CNN.com – Sundance documentaries explore immigration – Jan 22, 2006

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/22/sundance.reut/

Amid all the glitz at the Sundance Film Festival’s debut weekend, three obscure filmmakers managed to win fans with their work on illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The paparazzi chased “Friends with Money” star Jennifer Aniston, and the comedy “Little Miss Sunshine” fetched around $10 million from distributor Fox Searchlight to become the first major movie sale at the festival.

But it was Mexican documentarian Tin Dirdamal’s “DeNADIE,” Joseph Mathew’s documentary “Crossing Arizona” and Pablo Veliz’s drama “La Tragedia de Macario” that tugged at heartstrings.

Following the packed-house premiere of “Crossing Arizona,” Mathew told Reuters he sensed that his film, which tells of immigrants’ struggle with dehydration and death in the Arizona desert and efforts to stop them, touched audiences.

Mathew said he initially saw the documentary as a way to illustrate the plight of immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

But he broadened his scope after U.S. political debate grew and opponents of illegal immigration formed groups like the Minuteman Project, a band of citizens who volunteer to patrol the border that critics said raised fears of vigilantism.

Still, he said the big-picture political debates about homeland security and how to stop the flood of immigrants overshadow a more immediate need.

“The discourse needs to go to humanitarian efforts,” he said.

In a separate interview, Minuteman Project organizer Chris Simcox agreed. “Until there’s a solution, there must be humanitarian efforts … that will provide water and food,” he told Reuters.

Each year, more than 1 million undocumented migrants try to slip across the mountains and deserts along the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) U.S.-Mexico border in search of work in the United States. At least 464 died making the journey last year, many from dehydration.

For the rest of the story, check out the link above.

KJ