The Silence of Neto, a coming-of-age film set in 1954 Cold-War-Guatemala, received several international awards, was Guatemala’s 1st Oscar submission and is credited as the inspiration for many of Guatemala’s current filmmakers. The Guardian listed Argueta as a Guatemala’s National Living Icon, alongside Nobel Laureate, Rigoberta Menchú. His multinational immigrant narratives include AbUSed: The Postville Raid (the largest single-site immigration raid in the history of the United States); Abrazos (how 14 u.s. Citizen Children travel from Minnesota to Guatemala to meet their grandparents for the first time); The U Turn (how a group of immigrant women and children transform their lives through courage, community solidarity and the U Visa); and Ausencia (work in progress: three women struggle to create a life at home rather than migrate). Argueta is the only filmmaker to receive the Order of the Quetzal, Guatemala’s highest honor. In 2019, he received the Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award from the National Peace Corps Association and he has been named 2021-2022 Lund-Gill Chair at Dominican University.
Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara
