Elsa lives with her father in a trailer on the Tohono O'odham Nation, twenty miles from the Mexico border. One summer morning, her father, a Shadow Wolf late for a shift assisting Border Patrol, tells her to stay put until her grandmother arrives. She does not. Chasing a ball into the brush behind the house, she finds a girl her own age crouched in the shade, lips cracked, shoes torn. Elsa tries speaking to her in O'odham, then English. The girl finally answers in Spanish. Ena has lost her father somewhere in the desert, but Elsa doesn't understand any of it. What she does understand is that she has found a friend. Together they set out across the Nation toward the one person who speaks all three languages: Elsa's grandmother.

BURROS was shot in four days on Super 16mm in close collaboration with the Tohono O'odham community, in front of and behind the camera. The cast are all first-time actors from the Nation and surrounding communities. Amaya Juan (Elsa) was cast from a local toka team, Zuemmy Carrillo (Ena) was discovered at a bilingual elementary school, and Virginia Patricio (Gagi) sang at a local church. Community leaders Larry 'Bear' Wilson and the late Camillus Lopez served as executive producers, and Eva Longoria and Sandra Condito joined as executive producers during the film's Oscar run.