Film Series Makes Border Stories Personal
Wednesday, 01 February 2012 19:59
Stories about immigration - legal and illegal - seem to pop up everywhere in Southern Arizona. The storyline is always similar: people walking through an endless desert, sacrificing themselves in hopes of crossing the insurmountable border to make it to “El Norte” and realize the American dream.
The University of Arizona’s Center for Latin American Studies is hosting the Borderlands Community Film Series with touching stories about immigration. It goes beyond the bigger picture of the dangers of crossing the border and examines some specific and complex situations that immigrants find themselves in.
“We hear about how dangerous it is, we know that that happens,” Michelle Kuhns, outreach coordinator for the center, said. “These films all look at it in a different way, they’re very personal films.”
The center received a grant from the Arizona Humanities Council to run a film series for the school year. This semester’s series comes from an organization called Indocumentales.
“These films come with some discussion the idea with the films is to bring issues about the border and immigration to a diverse audience and to promote discussion in a way that is informative and open and civil,” Kuhns said.
The film being shown tonight, Feb. 2, the only film in the series without English subtitles, is called "Mi Vida Dentro (My Life Inside)" and follows an undocumented immigrant’s trial after she’s accused of the death of a child in her care.
“It goes through her trial and explores whether she was wrongfully accused,” Kuhns said.
"Farmingville" raises the question, what is the American dream? It looks at the attempted murder of two migrants on Long Island and portrays different sides of the story.
"The Sixth Section" follows a group of people living in New York who all come from the same small community in Mexico. They pool their income to help invest in their hometown by doing things like building a baseball stadium.
“In April we have 'Al Otro Lado,' a great sort of twist on the immigration story,” Kuhns said.
The film is about a young man in a Mexican town where people either leave to try to make it to the U.S. or stay to get involved in drug-trafficking scandal. As he makes a choice to stay or go he writes corridos, ballads about Mexican life, and has musical talent.
“(The film) looks at stories from successful musicians who write corridos and that becomes their ticket to fame and making it in the U.S.,” Kuhns said.
She said the center is trying to bring some university resources out to the community through these films, which are important for Tucsonans to see because migration is all around.
The films do touch on some heavy topics, though all are welcome to attend. They’re shown in Room 1C at El Pueblo Neighborhood Center and educated discussion will be held after each viewing to think about the messages the films portray.
“It allows everyone to have a glimpse into some of the many challenges and also the strength that a lot of the immigrants in these stories bring with them,” Kuhns said.
IF YOU GO
The Borderlands Community Film Series
at El Pueblo Neighborhood Center, Room 1C (map)
Thursdays, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Feb. 2: "Mi Vida Dentro/My Life Inside"
Feb. 16: "Farmingville"
March 22: "The Sixth Section"
April 19: "Al Otro Lado/To the Other Side"
Written by Alexandra K. Newman You are reading Film Series Makes Border Stories Personal articles
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