Films about the Experiences of Newcomers in America

n these films, released in the past several years, immigrant families— Iand those with whom they work, go to school, and interact—describe their experiences in their own words. To help the readers consider ways to utilize documentaries as educational tools, we’ve included some comments from grantmakers about how they are using these films at their foundations and in their communities.

INTRODUCTION 207

IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION: THE NEWCOMER’S PERSPECTIVE 208

JOURNEY TO HOMELAND 213

PROFILES 215

NEW & COMING ATTRACTIONS 216

205 206 INTRODUCTION ndependent filmmakers have been SPECIAL THANKS Icapturing the stories of immigrants in the United States for decades, but Active Voice played the lead role in the exponential growth of the immigrant producing the filmography, and we extend population over the past 15 years has our deepest appreciation to its entire generated a surge of high-quality docu- staff but especially to Ellen Schneider, mentaries in recent years. Grace Eng, and Steve Bartz. We also thank Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Putting a human face on complex Media (GFEM) and David Haas for their immigration issues, these films are early support of the filmography and for powerful tools to educate foundations, sharing their expertise with us. We look policymakers, business and civic leaders, forward to partnering with both Active and the general public. They bring today’s Voice and GFEM in the future! rich and varied immigrant integration experiences to life and illustrate the Our thanks go to all the curators, human consequences of policy decisions distributors, and funders who brought in a way that statistics and words alone many of these films to our attention can never do. and who share our excitement for this body of work. Finally, we salute all of This filmography, curated by the talented the filmmakers working on immigrant- staff of Active Voice, highlights nearly related issues—whether or not their 40 films that can open the hearts and works appear in this filmography—for minds and set the stage for productive their creativity and for bringing these discussions on immigration and immigrant powerful stories of today’s immigrants integration. This list is, by no means, to the public’s attention. comprehensive, and we invite you to let us know about other high-quality titles that can inform community discussions ABOUT ACTIVE VOICE on immigrant issues. WWW.ACTIVEVOICE.NET

Clips from many of these films, along Active Voice is a team of strategic with discussion questions, are available communication specialists who put on the enclosed DVD-ROM to help you powerful media to work for personal engage foundation colleagues and others and institutional change in communities, in your communities in productive workplaces, and campuses across America. discussions. And if you agree that these Through its practical guides, hands-on clips help build understanding, we strongly workshops, stimulating events, and part- encourage you to consider acquiring the nerships nationwide, Active Voice moves full-length documentaries. All the people from thought to action. By high- distribution information is available lighting compelling personal stories and in this filmography. perspectives seldom found in mainstream media, Active Voice offers a much-needed As your foundation considers immigrant outlet to people across America to speak issues, let us know how we at GCIR and out, listen up, and take the initiative Active Voice can help you use these for positive change. film and video resources to inform your discussions and deliberations. We invite 2601 Mariposa Street you to tell us what you’re learning and San Francisco, CA 94110 whether and how these resources are Tel: 415.553.2841 Fax: 415.553.2848 making a difference in your foundation’s response to the immigration-driven demographic, social, and economic changes taking place in your communities.

207 IMMIGRANT CALIFORNIA AND THE DISTRIBUTED BY AMERICAN DREAM Berkeley Media INTEGRATION: 510-486-9900 Producers/Directors: Paul Espinosa www.berkeleymedia.com THE NEWCOMER’S and Lyn Goldfarb PERSPECTIVE www.beyondthedream.org FUNDED BY The Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Price of Renewal, produced and PBS directed by Paul Espinosa, examines The Ford Foundation community development, philanthropy, and The Independent Television Service (ITVS) civic engagement as an inner-city neigh- Native American Public borhood is redeveloped through a public- Telecommunications private partnership. Set in City Heights, the The Skirball Foundation n these films, released in Ellis Island of San Diego, the film explores Latino Public Broadcasting the past several years, the challenges of creating a vibrant urban I village from an ethnically, culturally, Center for Asian American Media immigrant families—and those and economically diverse population. The California Council for the with whom they work, go to Humanities school, and interact—describe The New Los Angeles, produced and their experiences in their own directed by Lyn Goldfarb, explores the complexities of inclusion in America’s words. We’ve included some largest majority-minority city and the comments from grantmakers new political empowerment of Latinos about how they are using these and immigrants. This portrait of a city films at their foundations and in transition, begins with the multiracial in their communities. coalition which elected Tom Bradley as Mayor in 1973 and ends with the 2005 election of Antonio Villaraigosa, the first Latino Mayor in more than 130 years.

