Which Way Home

Directed by Rebecca Cammisa and released in 2009, Which Way Home is a film that follows a numbers of unaccompanied children and adolescents riding on top of "la bestia" in an attempt to reach the United States. This Academy Award nominated film follows the children from different Central American countries through Mexico and into the United States. Not all of the children arrive in the U.S., and of those who make it, not all of them stay. At the time of filming, about 5% of immigrants arriving at the US/Mexico border were unaccompanied minors. Today, that number is much higher, with the first 8 1/2 months of the 2014 fiscal year experiencing a 99% increase in unaccompanied minors than in 2013.

The film's trailer...

...and a clip from the film.

Sin Nombre

Released in 2009, Sin Nombre (Without a Name) follows two teenagers trying to reach the United States. The film starts out with telling the children's stories separately--Sayra in Guatemala and Willy in Mexico--but merges about a quarter of the way through. 

Sayra's story begins in Guatemala. Her father left Guatemala years ago in search of work in the United States and was recently deported back to Guatemala. He desperately wants to return to his wife and children in New Jersey, and has offered to take his daughter and brother with him. Afraid of sexual assault and gang activity, frustrated by her future prospects at home, Sayra decides to follow her father. 

For Willy, the decision to go North is much more sudden. He has seen trains carrying people north since he was a baby, but it isn't until he is faced with imminent death threats from the infamous Mara Salvatrucha (also known as MS-13) gang that he decides, somewhat unwillingly, to make the trek north. 

To reach the U.S., both Sayra and Willy ride "La Bestia" aka the cargo trains traveling through central and south america. Immigrants jump onto the (relatively) slow moving train between stops and ride perched on the roofs of the railcars. This free transpiration is estimated to carry 500,000 immigrants into Mexico every year and comes with considerable risk. Riders risk amputation and death, and violence and extortion from the gangs controlling this popular route north. 

Unfortunately, because of the widespread extortion found along the route, many of the immigrants fleeing gang violence end up funding the very gangs from which they are trying to escape.