound mixing and original scoring.
- Festival submission fees (to over 20+ festivals).
- Accessibility features like open captions and translations in Spanish, English and Nahuatl languages.
- Educational/community partnerships for screenings, workshops and panels in schools, museums, galleries, community centers, and cultural institutions.
Copy/Paste Social Media Text to share:
“I just supported La Tierra de Sueños. A powerful short film about migration, memory, and ancestral power. Help bring this story to life and uplift the voices of brown, queer, Indigenous, and immigrant storytellers."
Donate + share: [Link] ✨
#LaTierraDeSueños #SupportFilmmakers #MigrantStoriesMatter
This isn’t just a film. It’s a ritual of remembrance. It’s a dream we are building together.
Tlazo, Thank You, Gracias, for being here with me.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Production Staff
Costs $1,950
Fairly paying our core team is vital to sustaining an ethical and intentional filmmaking process.
Camera & Electric
Costs $2,000
High-quality visuals are essential to honoring the story’s emotional depth and visual poetry. This covers rental and operator costs.
Art Department
Costs $600
Set design and floral altar installations are key storytelling elements reflecting culture, memory, and migration.
Post Production
Costs $750
Helps us begin editing, submitting to festivals and sound design so the film can reach audiences in its full creative form.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Katherine Bahena-Benitez - Writer, Producer
Katherine is a queer Mexican Indigenous multidisciplinary artist, bicoastal between New York City and California. Katherine is an actor, writer, director, filmmaker, producer, teaching artist and model. Katherine studied at the American Conservatory Theater, California State University Sacramento, the Juilliard School, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and Broadway Advocacy Coalition at Columbia University. Katherine has been featured in Vogue, HipLatina, Remezcla, Chillhouse, Netflix, Fenty, VoyageLA, Chillhouse, YITTY, Apostrophe and Reclamation Magazine. Katherine is a proud Miranda Family Fellow Alumni, Queer Art Fellow Alumni and an Emergenyc Artist Alumni.
Jessica Garcia - Director
Jesse is a Queer Latina storyteller, writer and director. Since graduating from UC Merced with a Bachelors in English, Jessica has dove into the art of storytelling as a Writer and Video Producer for mitú, and Creative Producer for MyCode. Altogether, the videos she has produced and directed have a total of over 20 million views, filled with content that will make you cry, laugh or a little bit of both.
Josslyn Glenn - Producer
Josslyn is a Los Angeles County born Belizean and Chicana transgender producer, writer, spokesperson, and film curator dedicated to promoting nuanced representations of queer and trans people of color who have historically been under- and misrepresented in the media. She has produced award-winning branded, editorial, scripted, and unscripted projects screening internationally, such as Soul of a Nation Presents The Freedom To Exist with Elliot Page.
Elizabeth Uribe- Co-Producer
Elizabeth is a creative artist born and raised in Southeast Los Angeles. A lover of the arts, an adventurer, and an old soul! Her preferred art mediums are collage, mixed-media, and film & media, but she also loves to experiment with new or unconventional materials. Elizabeth’s enthusiasm for film & media has led her to work with entities such as PBS, Crimson Edge Productions, Fierce Mitú, and Independent filmmakers. Her roles have ranged from production assistant, producer, and program coordinator. Her current adventures include advocating for the arts and coordinating arts and culture programs, as well as producing stories that reflect her family and community.