“…a coming of age story, where the intersection of electoral politics, grass- roots organizing and coalitions have transformed a city… foreshadows the CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE: choices that cities across the nation will ARAB-AMERICANS IN WARTIME face when increased immigration, the Directors: David Van Taylor proliferation of low-wage jobs, and a and Brad Lichtenstein shrinking middle class force city leaders to rethink their priorities. It is a hopeful www.pbs.org/itvs/caughtinthecrossfire/ story about ordinary people changing Before 9/11, Arab-Americans were an their lives and their city…” immigrant group like any other. Now, — Peter Dreier, Director many feel as if their “Arab” and Urban & Environmental Policy program “American” identities are at war. Caught Occidental College in the Crossfire chronicles three diverse Arab New Yorkers—a beat cop, a minis- ter, and a high-level diplomatic corre- spondent—as they wrestle with their place in wartime America.

“In its acute eye and ear for quotidian detail, and in its compassion for innocents, the film proves undeniably affecting.” — The New York Times

208 DISTRIBUTED BY DISTRIBUTED BY Latino Public Broadcasting First Run/Icarus Films PBS The Horace and Amy Hagedorn Foundation www.frif.com/new2002/cau.html www.ShopPBS.org New York State Council for the Arts The Bishop John R. McGann Fund FUNDED BY FUNDED BY The Soros Documentary Fund Independent Television Service The Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Long Island Community Foundation John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur PBS Foundation The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation Public Broadcasting Service Avid Technologies Corporation for Public Broadcasting FARMINGVILLE Generous individual donors Center for Asian American Media Producers/Directors: Carlos Sandoval Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Catherine Tambini Metropolitan New York Synod www.pbs.org/pov/pov2004/farmingville/ www.FarmingvilleTheMovie.com

