Diana Haro’s Poetic Debut ‘Portrait of Absence’ at MoMI’s First Look Film Festival Festival

New York City – March, 2025 – The house lights dimmed and a quiet hush swept across the Redstone Theater at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York last Friday evening as the audience prepared for one of the most anticipated screenings of the First Look 2025 Film Festival. Filmmaker Diana Haro was about to unveil her directorial debut, Portrait of Absence—a deeply personal and formally daring experimental documentary that has already sparked conversations among curators and cinephiles alike.

Projected on the museum’s massive screen, the film—set between the streets of Tijuana, Baja California and the shadow of memory—unfolded in impressionistic waves. Haro’s evocative use of archival footage and observational street photography created an immersive meditation on grief, place, and the lingering presence of her late father. Her voice, steady but intimate, guided viewers through a collage of fragmented recollections, childhood reflections, and haunting cityscapes.

After the final frame faded to black, the theater remained silent for a moment before erupting into a long, heartfelt round of applause.

Following the screening, Haro took the stage for a Q&A moderated by the Museum’s Curator of Film, Eric Haynes. Seated in the spotlight, visibly moved but composed, Haro responded to an array of questions from an audience eager to understand her creative process.

“It wasn’t about reconstructing my father’s story,” Haro told Haynes, “but more about tracing the residue he left behind—places, sounds, feelings, mental state. It’s like mapping absence.”

The audience was a blend of film students, film critics, artists, and local museumgoers, several of whom lined up at microphones to share their reactions. One attendee described the film as “a dreamlike eulogy,” while another noted how Haro’s use of layered imagery and ambient sound “transformed personal grief into something collective.”

The screening was part of First Look’s “Working on It” program—an initiative that invites audiences behind the scenes of the creative process and emphasizes experimentation. It was a fitting setting for a film that itself defies traditional structure and narrative.

Behind the scenes, stills from the evening show Haro in conversation with audience members, sharing laughs and thoughtful reflections with Haynes.

With her debut project, Diana Haro didn’t just participate in First Look 2025—she left an imprint. Her voice, rooted in personal memory and artistic risk, struck a universal chord. And if the post-screening conversations spilling out into the lobby were any indication, audiences are already eager to see where she takes us next.