My Backyard Was a Mountain is a 2005 multiple award winning AFI short film by Puerto Rican - American writer/director Adam Schlachter and produced by Austin Wakefield.

Schlachter first filmed a black-and-white version of the movie in 2004 called Palmarejo to secure financing for his project. He was the recipient of multiple grants, including The Caucus Foundation's Gold Circle Award

and Hispanic Scholarship Fund's HSF / McNamara Family Creative Arts Project Grant. It has won many awards, including Best short or student film at the 2006 Imagen Awards. Much of the cast of the earlier version was invited to reprise their roles for My Backyard Was a Mountain. The movie premiered on October 23, 2005 at the Arclight Hollywood Film Festival and is currently available for download on iTunes.