Emily Cohen Ibañez

Emily Cohen Ibañez is a Colombian-American filmmaker and screenwriter who pairs cinematic lyricism with activism. Her documentary, BODIES AT WAR/MINA, about Colombian landmine survivors premiered at Bogotá’s International Film Festival (2015). Her feature, FRUITS OF LABOR, about a teenage farmworker, premiered at SXSW 2021, aired on PBS POV, and was nominated for a Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight Award. Her short films have distribution with The Intercept, TIME, PBS, and The Guardian. Her upcoming short film, RIVER (2026) is about ex-combatants and farmers turned competitive river rafters in the Colombian Amazon. Her feature hybrid film in progress, ORQUIDEA, is about humans and orchids in the Colombian Amazon. Her first screenplay, FROM HONEY TO ASHES was awarded an SFFILM Rainin Grant. Her films have received support from Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation, Perspective Fund, Chicken & Egg, Firelight Media, BAVC, Film Independent, Cinereach, Points North, National Science Foundation, Fulbright, and SFFILM. She holds a doctorate in Anthropology from NYU.

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ABOUT FRUITS OF LABOR

A Mexican-American teenager dreams of graduating high school, when increased ICE raids in her community threaten to separate her family and force her to become the breadwinner for her family. She works long days in the strawberry fields and the night shift at a food processing factory. Set in an agricultural town on the central coast of California, FRUITS OF LABOR is a coming of age story about an American teenager traversing the seen and unseen forces that keep her family trapped in poverty. A lyrical meditation on adolescence, nature and ancestral forces, the film asks, what does it mean to come into one’s power as a working young woman of color in the wealthiest nation in the world?

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