120m; Spain
Director: Carles Bosch, Josep Maria Domènech
Synopsis: The story of Cuban refugees who risked their lives in homemade rafts to reach the United States, and what life is like for those who succeed.
Category Archives: Immigrants/Immigration
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
112m; U.K.
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Cast: Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley and Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Synopsis: Daughter of Indian emigres in England wants to be a soccer star.
Bhaji on the Beach
101m; U.K.
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Cast: Kim Vithana, Jimmi Harkishin and Sarita Khajuria
Synopsis (IMDB): A group of women, of East Indian origin, mostly Punjabi-speaking, settled in Great Britain, decide to hire a bus and take a day off. They decide to go a beach resort. In the early hours of the morning, they gather together, and get ready for the ride on the bus. This is a day none of them will forget and some will even cherish for the rest of their lives, as events unfold, and each woman must use her individual strength to face the challenges of their life – even during an outing on the beach
Black Legion (1937)
83m; U.S.
Director: Archie Mayo
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Dick Foran
Synopsis: When a hard-working machinist loses a promotion to a Polish-born worker, he is seduced into joining the secretive Black Legion, which intimidates foreigners through violence.
H-2 Worker (1990)
70m; U.S.
Director: Stephanie Black
Synopsis: Stephanie Black has a record of making films about the real costs of economic development including Life and Debt about the economic destruction in Jamaica because of IMF policies. In H-2 worker, we learn about the real labor conditions of agricultural workers who are brought to the US and then used virtually as slave labor in the H-2 program. These workers who are brought in to Florida’s Lake Okeechobee area from Jamaica and the Caribbean are the “slave” workers of America providing great profits for the agricultural owners and misery for the workers and their families. It also is connected with the efforts in California by some leading politicians to bring back the “guest workers” program.
Contact: http://www.lifeanddebt.org/h2worker/
Trailer
It’s a Free World (2007)
96m; U.K.
Director: Ken Loach
Cast: Kierston Wareing, Juliet Ellis and Leslaw Zurek
Synopsis (IMDB): Angie gets the sack from a recruitment agency for bad behaviour in public. Seizing the chance, she teams up with her flatmate, Rose, to run a similar business from their kitchen. With immigrants desperate to work the opportunities are considerable, particularly for two girls so in tune with these times
Contact: Please feel free to show whichever of Ken’s films you feel your audience would most appreciate. You should be able to get a copy of most of them but a couple of them are dogged by convoluted rights issues with the BBC. However, the BFI and the British Council are a great source and will help you get most of the films. The best person to contact in the first instance is: Geraldine.higgins@britishcouncil.org (from “Ann Cattrall”)
Trailer
Man Push Cart (2005)
87m; U.S.
Contact: Ramin Bahrani
Cast: Ahmad Razvi, Leticia Dolera and Charles Daniel Sandoval
Synopsis (IMDB): A night in the life of a former Pakistani rock star who now sells coffee from his push cart on the streets of Manhattan.
Trailer
24 Days in Brooks (2009)
24m; Canada 
Director: Dana Inkster
In a decade, tiny Brooks, Alberta has been transformed from a socially conservative, primarily Caucasian town to one of the most diverse places in Canada. Hijabs have become commonplace, downtown bars feature calypso and residents speak 90 different languages. Immigrants and refugees have flocked here to work at Lakeside Packers – one of the world’s largest slaughterhouses. Centering on the 24 days of the first-ever strike at Lakeside, this film is a nuanced portrait of people working together and adapting to change. They are people like Peter Jany Khwai, who escaped war in Sudan, wears an African shirt and a cowboy hat, and affirms his Canadian identity as well as his determination to fight for his rights. Or Edil Hassan, a devout Muslim born in Somalia, who counts her hours of organizing and picketing among her proudest moments. As 24 Days in Brooks shows, people from widely different backgrounds can work together for respect, dignity, and change – even though getting there is not easy.
24 Days in Brooks was produced as part of the Reel Diversity Competition for emerging filmmakers of colour. Reel Diversity is a National Film Board of Canada initiative in partnership with CBC Newsworld. The DVD includes the original English version of the film and the English version with French subtitles.
Contact Info: http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=56986
19: Victoria, Texas (2006)
4m; US
Director: Dolissa Medina
Experimental short film about undocumented immigrants who died while trapped inside a tractor near the town of Victoria, Texas.
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