Truth Be Told: A Short Film Inspired by an Abara Border Encounter Story

Written by Peter Reese

The year is 1883 in West Texas. A grizzled, rifle-toting man orders his assistant to swing a rope toward a well-worn tree branch. The accused, unable to understand English, reflects on the injustice that forced him, hands tied, to this clearing. This man will be lynched as a horse thief in a place where justice and mercy are interruptions on the way home to bacon, beans, and biscuits.

My team and I created a 20-minute dramatic film, Truth Be Told, which grew, in large measure, from the Abara Border Encounter I went on in May 2024. El Paso was a setting where the balance between security and mercy appeared to waver, even day-by-day. I live in Tucson. Immigration has been part of daily life for hundreds of years. The vitality and richness of other cultures comes alive in urban neighborhoods, as well as in the community of South Tucson. Yet many in Tucson struggle to understand, much less embrace, those from different places, languages and traditions.

Perhaps the borders in our minds have the greatest impact. They tempt us to act on the same kind of ill-formed notions that former slave Ezekiel brings to Manuel’s hanging in the film. When power and control are at stake, assumptions replace facts. The resulting violence is a way of exerting control well before, during, and long after frontier days in the American Southwest.

Creating Truth Be Told crystallized my experience in the El Paso region. I also held the lens of previous work with USAID as an economic development trainer and field worker in Tabasco. In Tabasco, as well as during my border encounter, the importance of asking good questions loomed large.

Though each question deserved focused attention, the “who”, “why”, “how”, “where” and “when” seemed to blur together. Answering these fundamental questions with the easy, obvious, or expected compromises our clarity and sidetracks our compassion. Oversimplifying is also the path to poor choices, serious consequences, and the likely destruction of families and communities.

Not every border visit and Abara experience needs to become a film, or even an essay. A crack in the mind’s border is a worthy start.

Authors Note: Truth Be Told (PG-13) is available to watch online at no cost on TruthBeToldFilm.com. Write to me for a discussion guide suitable for school, community and church groups: peter@wovenproductions.com. Plans call for an informal Justice & Mercy Tour to screen the film throughout 2026 and 2027.