Film Review: The Other Side of Immigration

The Other Side of Immigration

2009 NR 55 minutes

Contemporary immigration issues between the United States and Mexico receive careful study in this documentary, which uses extensive interviews to outline the experiences and perspectives of ordinary citizens in the Mexican countryside. In examining the economic factors prompting Mexicans to seek work in the United States and the social pressures that result, the film presents an affecting look at a complex political and moral issue.

Director: Roy Germano

Film Review: Todo el Poder

by Fernando Sarinana in Spanish with English subtitles.

       

Apparently inspired by Sarinana’s own experiences in Mexico City, this film tells the story of a filmmaker, Gabriel, who continues to be mugged. In this case, however, the police are no help, because the police are the “bad guys.” One of the bad guys is police chief, Elvis Quijano, a man obsessed with Elvis Presley,  women, drugs, and power. 

el andalón - a documentary film

This short documentary (30 minutes) is uplifting and inspiring. Don Sergio Castro has dedicated his life to helping poor indigenous people of the southern state of Chiapas in Mexico. Six and a half days a week, he holds free clinics for people, many of whom are burn victims. The people he helps are too poor to afford doctors.

Iranian Film: “10” by Abbas Kiarostami

Abbas Kiarostami is one of Iran’s top directors and has won a number of awards, including the prestigious Palme d’Or. “10” was also nominated for a Palme d’Or.

“10” is an unusual film, but a moving one. There are ten short episodes, all of which occur in a car driven around Tehran by a woman. Each episode depicts (but not heavy-handedly) a different social problem in Iran, most of which deal with women.

Film Review: Sentenced Home

As a result of stricter post-Sept. 11 antiterrorism laws, three Cambodian-American immigrants living in Seattle face deportation for felony crimes they committed -- and served time for -- as teens, many years earlier. Following their subjects over the course of three years, filmmakers David Grabias and Nicole Newnham put a human face on troubling aspects of immigration in America in this documentary, which screened on PBS's "Independent Lens" series.

DVD Review: Bordertown

Bordertown (2006, Director Gregory Nava, starring Jennifer Lopez, Antonio Banderas, Maya Zapata, and Martin Sheen)

“A lot of people don’t want people to know about this,” says Gregory Nava, the director of “Bordertown.” “This” is the rape and murder of hundreds of women (some say thousands) in the border factory towns of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico. Amnesty International and other human rights organizations are very concerned about what has been called “femicide,” the killing of women.

The film was inspired by the real life hero, Barbara Martinez Jitner, who posed as a maquila worker in order to make her film, “La Frontera.”

Film Review: Black Gold: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

2006 NR 78 minutes

Directors: Nick Francis, Marc Francis

Ethiopia is the home of coffee. In fact, a legend is that a goatherd saw some goats that were so excited they seemed to be dancing. They had been eating the cherries from the coffee bush. The goatherd picked the cherries and took them home to his wife, who told the goatherd to take them to the monks. The monks, thinking that there was something evil about them, tossed the coffee cherries into the fire. When the aroma filled the monastery, the monks crushed the roasted beans and brewed the drink we now know as coffee.

Coffee holds an important place in the culture of Ethiopia, where a coffee ceremony is a central part of Ethiopian hospitality. Now over twelve million Ethiopians are involved in the production and distribution of coffee. Coffee accounts for over two thirds of the country’s earnings.

Journey from the Fall Review

Journey from the Fall-

This film was recommended by my Vietnamese students. If you do not know about the reason why we have so many Vietnamese students, this is the best film to watch.

Directed by a Vietnamese-American director and with a predominantly Vietnamese-American cast, this film tells the true stories of Vietnamese refugees who fled their country after the 1975 fall of the South Vietnamese government, those who were forced to stay behind, and those who were sent to “re-education” camps. Further, it tells the story of what happened to a typical family of boat people, and what the family’s experiences were when they arrived in California.