Arizona Daily Star
December 9, 2010
by Phil Villarreal
Several groups that support human-rights and environmental causes in the border region have joined forces to stage a free documentary triple feature at the Loft Cinema.
"Wild vs. Wall," a 2009 film on the environmental impact of border policies, will lead off the night. "Fencing the Border and its Birds," from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in which U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials express concerns about the impact the border fence will have on animals, is second. HBO's "The Fence," which features interviews with people on various sides of border issues, closes out the event.
The total running time for the films is two hours.
The Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, Coalición de Derechos Humanos, the Defenders of Wildlife, No More Deaths and the Sky Island Alliance are sponsoring the screening, which will be followed by a panel discussion with a border landowner and representatives from the sponsoring organizations.
Dan Millis, a 31-year-old campaign organizer for the Sierra Club, is one of the event coordinators, and he spoke to us about the films. Millis, a graduate of Lewis and Clark College, is from Flagstaff but has lived in Tucson since 2005.
Tell me about the movies.
" 'Wild vs. Wall' was originally produced here in Tucson in 2008 by filmmaker Steev Hise, through the grass-roots efforts of locals who are concerned about threats to our border environment. It has been recently updated for 2010 and beyond, and we are excited to share the new footage, information and Spanish subtitles featured in this most recent version."
What about the others?
"The Cornell Ornithology Lab has some amazing footage of beautiful bird species along the border, and at only seven minutes long, the short makes a wonderful opener. Rory Kennedy's 'The Fence' is a masterful production that highlights the pointlessness, expense, impact and hypocrisy of the border wall, using humor and a fast pace to keep the audience involved. It is amazing, and we're very pleased to be able to share it with Tucson."
Do you have plans for future festivals like this?
"We don't have any specific plans for future screenings, though we regularly present 'Wild vs. Wall' to community groups locally, nationally, even abroad. During the month of November, for example, I traveled to Hermosillo and Denver to show the film at a biology conference and at a church event."
What concept do you want viewers to take away from the event?
"There is a big disconnect between how the border is often portrayed in the media, and the reality on the ground. Folks who watch these films will get a taste of how wonderful the protected natural areas along the border really are.
"It would be hard to watch these films and not question the knee-jerk policies that are currently militarizing our borderlands. In about an hour total, these three films will hopefully inspire folks to help us look for a better way to protect our precious border wildlands."
IF YOU GO
• What: Border Film Festival, a program of three short documentaries.
• When: 11 a.m. Saturday
• Where: The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway.
• Admission: Free, but donations to the Sierra Club's Borderlands Campaign will be accepted.
http://azstarnet.com/entertainment/movies/article_1f5a8186-a903-59fe-b5d1-36d5961c27df.html
Showing posts with label documentary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label documentary. Show all posts
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Mexican Border Fence Cost $3 Billion, Is Political Idiocy, HBO Show Says
Bloomberg
September 14, 2010
by Dave Shiflett
If idiocy were a capital crime, at least 73 percent of Congress would be facing the hangman.
That’s the percentage of legislators who supported the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which created one of the most stunning boondoggles in U.S. history, at least according to “The Fence (La Barda),” which airs on HBO tomorrow at 8 p.m. New York time.
Emmy-winning filmmaker Rory Kennedy (“Ghosts of Abu Ghraib”) starts out with the project’s major problem: There’s lots more holes than fence. The U.S.-Mexican border stretches over 2,000 miles; the fence only runs along 700 of them.
In one of several this-can’t-really-be-true segments, a member of the Minutemen, a vigilante patrol group, tells Kennedy that if undocumented migrants don’t want to scale the fence where he’s being interviewed, all they need do is travel a mile to where the fence abruptly ends. Which it does, creating one of many huge gaps in the “protective” barrier.
Bill Odle, who owns a ranch in the area, says the fence is “not performing its function,” though that depends on how you define function. To the 7,000 construction workers, 350 engineers and 19 construction companies that built the barricade, at a cost of about $3 billion, the fence represents manna from Washington.
Spectacular Failure
But it has spectacularly failed to serve its stated purposes, Kennedy says, which are to to prevent terrorism and slow the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the U.S.
Kennedy, who narrates the film, interviews fence-jumpers, smugglers (called coyotes) of human beings, Border Patrol agents and members of various Minuteman groups, one of whom insists a “full-blown invasion from the south” is under way that threatens to turn the U.S. into a “Third World cesspool.”
“My gosh!” sputters Glenn Beck in archived footage. “We better wake up soon!”
The need to sober up seems more like it.
