Border Justice

            At the Border Justice Events running from April 6-9, I was constantly at the Amnesty International table. However, I did manage to go to few of the events going on that week. I helped put up one of the 110-foot wall panels for Amnesty International and I also made two posters for my Migration class and another one fore my International Human Rights class. One of the events I attended was the showing of the film, “The Gatekeeper,” by John Carlos Frey.

            I really enjoyed this film and was moved by Frey’s depiction of Mexican migrants and their passage to the United States. Although I knew some of the hardships that people go through in order to get to America, seeing it on screen was very emotional. Frey’s character in the film, Adam Fields, went through a transformation in a brief period of time through his voluntary exposure to the life of an undocumented worker.

            After the film, Frey spoke about Mexico migrants as well as his own life. It was interesting to me that many of the immigrants today coming from different countries experience similar attitudes, have the same dreams and hopes and face the same difficulties. What was somewhat surprising to me was the fact that he has sent copies of his film to several prominent Hispanic actors and other influential people; yet, he has not gotten any real support from the Hispanic community. Frey commented that he produced and directed the film with less than $200,000 and that he was told repeatedly by critics that his movie would do better with a “romantic plot” or a “happy ending.” But personally, I admire his inability to comprise his ideas. Furthermore, I genuinely think that Frey did a great job of putting Adam Fields as both the protagonist and the antagonist in the film.

             I noticed that much of the audience was made up of students, faculty and people from the surrounding community. Before the film started, I had the chance to converse with a young Hispanic man as we waited in line for chocolate cake and fruit; however, it proved difficult because he did his best with his broken English and I was even worse off with my version of High School Spanish. We still got our ideas across using laughter, a few translations and hand gestures.

           All in all, the film was effective in getting Frey’s point across because the hardships faced by his characters in the film really touched people. I heard several people behind me try to cover up their snivels and the next day, I heard several students talk about his film.

by Manija Sherzada