The shocking hate-based attempted murders of two Mexican day laborers catapult a small Long Island town into national headlines, unmasking a new frontline in the border wars: suburbia. For nearly a year, the filmmakers lived and worked in Farmingville, New York, HOLD YOUR BREATH so they could capture first-hand the Director: Maren Grainger-Monsen stories of residents, day laborers, and http://medethicsfilms.stanford.edu activists on all sides of the debate. Hold Your Breath follows the dramatic “Farmingville is a primer for anyone— journey of Mohammad Kochi, a refugee whether lawmaker or citizen—who cares from Afghanistan. An intensely religious to better understand the usually unseen man with a limited understanding of DESTINATION AMERICA cost of America’s appetite for cheap English, Mr. Kochi is diagnosed with labor.” Producers: David Grubin Productions cancer in his late fifties. As he struggles — Carolyn Curiel, The New York Times to cope with his progressing illness, he www.pbs.org/destinationamerica/ index.html DISTRIBUTED BY must navigate his way through the col- Docurama liding cultures of Islam, with its deep They left all that they knew to make 212-206-8600 faith in Allah, and western medicine, with perilous journeys to a country shrouded www.docurama.com its steadfast belief in science. Through in myth and legend. Some came to the intimate emotional experiences of escape religious persecution and politi- In Mexico: the Kochi family and the well-inten- cal tyranny. Some came to escape Cineteca Nacional tioned efforts of the medical practition- poverty, to make a new beginning, to www.cinetecanacional.net ers, Hold Your Breath illuminates the provide support for families they left pivotal role of cross-cultural communi- FUNDED BY behind. They have come for two hundred cation in one man’s battle with cancer. years, and they still come today, for ITVS many reasons, but with one common The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur “…a lovely and moving meditation on Foundation bond: their destination… America… the clash between religion, culture, and Destination America explores this The Sundance Institute Documentary Fund modern medicine. I was touched as an remarkable mass migration from through- Afghan. And as a physician, I was reminded out the world in four one-hour episodes. once again of the difficulties of bridging cultural chasm.” “…takes in, among many others, — Khaled Hosseini migrant workers from south of the bor- Author of best-selling novel, der; modern dancers from Taiwan; and The Kite Runners women who flee second-class citizenship or servitude in Guatemala, the Middle DISTRIBUTED BY East, and even Italy. This is the sort of Transit Media television that puts faces on stats, but 1-800-343-5540 it’s also almost elegiac: these are the doors we are bolting behind us.” — John Leonard, New York Magazine 209 FUNDED IN PART BY that is fundamentally altering America’s The California Endowment sense of itself. What happens when The Commonwealth Fund white people and white culture no longer The Greenwall Foundation dominate? This film explores power and The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation identity in small-town America. “The questions raised are powerful; the LOST BOYS OF SUDAN answers provided are few. The only rem- edy is an ongoing discussion. Clearly, this Producers/Directors: Megan Mylan is the American story: It’s what we were and Jon Shenk talking about before 9-11, it’s what we’ll www.LostBoysFilm.com MAID IN AMERICA be talking about long after.” —The Sun-Sentinel Lost Boys of Sudan follows two Sudanese Producers: Kevin Leadingham and Anayansi Prado refugees on their journey from Africa to DISTRIBUTED BY Director: Anayansi Prado America. Orphaned in one of Africa’s PBS cruelest civil wars, Peter Dut and Santino www.impactofilms.com www.ShopPBS.org Chuor survived lion attacks and militia gunfire to reach a refugee camp in Kenya. They clean other people’s homes and FUNDED BY From there, they were chosen to come raise other families’ children, often leav- National Black Programming Consortium to America. Safe at last from physical ing their own families behind. Maid in Latino Public Broadcasting danger and hunger, they confront the America offers an intimate look into the Pacific Islanders in Communications abundance and alienation of America. lives of three Latina immigrants working Center for Asian American Media as nannies and housekeepers in Los Native American Public “Fascinating! Getting an audience so Angeles—three of the nearly 100,000 Telecommunications, Inc. caught up is no small feat; it is a tribute domestic workers living in that city Corporation of Public Broadcasting to the directors’ storytelling.” today. A rare view into an increasingly Minority Fund — Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times common scenario, this film explores the CPB Challenge Fund globalization of motherhood and offers PBS DISTRIBUTED BY insight into the immigrant experience. The Fannie Mae Foundation Actual Film/Principe Productions 415-575-9988 “They might mostly be invisible people The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation [email protected] in our society but not underappreciated (and not overpaid at about $5 an hour). The Ford Foundation FUNDED BY What’s vital to know is that they, too, The Annie E. Casey Foundation Sundance Documentary Fund keep their eyes on that elusive prize The Nathan Cummings Foundation Pacific Pioneer Fund called the American Dream.” The Independent Television Service Fleishacker Foundation — Irv Letofsky, Hollywood Reporter Den-Mat, Inc. DISTRIBUTED BY Nu Lambda Trust Women Make Movies Produced in association with American 212-925-0606 Documentary, Inc. and ITVS with funding www.wmm.com provided by the Corporation for Public FUNDED BY Broadcasting The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation MUHAMMAD: LEGACY OF A PROPHET THE DIVIDE (FROM MATTERS OF RACE SERIES) Producers: Kikim Media and Unity Productions Foundation Executive Producer: Orlando Bagwell Program Producer: John Valadez www.kikim.com/xml/ projects.php?projectId=4 www.pbs.org/mattersofrace/prog1.shtml www.upf.tv/projects/muhammad.php Ten years ago, Siler City, North Carolina was a black and white town of segre- Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet tells gated communities with a shared geog- the story of the seventh-century prophet raphy and an unsettled history. This who changed the world history in 23 quiet, rural southern town is a “labora- years and continues to shape the live of tory” for the national transformation more than 1.2 billion people. The film 210 takes viewers not only to ancient Middle DISTRIBUTED BY America. The detailed portraits—woven Eastern sites where Muhammad’s story Souvenir Pictures, Inc. together in the seven-hour miniseries— unfolds, but into the homes, mosques, 323-512-4677 present a kaleidoscopic picture of immi- and workplaces of some of America’s [email protected] grant life and a personal view of the estimated seven million Muslims to www.souvenirpictures.com new America. discover the many ways in which they follow Muhammad’s example. FUNDED BY “Always compelling and frequently heart- Independent Television Service wrenching…” “…the documentary is well worth watch- Latino Public Broadcasting — Jabari Asim, The Washington Post ing both as the first serious attempt to tell the story of Muhammad on television SERIES DISTRIBUTED BY and also as a testimony to the hypersen- PBS sitivity of our times.” www.ShopPBS.org — Alessandra Stanley, The New York Times Image Entertainment DISTRIBUTED BY 818-407-9100 Kikim Media/Unity Productions ENGAGEMENT MODULES DISTRIBUTED BY 888-786-0444 www.activevoice.net

