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This documentary presents the hard facts about today's immigration crisis. Included are immigrant rights as explained by legal experts, academics and advocates. The riveting, compelling and powerful imagery tell moving stories about immigrants' worst nightmares; the fears that haunt them, the motives that drive them, the hopes that sustain them.
Please Speak truth to power!
A Day of Absence: Documentary on the Immigrant Experience
Why is American immigration the hottest and most controversial subject in the world today?
Why do people all over the world seem to react with alarm, outrage, anger and indignation when discussing immigration?
Why are world leaders like American President George W. Bush, British Premier Tony Blair, and others up in arms about the issue of immigration?
What ignited the protest marches by immigrants in American cities in 2006?
What did the protest marches by immigrants accomplish?
Do immigrants have rights?
These are some of the questions to which politicians, the media and the general public in countries as disparate as the United States, Canada, England, Germany, France, New Zealand and Australia seek answers.
The same questions form the central theme in this 1 1/2 hour documentary featuring American immigrant and non-immigrant populations discussing the issue in all its ramifications.
The same questions form the central theme in this one and a half hour documentary featuring immigrants as well as non –immigrants discussing the issue in all its ramifications. And does so in a manner that is poignant, engaging, powerful and moving. This is a documentary that effectively combines personal narratives with panoramic visual sweeps that make it two things all at once. On one level it is an up close and personal look at the effects of immigration on people, living as immigrants in the United States as they look back on how they survived, succeeded in facing the challenges or failed to reach the goals they set out for themselves when they left their native countries to become immigrants. On another level, it is an educational and informational treasure house for people interested in knowing what is involved in the immigration process; how to go about it, where to go, what to do to become and remain a legal immigrant, etc.
RIVETING, COMPELLING, POWERFUL IMAGERY. MOVING STORIES.
IMMIGRANTS WORST NIGHTMARES. THE FEARS THAT HAUNT THEM. THE MOTIVES THAT DRIVE THEM. THE HOPES THAT SUSTAIN THEM.
The documentary uses powerful and moving images of African immigrants in New York City talking about the myths and realities of the immigration from the standpoint of their personal experiences and how they found out the hard way that the ‘streets of America are not paved with gold’ a notion that is pervasive in most countries around the world. You only find out after you arrive in America to find out that jobs are hard to find, that you need proper documents before you can go to school or seek housing, etc.
Monya Tambi, an immigrant from Sierra Leone saw pictures of people in American jails watching television and made a conclusion he later came to regret; that being in jail in America didn't’t seem like bad idea He says in the documentary.
“ Me and my friends saw those pictures and we said to each other; we’d rather be in jail in America than be free in Africa. We didn't’t know what we were asking for. I don’t want to be in jail in America.” After he became a legal resident and had received training in major appliance repairs, he went looking for a job with a white colleague with lower grades; his colleague got the job. He was so disillusioned after several years of near homelessness, employment and housing discrimination that he decided to return to Africa.
THE HARD FACTS AS TOLD BY IMMIGRANTS. IMMIGRATION LAWS, IMMIGRANT RIGHTS EXPLAINED BY EXPERTS, ACADEMICS, ADVOCATES.
No matter where you live, what you do and where you do it, your life is impacted in one way or another, directly or indirectly by the immigrant experience. Your next-door neighbor, colleague at work, business associate, spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend might be an immigrant or have relatives who are immigrants. In fact, in a country such as America, all Americans are said to have immigrant beginnings, whether they like it or not.
It is not surprising therefore that immigration and emigration are recurrent themes in the national and international media and have become the hottest topic in global politics and the international media in part because of the impact it has on all aspects of an individual and society’s life.
Emigration, migration, immigration; they are all about the same thing; leaving familiar surroundings for a strange new place where you may not know anyone, have to adjust to a new and different culture, lifestyle, foods and eating habits, religion, politics, etc. Question is: Why do some succeed, while others fail as immigrants?
Like everything else, it’s all in the planning, having the right information, knowing what to expect, what to do, when, how and with whom says Stephen Yale- Loehr, Cornell University based legal expert on immigration in the documentary. He is the co-author of a seminal book on immigration titled IMMIGRATION LAW AND PROCEDURE and plays a key role in an organization that helps immigrants who ran into problems with the authorities.
The most common issues involved in the immigration and emigration process usually tend to relate to what makes people decide to immigrate in the first place, why they chose certain countries, as opposed to others, what they do when they get there, what happens to them their children, native cultures, customs , traditions, and customs, etc.
