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Logline

Two inseparable best friends dream of a way out of a world that offers them little choice. But when a birth control pill program arrives at their factory, the choices they make for freedom threaten to destroy their bond, and their futures. Inspired by the real and illegal contraceptive trials in 1950s Puerto Rico.

Synopsis

In 1950s Puerto Rico, two inseparable best friends, Cata and Minga, spend their days stitching garments and dreaming of a way out.

When an American doctor arrives at the factory promoting a new miracle pill—one that promises less children, happier marriages and more freedom—the women sign up, believing it could change their lives. At first, it does. Cata begins to imagine a future beyond Puerto Rico for herself and her young daughter. Minga falls for a wealthy lover and starts to believe in romance again.But the pill comes at a cost.

As Cata’s symptoms worsen, she begins to question the drug that once seemed like salvation. When she learns that Minga quietly quit the trial, despite knowing Cata was in pain, she feels deeply betrayed. The rupture between them mirrors the unraveling of Cata’s own body. At home, her volatile husband discovers the pills, and the fallout turns violent. In the chaos, Cata makes a defiant choice to reclaim her life, unaware of how far the damage has already gone.

Minga is left to reckon with the cost of her silence and must decide how to carry forward the bond they once shared. Inspired by the real, and illegal, birth control trials that reshaped women’s history, Salt the Fields, is a story of sisterhood, survival, and the price of bodily autonomy. Through the lens of two women caught between survival and self-determination, the film reimagines a buried chapter of Puerto Rican and women’s history with tenderness, rage, and urgency.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Zoe Salicrup Junco — Writer/Director
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Zoé is an award-winning director, writer, and producer. A graduate of NYU Tisch (BFA, Film & TV) and Columbia University (MFA, Screenwriting & Directing), she crafts stories that defy Latino clichés, replace tropes with truth, and reimagine characters with purpose and emotional weight. Her short film Marisol won the HuffPost Social Impact Award and was acquired by HBO, with other narrative work screening at Tribeca, Palm Springs, Clermont-Ferrand, Urbanworld, and the HBO NY Latino Film Festival.

Lauren Lopez De Victoria — Writer
Lauren Lopez De Victoria is a former agent trainee in film finance atUTA. A Sundance Producing Fellow, Sundance Catalyst Fellow and PGA Debra Hill Grant recipient. Prior to film, she worked in Corporate Finance for a large-multinational corporation where she managed teams across the US and Latin America. She holds a BS in Chemical Engineering, and an MFA in Film Production from Columbia University. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, she currently works as a Development and Production executive at Borderless Pictures, where she’s worked on shows such as Swarm and Them from development through post and helps manage the company’s film and television slate for Amazon MGM Studios.

Quetzali Lopez — Producer
Quetzali Lopez, A Chicago girl at heart, Quetzali attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in both Film Production and Latino/a Studies. During her time there, she studied in Bonn, Germany, where she directed a short documentary in Berlin and assisted on projects shot in Frankfurt and the Netherlands. She has since moved to New York City to pursue an MFA in Creative Producing at Columbia University. As an artist, she focuses on culturally driven narratives that are interwoven with themes about intersectional identity. Her liberal arts background fuels her passion for representing marginalized communities on screen with complexity, nuance, beauty and respect.

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Contact

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