Last Friday, the new documentary Crossing Arizona premiered in San Francisco. If you're in the Bay Area, I highly recommend checking out this film. If you're not, keep an eye out as they're hoping to get it in theaters around the country.
The documentary does an excellent job focusing on the variety of groups and individuals active in the borderlands - from the Minutemen, ranchers, humanitarian groups, the ACLU, Border Patrol, etc. - and letting them present themselves in their own words.
The most moving parts of the film for me, featuring the group that is most often overlooked in all of this, were the segments with the migrants themselves, both before, during, and after crossing.
They are also sure to discuss issues such as NAFTA and the scapegoating of immigrants that has led to such draconian legislation as Prop. 200 in Arizona and HR 4437 nationally.
While it doesn't makes as radical a critique as I would like to see, and doesn't delve into issues such as the legitimacy of the border and citizenship and the mindset that those sorts of constructs create, it does a very good job focusing on the human toll and putting a human face on this country's catastrophic border situation.
Check it out at the Roxie, it's here for the next week or two.
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