Vanesa Moreno- Director of Photography
Vanessa is a filmmaker exploring identity, obsession, and transformation through a poetic and emotionally grounded lens. Rooted in visual storytelling and minimalism, their work examines the inner lives of young women navigating complex emotional and cultural terrain. Drawing inspiration from films like 3 Women, Amores Perros, and Columbus, Vanesa builds atmospheric narratives that blur the line between realism and lyrical introspection. Their current work includes FAN GIRL, a coming-of-age story about a queer teenager whose obsession with her favorite musician becomes a pathway to self-discovery, and ORIGINALITY IS DEAD, a critique of ambition and authorship in the fashion world centered on an Indigenous-Latina creative. Across projects, Vanesa brings care, curiosity, and an eye for the intimate to stories about identity, desire, and the pressures of performance. Vanesa Moreno is based in Los Angeles and New York and is currently developing both short- and long-form projects in narrative and hybrid spaces.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
La Tierra de Sueños | Land of Dreams is not just a film, it’s a homecoming. This is a story rooted in the Brown immigrant experience where migration is not just a dream, but a journey of memory, identity, and longing. It’s about the quiet courage it takes to start over, and the deep love that fuels that leap. Telling this story is honoring that lived experience. May it be remembered forever.
I wrote this film from my own family's story, from the duality of leaving and belonging, from the ache of separation and the joy of becoming. It's a reminder that every step forward is guided by those who walked before us. La Tierra de Sueños is soft, powerful, and necessary. A testament to the resilience of our communities, and a celebration of our right to dream boldly in Mexico, California, New York and across the globe.
My name is Katherine Bahena-Benitez (they/she). I am a queer Mexican Indigenous multidisciplinary artist whose love for storytelling is rooted in the legacy of my parents and ancestors journeys of migration, resilience, and resistance. My family’s story lives in my bones and telling our stories through art is not just my responsibility, it is my revolution. By being an artist and creating stories such as La Tierra de Sueños , is also my way of healing my inner child. Each frame, each poem, each project is a prayer of healing for my inner child and a love letter to all immigrant and undocumented youth.
With La Tierra de Sueños, I write and create to say:
You are seen. You are sacred. You are loved. I will protect us, always.
La Tierra de Sueños was born from that fire. It’s a film I carry every day, not only in memory but in lived experience, alongside my parents and community. I know what it means to long for the motherland while building one through art. Having created worlds through writing, performance, and theater, film is now the next language I’m using to speak truth to power. La Tierra de Sueños is a poetic reclamation of the immigrant dream. It’s for those caught between worlds: between what was left behind and what is being built now. It is a reminder that even in leaving, we carry power, and that we, as immigrants and children of immigrants, deserve to dream out loud. It is our right. We are currently living through a time of heightened violence and hostility toward our immigrant, mixed status and undocumented communities, and I feel now more than ever is the time to tell stories such as La Tierra de Sueños. Now is the time for cinematic ritual. Now is the time for art rooted in liberation. Now is the time to share our truth to be shared. Because the time for change is not some day, it is now. When we are no longer here, our stories is what will be remembered.
Supporting La Tierra de Sueños is a commitment to new voices, to truth-telling, and to art that dares to desire a different world. Because when our most vulnerable are harmed, we are all impacted and together, we can shift culture, not just mirror it. This is your chance to amplify a story that hasn’t been told like this before, urgent, beautiful, tender, rooted in truth and lived experience. Years from now, we’ll look back and say: in the midst of uncertainty, we still dared to dream and speak out loud. We still dared to create liberating and impactful art. To that I say, we don't need to build alone. Let’s build this world together.
We are currently in pre-production for La Tierra de Sueños. The script is locked and our core team is assembled. This fundraising campaign is our next crucial step. It will directly support production costs including crew stipends, equipment rentals, location fees, transportation, food, and set design. This is what will allow us to bring the world of La Tierra de Sueños to life with care, beauty, and integrity.
Once funded and filmed, the short will enter post-production at the end of October 2025, with a target completion date of November 1. After that, we plan to:
- Submit to film festivals to share this story with wider audiences across the country and globally.
If we surpass our goal, our stretch funds will go toward:
- Post-production enhancements like professional sound mixing and original scoring.
- Festival submission fees (to over 20+ festivals).
- Accessibility features like open captions and translations in Spanish, English and Nahuatl languages.
- Educational/community partnerships for screenings, workshops and panels in schools, museums, galleries, community centers, and cultural institutions.