FUNDED BY FUNDED BY The Corporation for Public Broadcasting The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Foundation Arabian Bulk Trade ITVS Sabadia Family Foundation TEENS IN BETWEEN CPB PBS The El-Hibri Foundation Producer/Director: Debbie Brodsky The Irfan Kathwari Foundation BBC www.mhznetworks.org/teensinbetween/ Mir Imran Annie E. Casey Foundation Teens in Between takes an intimate VPRO - The Netherlands Television Additional funding was provided by many look at the challenges and triumphs of Woods Foundation other organizations and individuals. recent immigrant teens. This documen- SBS - Austrailia Television tary follows the stories of five students Asian Women United Fund/NAATA RECALLING ORANGE COUNTY from Somalia, Honduras, Egypt, and Soros Documentary Fund Vietnam, as they struggle to make it Sundance Documentary Fund Producer/Director: Mylène Moreno through a year of high school in America. Latino Public Broadcasting Illinois Humanities Council Reflecting on her experience growing “A fascinating and candid look at Kansas Humanities Council up as the daughter of immigrants in America’s newest teens.” California’s Orange County, documentary California Council on the Humanities — Patricia Brennan, filmmaker Mylène Moreno follows a Individual Donors Washington Post TV Week fierce battle against a controversial immigrant rights activist there. She DISTRIBUTED BY discovers as much division within the MHz NETWORKS Latino community as between the tradi- 800-343-5540 tional establishment and the county’s www.mhznetworks.org increasingly vocal newcomers. FUNDED IN PART BY “…stimulates a lot of rich discussion The Verizon Foundation about how structure shapes agency or who has the power to determine educa- tional policy and, more importantly, what THE NEW AMERICANS it means to be American in our coun- Executive Producers: Steve James try… Very provocative…” and Gordon Quinn — Gordon Suzuki, Ed.D. Series Producer: Gita Saedi Graduate School of Education and Information Studies www.pbs.org/independentlens/ University of California, Los Angeles newamericans/newamericans.html The New Americans follows four years in the lives of a diverse group of con- temporary immigrants and refugees as they journey to start new lives in 211 THE SIXTH SECTION “Worlds Apart is unique among films on cross-cultural health because it is a film Producer/Director: Alex Rivera showing real people. Real people are so www.sixthsection.com much more powerful than actors; it is much more believable and emotionally The Sixth Section tells the story of how charged.” immigrants in America are organizing— — Suganya Sockalingam, National and finding political and economic Center of Cultural Competence power in the places they’ve left behind. The Sixth Section is the first film to DISTRIBUTED BY depict the transnational “hometown Fanlight Productions association” movement. 800-937-4113 RAIN IN A DRY LAND www.fanlight.com “This is a deftly choreographed, startlingly Producer/Director: Anne Makepeace personal film...an important first look at FUNDED IN PART BY a whole world that is still too invisible to The California Endowment Rain in a Dry Land is a portrait of two those outside it.” The Commonwealth Fund remarkable families, refugees from — Angela Jamison, UCLA Labor Center The Greenwall Foundation Somalia, who find new homes in urban The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation America. The film captures their strug- DISTRIBUTED BY gles, their triumphs, their poetry, their SubCine humor, and their amazing resilience as 212-253-6273 they show us our world through new [email protected] eyes. It was nominated for the Social Justice Award at the 2006 Santa Barbara FUNDED BY International Film Festival. P.O.V. The John D. and Catherine T. Macarthur ”Rigorously intimate and disarmingly Foundation affectionate, Rain in a Dry Land is The Rockefeller Foundation in the forefront of the current crop of immigration chronicles... Makepeace never reduces [the families] to devices WORLDS APART or symbols or anything less than human Producers: Maren Grainger-Monsen, M.D. beings caught in the cross-hairs of and Julia Haslett global politics.” — John Anderson, VARIETY http://medethicsfilms.stanford.edu/

