“The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez”

Although not about adoption, the film “The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez” tells a story of Guatemala and one of her children that will be of interest to parents of children adopted from there and anyone with a love or connection to the country.

The award-winning documentary was made by my dear friend, German filmmaker Heidi Specogna, and is a gripping account of the Guatemalan-born child who grew up to be the first American soldier killed in the Iraq war.

One of 300,000 sent in the first hours of the war, Gutierrez was a so-called green-card soldier, one of 32,000 or so fighting on distant and foreign soil for the USA.

This one-time street kid from Guatemala made his way to the US through Mexico, full of dreams of a better life. The film tells his story with accounts from the street kids he lived with, social workers at an orphanage he spent time in, the foster family he was eventually placed with, and his Marine buddies at Camp Pendleton.

… the narrators of the film are also the people we encountered as we were repeating José Antonio’s odyssey from the world of the poor to the world of the rich. People who day after day join the endless stream of emigrants — with no identity, no papers — equipped with nothing but their ability to work and their willingness to turn their backs on home and family forever. José Antonio’s story is no adventurer’s tale. It is the story of an attempt to survive — on both sides of the world.

“The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez” won the “Best Documentary” at the Swiss Film Awards and the Fox Azteca Borders on Film Award at the San Diego Latino Film Festival in 2006.

It’s been featured in film festivals around the world, including Sundance, the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, the Festival du Film de Rio de Janiero, the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, the Havana Film Festical and the Medimed Barcelona 2006.

There will be showings in the US on May 28 at the Cinema Arts Center in Huntingdon, NY, on the 30th at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, TX, and on June the 25th at the Goethe Institute in Washington DC.

Anyone interested in organizing a screening can contact info@atopia.com for information on how to do this.

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