There is no hot button issue more debated, less
understood, or truly perplexing in America today than illegal
immigration across the Mexico-US border. Some facts are undisputed: an
estimated 10-12 million undocumented immigrants currently live in the
US; the border remains shockingly porous, with many people now coming
through a narrow corridor of the Arizona desert, a multi-day journey
thousands will not survive. But much more is subjective, with
immigrants and rights activists claiming they are hard-working people
trying to escape poverty, US farmers claiming they desperately need the
labor, and much of the country including the Minutemen, an armed
volunteer civilian militia who patrol the border taking issue
with the number of undocumented people entering the country. The one
and only thing all groups can agree on is that the current situation is
unacceptable.
This month, Cornell Cinema presents three films that take us to the
border and look at the many sides of the issue. The series begins with El Inmigrante,
a documentary about Eusebio de Haro, a young Mexican who was shot and
killed during one of his journeys north. But this isn’t a
one-sided indictment: “What distinguishes El Inmigrante
is less the dramatic shooting death and the miscarriage of justice at
its center than its unusual sensitivity and openness of filmmakers John
Sheedy, David Eckenrode and John Eckenrode to the distinctive rhythms
of people on both sides of the border.” (Variety)
Macario’s Tragedy is
a narrative work inspired by the true story of a Mexican man who paid a
“coyote” to smuggle him across the border, only to die of
asphyxiation, heat exposure and dehydration in the transport wagon
packed with human cargo. “Between Macario's visions of a
mournful, singing Virgin Mary...and his sense of doom for having robbed
a murdered drug dealer to finance his trip, Macario is caught in a
magic realist-Catholic-gothic nightmare that seems destined to end
badly.” (Variety)
Lastly, we are pleased to host filmmaker Bill Brown, who will present his latest work The Other Side
on October 25th. An experimental travelogue through the remote deserts
of the southwest, Brown documents the efforts of humanitarian activists
who set up water stations in the arid lands migrants walk for days,
contemplates the towering wall that straddles parts of the border, and
learns the history of the land on the front lines of the debate.
These films won’t can’t provide simple
answers or solutions to the issues of Mexican-US immigration, but they
can help bring depth and understanding to a confusing situation. And as
that situation becomes more urgent, depth and understanding are
essential.
Images from (top to bottom):
El Inmigrante; Macario's Tragedy; The Other Side
