Rosario Dawson has a new passion project: a documentary called Split at the Root that unapologetically focuses on the separation of families at the U.S/Mexico border due to the Zero Tolerance Policy and the reunification of families.

During her interview on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna, she shared details about what makes this project so close to her heart by saying, “My work is storytelling for the sake of humanity.” She also mentions that her sensitivity toward social topics comes from the experience of “growing up in the 80s and 90s (surrounded) with heroin and crack, with housing issues, HIV and AIDS.”

Split at the Root, which Dawson is an executive producer on and was acquired by Ava Duvernay’s Array, is the story of how Immigrant Families Together (IFT) started. In Dawson’s own words, “this film is taking a really strong look at child separation at our border” which has been “clinically called torture.” She says that “this isn’t about pointing fingers but about the beauty of what people can do when they say enough is enough.” 

IFT is now an organization that works to reunite families separated at the border and has reunited 124 of them, so far.

Rosario also took the opportunity to do a bit of promotion for her two other projects coming up this year: Haunted Mansion and Ahsoka. She confirmed that Haunted Mansion will be released in August and Ahsoka will come out after that, probably around the fall or most likely early next year.

Ahsoka is Dawson’s biggest project this year. A Star Wars spinoff, it’s also the first female-centric show in the franchise. The character was first introduced in the animated Clone Wars and later made her live-action debut in the second season of The Mandalorian. Rosario’s enthusiasm is promising, as she has said in the past that Ahsoka “represents truly the best of the Jedi, you know?”

Split at the Root will be released on Netflix and in select theaters on March 3, 2023.