FOR MORE INFORMATION Worlds Apart is a series of four short Anne Makepeace films that explore cultural conflicts over Makepeace Productions medical treatment. Each film follows 917-674-1933 one patient and his or her family— Afghan, Laotian, African-American, and [email protected] Puerto Rican—faced with critical med- FUNDED BY ical decisions as they navigate their way The Ceil and Michael Pulitzer Foundation through the U.S. health care system. Sundance Documentary Fund ITVS/CPB Ford Foundation P.O.V.

212 JOURNEY TO DAUGHTER FROM DANANG FUNDED BY Major Funding provided by: THE HOMELAND Producer: Gail Dolgin Directors: Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco Corporation for Public Broadcasting www.daughterfromdanang.com Additional Funding Provided by: Wallace Alexandra Gerbode Foundation In 1975, as the Vietnam War was end- Humanities Iowa ing, thousands of orphans and Hannah Kranzberg Amerasian children were brought to the United States as part of “Operation Maya Miller Babylift.” Daughter from Danang tells Kit Miller the story of one of these children and Carol Bernstein Ferry her Vietnamese mother, reunited after Pamela Krasney hese films, which follow 22 years. Unitarian Universalist Services Committee M. Brinton Lykes immigrants or the children T “Quite simply one of the best and most of immigrants back to their profound documentaries I have seen in homelands, can be wonderful years.…splendid!” THE FLUTE PLAYER catalysts for exploring issues — John Petrakis, Chicago Tribune Producers: Jocelyn Glatzer and of identity, transnationalism, Christine Courtney DISTRIBUTED BY Director: Jocelyn Glatzer and our increasingly global Balcony Releasing lives. They can help connect 781-209-2030 www.thefluteplayer.net U.S. immigration to the www.ShopPBS.org Arn Chorn-Pond was just a boy when the international phenomenon FUNDED IN PART BY Khmer Rouge regime overran Cambodia of migration. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and turned his country into a ghastly land of “killing fields.” Now, after living Open Society Institute in the United States for 20 years, Arn Zellerbach Family Fund journeys back to Cambodia as he seeks Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation out surviving master musicians and Film Arts Foundation faces his war-torn past.

DISTRIBUTED BY DISCOVERING DOMINGA Center for Asian American Media Producer/Director: Patricia Flynn 415-552-9550 Co-producer: Mary Jo McConahay www.centerforasianamericanmedia.org

www.discoveringdominga.com FUNDED BY Living in Iowa, Denese Becker was Independent Television Service haunted by memories of her Mayan Center for Asian American Media childhood. A quest for her lost identity The Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Guatemala turns into a journey of Sundance Documentary Fund political awakening that reveals a geno- Roy W. Dean Fund cidal crime and the still-unmet cry for The Wellspring Foundation justice from the survivors. The LEF Foundation The Peter S. Reed Foundation “History can be especially compelling The Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund when it’s personal. Witness the latest film in the P.O.V. series, the story of an Iowa woman’s return to the scene of a 1982 Guatemalan massacre that claimed her parents.” — Josh Friedman, Los Angeles Times

