Wednesday, July 15, 2009

YES im back...so much to blog...

Im back------ I am not planning no more trips to DC gotta,focus on my NY lifestyle.But I must say whole lot of changes here and there;will blog about my 2 trips to Dc that I did in the past two weeks....but for starters let me start by saying its New York International Latino Film Festival
Here is a movie that is a must go see..

NEW YORK PREMIERE of “THE LEAST OF THESE”
A Documentary on Family Detention,
American Values, and the Power of Community Activism
Wednesday July 29, 2009, 8:30 PM

Clearview Cinemas Chelsea (260 West 23rd Street)
Tickets $12 (Click HERE for advance purchase)
Q&A following the screening featuring Vanita Gupta (ACLU), Michelle Brané (Women's
Refugee Commission), and directors Clark Lyda and Jesse Lyda
-The Least of These takes a penetrating look at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, a former medium-security prison that re-opened in 2006 as a prototype family detention center. The facility houses immigrant children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum hearings or deportation proceedings. As information about troubling conditions at the facility began to leak out, three activist attorneys (Vanita Gupta, Michelle BranĂ©, and Barbara Hines of the University of Texas School of Law) sought to investigate and address the issues. In telling the story of their quest, the film explores the role and limits of legal and community activism in bringing about change. The film leads viewers to consider how core American rights and values – presumption of innocence, the protection of children, upholding the family structure as the basic unit of civil society, and America as a refuge of last resort – should apply to immigrants, particularly children.

“…This quiet and measured documentary about the history of Hutto doesn’t paint ICE or management firm Corrections Corporation of America as the bad guys. Instead, it shows them as victims of their own political and commercial hubris and highlights the bleak comedy of their attempts to justify a bad idea. But as the interviews with traumatized kids, parents disabused of the American dream, and the lawyers that fight for them show, it doesn’t matter how many Disney murals you paint on the walls – a prison is a prison.”
— Austin Chronicle

"Powerful and moving... a film about a fight for social justice that forced change..."

- Mark Steiner, WEAA, Baltimore

More information about the film: www.theleastofthese-film.com

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