Kennedy, who retains a sense of humor throughout the film, says the construction of the fence did not represent the nation’s greatest engineering feat. Part of the stretch through New Mexico, for instance, was built 6 feet into Mexican territory and had to be torn down and rebuilt at a cost of millions.
Speed Bump
While the fence has deterred wildlife from using traditional migration routes, it is little more than a speed bump for many of the estimated 500,000 undocumented aliens who cross the border each year. Footage from cameras posted along the fence show people scaling it with little trouble; in a truly hilarious scene, a pickup truck roars up a ramp and flies over the barricade as if hellbent for Los Angeles in time for the cocktail hour.
Kennedy points out that the drug trade has not been slowed, nor has the fence deterred any terrorist activity. Then again, she says, of the 29 acts of terrorism that have taken place on U.S. soil in the past 25 years, none of the perpetrators entered the U.S. from Mexico. It seems terrorists prefer jetting into New York to trekking across the blazing desert.
If the fence has had any effect, it’s been to force Mexicans to cross the border in more remote desert areas. Kennedy says that has driven up the death rate, which now averages two people a day.
Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security froze funding of the project. Maintenance costs over the next 25 years are estimated at $49 billion, according to the film.
“We don’t care about fences,” says one coyote. “We’ll just find another way to cross.” Maybe it’s time for a fresh trek to the drawing board.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-15/idiotic-mexico-border-fence-cost-3-billion-does-nothing-dave-shiflett.html
September 14, 2010
by Dave Shiflett
If idiocy were a capital crime, at least 73 percent of Congress would be facing the hangman.
That’s the percentage of legislators who supported the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which created one of the most stunning boondoggles in U.S. history, at least according to “The Fence (La Barda),” which airs on HBO tomorrow at 8 p.m. New York time.
Emmy-winning filmmaker Rory Kennedy (“Ghosts of Abu Ghraib”) starts out with the project’s major problem: There’s lots more holes than fence. The U.S.-Mexican border stretches over 2,000 miles; the fence only runs along 700 of them.
In one of several this-can’t-really-be-true segments, a member of the Minutemen, a vigilante patrol group, tells Kennedy that if undocumented migrants don’t want to scale the fence where he’s being interviewed, all they need do is travel a mile to where the fence abruptly ends. Which it does, creating one of many huge gaps in the “protective” barrier.
Bill Odle, who owns a ranch in the area, says the fence is “not performing its function,” though that depends on how you define function. To the 7,000 construction workers, 350 engineers and 19 construction companies that built the barricade, at a cost of about $3 billion, the fence represents manna from Washington.
Spectacular Failure
But it has spectacularly failed to serve its stated purposes, Kennedy says, which are to to prevent terrorism and slow the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the U.S.
Kennedy, who narrates the film, interviews fence-jumpers, smugglers (called coyotes) of human beings, Border Patrol agents and members of various Minuteman groups, one of whom insists a “full-blown invasion from the south” is under way that threatens to turn the U.S. into a “Third World cesspool.”
“My gosh!” sputters Glenn Beck in archived footage. “We better wake up soon!”
The need to sober up seems more like it.
Kennedy, who retains a sense of humor throughout the film, says the construction of the fence did not represent the nation’s greatest engineering feat. Part of the stretch through New Mexico, for instance, was built 6 feet into Mexican territory and had to be torn down and rebuilt at a cost of millions.
Speed Bump
While the fence has deterred wildlife from using traditional migration routes, it is little more than a speed bump for many of the estimated 500,000 undocumented aliens who cross the border each year. Footage from cameras posted along the fence show people scaling it with little trouble; in a truly hilarious scene, a pickup truck roars up a ramp and flies over the barricade as if hellbent for Los Angeles in time for the cocktail hour.
Kennedy points out that the drug trade has not been slowed, nor has the fence deterred any terrorist activity. Then again, she says, of the 29 acts of terrorism that have taken place on U.S. soil in the past 25 years, none of the perpetrators entered the U.S. from Mexico. It seems terrorists prefer jetting into New York to trekking across the blazing desert.
If the fence has had any effect, it’s been to force Mexicans to cross the border in more remote desert areas. Kennedy says that has driven up the death rate, which now averages two people a day.
Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security froze funding of the project. Maintenance costs over the next 25 years are estimated at $49 billion, according to the film.
“We don’t care about fences,” says one coyote. “We’ll just find another way to cross.” Maybe it’s time for a fresh trek to the drawing board.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-15/idiotic-mexico-border-fence-cost-3-billion-does-nothing-dave-shiflett.html
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