DISTRIBUTED BY Berkeley Media 510-486-9900 www.berkeleymedia.com

213 MY JOURNEY HOME DISTRIBUTED BY Center for Asian American Media Executive Producers: Jeff Bieber 415-552-9550 and Renee Tajima-Pena www.centerforasianamericanmedia.org Producers: Renee Tajima-Pena and Lourdes Portillo FUNDED BY www.pbs.org/weta/myjourneyhome/ ITVS journey/ Center for Asian American Media Rockefeller Foundation My Journey Home traverses the conflicted, Film/Video/Multimedia Fellowship cultural landscape of the United States through the perspective of new Creative Capital American voices known and unknown. San Francisco Art Commission Cultural Traveling back to Nigeria, Vietnam, Equity Grant Mexico, and the American Southwest, they delve into their personal histories of buried pasts, a missing father, and mixed heritages. DISTRIBUTED BY “Journey looks at more than cultural LCMAC identities; it’s interested in personal and 510-233-8015 family ones as well. This all-encompass- www.pasajero.info ing approach is what gives it its bite.” FUNDED BY — TV Guide The James Irvine Foundation DISTRIBUTED BY Cultural Contact WETA SENTENCED HOME 703-998-2802 Producers/Directors: David Grabias FUNDED BY and Nicole Newnham Corporate funding provided by Farmers Insurance Sentenced Home tells the personal stories behind the ongoing deportations Additional funding was also provided by: of Cambodian-Americans as a result of The Corporation for Public Broadcasting post-9/11 U.S. immigration policy. The Latino Public Broadcasting documentary follows three deportees’ The Rockefeller Foundation sagas full-circle—from birth in the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Killing Fields, to their youth on America’s mean streets, to an unwilling return PASAJERO, A JOURNEY decades later—while exploring the social, OF TIME AND MEMORY REFUGEE cultural, and historical reasons for the deportees’ fate. Producer: Eugene Rodriguez Producer/Director: Spencer Nakasako Director: Ricardo Braojos www.refugeethemovie.com “…a bracing account of three Cambodian www.pasajero.info Americans—”children of the Khmer For Mike Siv, the trip begins innocently Rouge”—who came to this country as Pasajero, A Journey of Time and enough. “Me and my homies, David and refugees and have now, under new rules Memory is the story of a group of young Paul, we’re going to Cambodia. We’ll see enforced by the callous Immigrant Mexican-American musicians who accom- the sights, visit family, have some fun.” Responsibility Act of 1996, been deported pany their mariachi maestro on his These three young refugees, raised on to a nation they do not remember.” homecoming to Mexico. Together they the streets of San Francisco’s tough —Anthony Kaufman, The Village Voice perform a forgotten style of roots mari- Tenderloin district, head back to achi music and dance and meet people Cambodia for the first time, and they DISTRIBUTED BY who embody the spirit of old Mexico. will never be the same. Sentenced Home Productions 323-661-4700 “Pasajero successfully combines music “…a vivid sense of personal adventure . [email protected] with storytelling, creating a tale of a for- . . sports considerable dynamism, narra- gotten Mexican tradition told by the folks tive oomph and emotional directness.” FUNDED BY who lived it and the young people strug- — Dennis Harvey, VARIETY Center for Asian American Media gling to reclaim their heritage.” The Sundance Documentary Fund — Les Blank, documentary filmmaker ITVS 214 Generous individual donors PROFILES DISTRIBUTED BY Women Make Movies 212-925-0606 www.wmm.com

