Dead in the Desert (2012)
In 2011, the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner (OME) recovered 184 dead migrants from southern ArizonaÂ’s Sonoran Desert. Dead in the Desert takes you into the Pima County OME, as medical investigators attempt to identify and repatriate the bodies of two migrants found in the Sonoran Desert on June 26, 2011.
The documentary travels to migrant shelters and Santa Muerte shrines along the Arizona-Sonora border, to a northern Mexico town whose economy depends on migration, and ride along with a humanitarian aid organization that maintains water stations in the desert for crossing migrants.
Dead in the Desert captures the real struggle faced by those who cross the Sonoran Desert in search of a better life – and the unfortunate souls who die trying.