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Category Archives: Immigrants/Immigration

Picture Bride (1994)

95m; U.S.

Director: Kayo Hatta

Cast: Youki Kudoh, Akira Takayama and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa

Synopsis (IMDB): The story of 16-year-old Riyo who journeys to Hawaii in 1918 to marry a man she has never met, except through photographs and letters they have exchanged. Hoping to escape a troubled past and to start anew, Riyo is bitterly disappointed upon her arrival: her husband is twice her age and Hawaii is not the paradise she expected. As Riyo comes to terms with her new home, she discovers a land full of hardship, struggle–and unexpected joy.

 
 

Pleasure For The People

90m; France

Director: Jean-Pierre Thorn

Synopsis: Tells the story through hip-hop and music of the immigrant Morrocan and African youth in France and the racism that they face.

 

La Americana (2008)

65m; 

Director: Nicholas Bruckman, John Mattiuzzi

Synopsis: When nine-year-old Carla suffers a life-threatening accident, her mother, Carmen, must leave her behind and make the dangerous and illegal journey from Bolivia to the U.S., where she hopes to earn enough to save her daughter’s life. Working in New York to support Carla’s medical needs, Carmen struggles in vain to legalize her immigration status, and wrestles with the prospect of never seeing her daughter again. Then, after six years of separation, Congress proposes “amnesty” legislation that could allow Carmen and Carla to be reunited at last… Filmed across three countries in a captivating cinematic narrative, LA AMERICANA is Carmen’s story, and the story of millions of illegal immigrants who must leave their families behind to pursue the elusive American dream. An intimate and powerful story, LA AMERICANA shows how immigration policy affects families on both sides of the border, putting a human face on this timely and controversial issue. Winner of multiple awards at film festivals across the country, La Americana is now being used as the centerpiece for a nationwide campaign to engage and inspire audiences to dialogue about immigrants’ rights and immigration reform.

 

La Ciudad (The City) [1999]

88m; U.S.

Director: David Riker

Synopsis: Construction workers/immigrant workers.

 

La Huelga: The struggle of the UFW (2009)

18m; U.S.

Director: Alex Ivany

Synopsis: The legacy of Cesar Chavez and the union movement he inspired.

Contact: alex@sandraivany.com

 

La Promesse

92m; Belgium

Director: Jean-Pierre DardenneLuc Dardenne

Cast: Jérémie RenierOlivier Gourmet and Assita Ouedraogo

Synopsis: Igor and his father, Roger, are making a decent living renting apartments to illegal immigrants and sometimes working them illegally (among other scams). But when the building inspector pays a surprise visit and Amidou falls off a scaffold in his hurry to hide, things start to unravel, particularly when Igor makes a promise to the injured Amidou that ultimately exposes the different values of Igor and Roger, and of Amidou’s wife, Assita.

 

La otra frontera (The other border) [2001]

25m; Spain

Director: doia Alustiza / Joaquim Martinez / Pablo Tulin

Synopsis: Immigrant workers

 

Ladybird, Ladybird (1994)

101m; U.K.

Director: Ken Loach

Cast: Crissy Rock, Vladimir Vega and Sandie Lavelle

Synopsis (IMDB): This Ken Loach docu-drama relates the story of a British womanUs fight with Social Services over the care of her children. Maggie has a history of bouncing from one abusive relationship to another. She has four children, of four different fathers, who came to the attention of Social Services when they were injured in a fire. Subsequently, Maggie was found to be an “unfit mother” and her children were removed from her care. She finally meets the man of her dreams, a Paraguayan expatriate, and they start a family together. Unfortunately, Social Services seems unwilling to accept that her life has changed and rends them from their new children. She and Jorge together, and separately, fight Social Services, Immigration, and other government bureaucrats in a desperate battle to make their family whole again

 

Know Your Rights (Conoce tus Derechos)

Director: Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles

Synopsis: Shows your rights in case of a raid by immigration authorities or a police intervention.

 

 

L’America (1994)

116m; Italy

Director: Gianni Amelio

Cast: Enrico Lo VersoMichele Placido and Piro Milkani

Synopsis: (IMDB): Two Italian racketeers come to Albania just after the fall of the communists to set up a fictive firm and pocket the grants. They need a stooge. They choose an old one in a jail : Spiro. But the youngest italian, Gino, once alone with Spiro, encounter a few problems. Far from his roots, loosing his identity in deep Albania, he begins to change…