Josefina Lopez is best known for authoring “Real Women Have Curves,” a play turned movie which challenged cultural assumptions on beauty, marriage and a woman’s role in society.

Her latest effort could be described as even more personal – “Detained in the Desert,” a movie from her and director Iliana Sosa, is an uncompromising look at the topic of immigration in the U.S. — something they feel has been completely ignored in the powerful film medium.
“I was undocumented for 13 years,” Lopez says. “As a little girl it really damaged me. You don’t feel human, you internalize this invisibility and really feel like you are an alien.”

The movie is centered on Sandi, a second-generation dark skinned Latina and Lou Becker, a controversial talk show radio host. “They get stranded in the desert and have to help each other out,” Sosa says. “They have to set their political differences aside – they become like the undocumented immigrants who die out there, trapped.”

Lopez gained firsthand knowledge of the plight of undocumented immigrants who attempt to cross the desert to enter the U.S. when she was given a tour of the areas in Arizona by Enrique Morones, who founded Border Angels. The non-profit organizations works to “stop the unnecessary deaths of individuals in the desert by delivering water in key points where migrants cross the desert.”

Read the full story at NBC Latino