FUNDED BY The Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Lef Foundation The Women in Film Foundation Film Finishing Fund/Dockers Khakis for Women Independent Vision Grant 90 MILES Producer/Director: Juan Carlos Zaldívar e asked colleagues in the LOS TRABAJADORES Wmedia field to recommend 90 Miles is a feature documentary about Producer/Director: Heather Courtney other films about the contem- how the relationships within a Cuban porary immigrant experience. family are shaped by the rift between Through the stories of two men, Ramon and Juan, and through the controversy This section contains many of the United States and Cuba and the immigration process. It is a film about surrounding the relocation of a day-labor their suggestions—new stories the effects of immigration, a struggle site from downtown to a residential about the contributions, for identity, and what happens to people neighborhood, Los Trabajadores examines challenges, and individual around the world because of politics. the misconceptions and contradictions journeys of immigrants to the inherent in America’s paradoxical history DISTRIBUTED BY United States. of both dependence on and discrimination Frameline against immigrant workers. 415-703-8650 www.frameline.org DISTRIBUTED BY New Day Films FUNDED IN PART BY 888-367-9154 Jerome Foundation www.newday.com The Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund The New York Foundation for the Arts FUNDED BY The Cuban Artist Fund Texas Filmmakers Production Fund New York State Council on the Arts Texas Council for the Humanities Public Broadcasting Service City of Austin Cultural Contracts The Corporation for Public Broadcasting National Endowment for the Arts SEARCHING FOR ASIAN AMERICA Series Producer: Donald Young www.pbs.org/searching/

Through intimate profiles of individuals and communities from across the country, this 90-minute program serves up a taste of what it’s like to be Asian American in today’s ever-changing United States. Hosted by popular Today show host Ann Curry.

DISTRIBUTED BY MAI’S AMERICA Center for Asian American Media Producer/Director: Marlo Poras 415-552-9550 www.centerforasianamericanmedia.org A spunky, mini-skirted daughter of Ho Chi Minh’s revolution leaves cosmopoli- FUNDED BY tan Hanoi on a high-school exchange The Corporation for Public Broadcasting program and finds an America she never dreamt existed when she lands in rural Mississippi. 215 NEW & COMING A DREAM IN DOUBT their lives as child refugees fleeing a violent civil war and as social pariahs ATTRACTIONS Producer: Tami Yeager after they are sent back to El Salvador. They find acceptance among poor A Dream in Doubt is a one-hour docu- Salvadoran youth who idolize them and mentary about post 9/11 hate crimes form new branches of Los Angeles’ two against Sikhs in Phoenix. Balbir Singh most violent gangs. Alex, Bullet, and Sodhi was the first American killed in Weazel reform their lives and try to help the backlash against “Arab-looking” halt the spread of gang violence in Americans after 9/11. This program tells Central America, but this work puts the story of his murder and other recent them in the line of fire of warring gang hate crimes. members and reemerging death squads. For more information: For more information: n this section, we identify 718-388-9258 [email protected] Idocumentaries currently [email protected] www.fruitsofwar.com in production that tackle wide- ranging immigration and immi- CROSSING ARIZONA grant integration issues. Keep GOLDEN VENTURE Executive Producer: Joel Pomeroy an eye out for these works- Producer: Peter Cohn in-progress suggested by Crossing Arizona is an up-to-the- Golden Venture tells the story of four colleagues in immigration, moment look at the hotly debated Chinese immigrants who came to the filmmaking, and philanthropy. issues of illegal immigration and border United States on the freighter Golden security on the U.S.-Mexico border. Venture, which ran aground off New York For more information: City in 1993. The INS rounded up the Rainlake Productions survivors and locked them in prisons 212-343-0777 where some languished for four years. [email protected] Golden Venture is a global epic played www.rainlake.com out in the shadow of national politics. www.crossingaz.com For more information: Hillcrest Films DASTAAR 212-799-6788 [email protected] Producer/Director: Kevin Lee www.goldenventuremovie.com

Dastaar: Defending Sikh Identity presents the struggle of the Sikh American GRASSROOTS RISING community against discrimination and violence caused by ignorance of the Executive Producer: Linda Mabalot dastaar, the turban which is an essential Producers: Leslie A. Ito & Robert C. Winn symbol of the Sikh faith. Grassroots Rising is an evocative explo- For more information: ration of Asian Pacific Islander working [email protected] families in Los Angeles. The film weaves www.alsolikelife.com/Filminformation/ together powerful interviews, live-action dastaar.html footage, and the voices of low-wage Asian immigrants at the forefront of worker-led movements to build a just FRUITS OF WAR community in Los Angeles.

