CNN/Reuters: Sundance documentaries explore immigration (and win fans)

Sundance documentaries explore immigration
Sunday, January 22, 2006


PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) -- Amid all the glitz at the Sundance Film Festival's debut weekend, three obscure filmmakers managed to win fans with their work on illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border....(It)was Mexican documentarian Tin Dirdamal's "DeNADIE," Joseph Mathew's documentary "Crossing Arizona" and Pablo Veliz's drama "La Tragedia de Macario" that tugged at heartstrings.

Following the packed-house premiere of "Crossing Arizona," Mathew told Reuters he sensed that his film, which tells of immigrants' struggle with dehydration and death in the Arizona desert and efforts to stop them, touched audiences.

Mathew said he initially saw the documentary as a way to illustrate the plight of immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

But he broadened his scope after U.S. political debate grew and opponents of illegal immigration formed groups like the Minuteman Project....Still, he said the big-picture political debates about homeland security and how to stop the flood of immigrants overshadow a more immediate need.

"The discourse needs to go to humanitarian efforts," he said....


http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/22/sundance.reut/index.html