Latino Filmmakers Are The First Married Couple To Win MacArthur Grants In Same Year

Alex Rivera and Cristina Ibarra share an whimsical, avant-garde sensibility to filmmaking. Individually and as a power couple, they've created fresh, experimental cinema. And this year, they are each getting their own MacArthur fellowships, otherwise known as "genius grants," making them the first married couple to each win the prestigious award at the same time.

Deportations, immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border remain themes of their work, individually and together. They worked on their first production together in 1999, on a documentary about Indigenous communities in Mexico and the U.S. For the film, they traveled to Mexico for a conference on the subject, and got in trouble when they tried