Director: Josiah Hooper For more information: 213-680-4462 Fruits of War tells the story of three [email protected] young men—Alex, Bullet, and Weazel— www.grassrootsrising.com who were deported to El Salvador for crimes committed while involved in Los Angeles street gangs. The film chronicles

216 THE GUESTWORKER MADE IN L.A. NEW YEAR BABY Producers/Directors: Cynthia Hill Producers: Almudena Carracedo Producer/Director: Socheata Poeuv and Charles Thompson and Robert Bahar Director: Almudena Carracedo Born in a Thai refugee camp on The Guestworker profiles 66-year-old Cambodian New Year, Socheata grew up Candelario Gonzales Moreno who has Made in L.A. documents the lives, in the United States never knowing that been coming to the United States from struggle, and personal transformation of her family had survived the Khmer Mexico for 40 years to harvest our crops three Latina immigrants working in gar- Rouge genocide. In New Year Baby, she and provide for his family. Without ben- ment factories in Los Angeles. Through embarks on a journey to Cambodia in efits, without retirement, he battles their stories, filmed over three years, search of the truth and why her history against the elements, his own age, and Made in L.A. artfully reveals the chal- had been buried in secrecy for so long. the backbreaking work, returning to the lenges facing immigrants and explores same farm year after year as The the ever-changing impact of globaliza- For more information: Guestworker. tion on their lives. 917-538-9644 [email protected] For more information: For more information: www.newyearbaby.net 919-682-6795 [email protected] [email protected] www.madeinla.com www.docsouth.com STRUGGLE & FLOW: IN NINE TRACKS MAQUILAPOLIS Producer/Director: Mike Siv Producer/Director: Vicky Funari The film portrays Prach Ly’s life from Maquilapolis is a documentary by and his birth in a concentration camp in about workers in Tijuana’s assembly fac- Cambodia, to his escape to Thailand, to tories, the maquiladoras. The project is his growing up in the housing projects a collaboration among the filmmaker, of Long Beach, and ultimately, to his artist Sergio De La Torre, and Tijuana trying to make it as a Cambodian rapper. women’s organization Grupo Factor X. For more information: For more information: LETTERS FROM THE OTHER SIDE [email protected] 707-557-0946 Producer/Director: Heather Courtney [email protected] www.maquilapolis.com/project_eng.html WHOSE CHILDREN ARE THESE? Letters from the Other Side interweaves video letters carried across the U.S.- Producer/Director: Theresa Thanjan Mexico border by the film’s director with MY AMERICAN DREAM Whose Children Are These? provides a the personal stories of women left Producers/Directors: Michael Camerini glimpse into the post 9/11 world of behind in post-NAFTA Mexico. The film- and Shari Robertson three youngsters affected by the federal maker speaks directly with her subjects policy of Special Registration and preju- through her unobtrusive camera, provid- Demographics, globalization, and global dice. The film tells the stories of three ing a look at the lives of the people terrorism all have turned the process of Muslim youth: an honors student whose who are most affected by today’s immi- shaping U.S. immigration policy into a father was put into a detention center, gration and trade policies. unique, and in many ways profound, a popular high-school athlete who con- national drama. My American Dream For more information: fronts pending deportation, and a will be a multipart television series fol- 512-565-1628 youngster who finds a new life’s calling lowing a wide-ranging group of partici- [email protected] to combat bias crimes in New York City pants in the struggle to reshape immi- www.sidestreetfilms.com as a youth activist. gration policy in post-9/11 America. For more information: For more information: NYC Maharani Productions The Epidavros Project, Inc. 917-549-3481 [email protected] [email protected] www.wellfoundedfear.org www.nycmaharanifilms.com

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