PRESS

Migrant journeys: No human is illegal.

The first act of the film looks at why millions of people are escaping from their home countries in Latin America, and who they are. We hear heart-wrenching testimony from migrants who are now in central Virginia about what motivated their journey to the U.S. They are interviewed in a living-room style setting, but also at different locations. 
 
The interviewees tell us stories of drug cartels and domestic violence. But also, economic reasons: poverty, global climate change, and a lack of economic opportunities. For most of them, migration is not a choice; it is a necessity for survival.
 
The second act opens with scenes from “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940), the film starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford. Film historian Dr. Kevin Hagopian helps us understand the connection with present-day migrations. 
 
We then look at other examples of forced migrations in U.S. history: the escape of the Irish from the potato blight, and the plight of enslaved African Americans.
 
We continue with our migrant interviews and hear from them the challenges of living now, or having lived in the past, as undocumented persons in the U.S. Participants include a Native American Guatemalan woman who lives in a church under asylum conditions, two men who own a pizza shop, a couple who both work in a sawmill, an air conditioning repair man, and several others.
 
Their testimonies are intercut with those of three immigration attorneys who work with migrants trying to avoid deportation, a Puerto Rican community organizer who fights for immigrant rights, two doctors who focus on providing bilingual health care to the Hispanic community in central Virginia, and the Charlottesville chief of police who tells us about the traumatic effects that the August 2017 white supremacist attacks had on the town.
 
In the third and final chapter we learn about an organization called “Sin Barreras”, led by a former Marine and Hispanic activist which fights for immigrant rights; a woman who teaches driving to immigrants so they can get a Virginia driver’s license; and a Mexican painter who for the last 15 years has been organizing soccer matches for Hispanic immigrants.
 
We also meet Seth Michelson, a poet, and professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He works with undocumented migrant children who are incarcerated at maximum security prisons, and teaches them poetry.
 
The film closes with some final reflections from the participants.