Copy/Paste Social Media Text to share:
“I just supported La Tierra de Sueños. A powerful short film about migration, memory, and ancestral power. Help bring this story to life and uplift the voices of brown, queer, Indigenous, and immigrant storytellers."
Donate + share: [Link] ✨
#LaTierraDeSueños #SupportFilmmakers #MigrantStoriesMatter
This isn’t just a film. It’s a ritual of remembrance. It’s a dream we are building together.
Tlazo, Thank You, Gracias, for being here with me.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Production Staff
Costs $1,950
Fairly paying our core team is vital to sustaining an ethical and intentional filmmaking process.
Camera & Electric
Costs $2,000
High-quality visuals are essential to honoring the story’s emotional depth and visual poetry. This covers rental and operator costs.
Art Department
Costs $600
Set design and floral altar installations are key storytelling elements reflecting culture, memory, and migration.
Post Production
Costs $750
Helps us begin editing, submitting to festivals and sound design so the film can reach audiences in its full creative form.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Katherine Bahena-Benitez - Writer, Producer
Katherine is a queer Mexican Indigenous multidisciplinary artist, bicoastal between New York City and California. Katherine is an actor, writer, director, filmmaker, producer, teaching artist and model. Katherine studied at the American Conservatory Theater, California State University Sacramento, the Juilliard School, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and Broadway Advocacy Coalition at Columbia University. Katherine has been featured in Vogue, HipLatina, Remezcla, Chillhouse, Netflix, Fenty, VoyageLA, Chillhouse, YITTY, Apostrophe and Reclamation Magazine. Katherine is a proud Miranda Family Fellow Alumni, Queer Art Fellow Alumni and an Emergenyc Artist Alumni.
Jessica Garcia - Director
Jesse is a Queer Latina storyteller, writer and director. Since graduating from UC Merced with a Bachelors in English, Jessica has dove into the art of storytelling as a Writer and Video Producer for mitú, and Creative Producer for MyCode. Altogether, the videos she has produced and directed have a total of over 20 million views, filled with content that will make you cry, laugh or a little bit of both.
Josslyn Glenn - Producer
Josslyn is a Los Angeles County born Belizean and Chicana transgender producer, writer, spokesperson, and film curator dedicated to promoting nuanced representations of queer and trans people of color who have historically been under- and misrepresented in the media. She has produced award-winning branded, editorial, scripted, and unscripted projects screening internationally, such as Soul of a Nation Presents The Freedom To Exist with Elliot Page.
Elizabeth Uribe- Co-Producer
Elizabeth is a creative artist born and raised in Southeast Los Angeles. A lover of the arts, an adventurer, and an old soul! Her preferred art mediums are collage, mixed-media, and film & media, but she also loves to experiment with new or unconventional materials. Elizabeth’s enthusiasm for film & media has led her to work with entities such as PBS, Crimson Edge Productions, Fierce Mitú, and Independent filmmakers. Her roles have ranged from production assistant, producer, and program coordinator. Her current adventures include advocating for the arts and coordinating arts and culture programs, as well as producing stories that reflect her family and community.
Vanesa Moreno- Director of Photography
Vanessa is a filmmaker exploring identity, obsession, and transformation through a poetic and emotionally grounded lens. Rooted in visual storytelling and minimalism, their work examines the inner lives of young women navigating complex emotional and cultural terrain. Drawing inspiration from films like 3 Women, Amores Perros, and Columbus, Vanesa builds atmospheric narratives that blur the line between realism and lyrical introspection. Their current work includes FAN GIRL, a coming-of-age story about a queer teenager whose obsession with her favorite musician becomes a pathway to self-discovery, and ORIGINALITY IS DEAD, a critique of ambition and authorship in the fashion world centered on an Indigenous-Latina creative. Across projects, Vanesa brings care, curiosity, and an eye for the intimate to stories about identity, desire, and the pressures of performance. Vanesa Moreno is based in Los Angeles and New York and is currently developing both short- and long-form projects in narrative and hybrid spaces.