Vicente Panama of Laborers Union 108Local NYC, points out that the hysteria about the flood of Mexican immigrants streaming into the United States from across the border nothing but hype. He sets the record straight by stating that there are Hispanics of all stripes from countries ranging from Bolivia to Venezuela that enter the United States from Mexico. Mexico just happens to lie in close proximity to the United States and a convenient strategic point of entry used by many trying to enter the country, legally or illegally.
THE TEAM
Produced by HC MEDIA and Mysteek Foundation, the documentary looks at the different facets of immigration and succeeds in exposing some of the myths as well as the realities in ways that reveal the true nature of the ‘immigrant experience’ as felt, by people who have lived it, worked for immigrant rights, have researched it in academic studies.
Kofi Quaye and Hopeton Smalling are the producers and can be described as uniquely qualified to undertake such a task.
Hopeton Smalling is a graduate of Hunter College (NYC) where he studied Media/Film and currently completing his graduate studies in Syracuse, NY at Le Moyne College. He has produced projects for a variety of commercial radio and television stations in New York. Developing his skill he's worked with WABC on the locally produced show, "Views" with an Emmy awarded staff that also produced the live show"The Regis and Kathie Lee show". Trained by legends such as David Pressman, world famous for his work on "One Life to Live" further refined his world class style. He has Provided media and Information Technology consulting for a variety of commercial and nonprofit clients. In 1998 he successfully produced a video version of "Achieving the Dream" for Yolanda King. He's managed and produced musical artists, including 1999 SAMMY Award Winners Five To Life. He's produced a variety of Multimedia projects for the World Wide Web, CD-ROM and streaming video. Additionally, he has published a number of educational projects. In 2006, he received a Bronze Telly Award for, "The Seven Characteristics of culturally relevant instruction." He currently serves as the Chair of the School of drafting and design at ITT Technical Institute in Liverpool, NY.
Kofi Quaye is an internationally recognized journalist and author. He is the author of several books of fiction and non-fiction and has been published by leading publishers including the prestigious Macmillan Publishing Company of England. His books generally focus on the theme of the immigrant experience. Together they make a powerhouse of a team that has plans to use multi-media as a tool to educate, inform and entertain.
WHAT THE INTERVIEWEES HAVE TO SAY ON KEY POINTS:
When Carolina Reyes, a Hispanic female of the New Orleans Workers Justice Coalition talks about the disappointments and setbacks in the ‘immigrant experience’, she presents the issue in the context of the problems encountered by immigrants during the Katrina horrors of 2005. She talks of immigrants lured by unscrupulous agents who went to New Orleans and ran into all kinds of problems.
CROSS CULTURAL INTERACTION.
Intercultural relationships and cross-cultural interaction were the focus of a discussion led Mkawasi Mcharo, PhD, from Kenya who articulates on the cross cultural conflicts within the immigrant communities and points out how old values, customs and traditions from the immigrant’s native countries clash with those from the countries they emigrate to.
THE CHALLENGES, SETBACKS AND PROBLEMS: HOW IMMIGRANTS COPE
In spite of the tragedies, the challenges and traumas, emigrating overseas to countries like the United States, Canada, England and Germany continues to be intensively attractive to the majority of the people in the Third World, particularly the youth. No matter how intense the media hype about the dangers involved in trying to cross borders without the proper papers, no matter what drastic measures are taken by governments to try to prevent both legal and illegal immigration, the flow of immigrants from country to country and continent to continent continues in a steady stream.
The desperation of many immigrants has been well documented. They will do everything in their power to emigrate. Regardless of how long the journey takes, or the hazards and obstacles to be faced, and quite often the exorbitant fees charged by unscrupulous smugglers and criminals, they manage to find the means, the will power and the energy to do it.
This documentary brings another dimension: it takes you to places where immigrants work, have marched, live. It explains such phenomena as: Why immigrants subject themselves to such dangers in order to emigrate is easy to understand: they have made up their minds that they stand a better chance of succeeding in another country other than their own. And why once the decision is made to emigrate, they stick with it. Armed with such convictions, they head towards countries in Europe or the United States on the assumption that those countries offer a better chance to get a job, gain an education or pursue a career, at least, in comparison to what they can do in their native countries. Or so it seems to those who don’t know what the real deal is. And quite often, that is precisely the case; they have no idea about what to expect in the countries to which they are emigrating. With little or no knowledge about the politics, the racial climate, the economic conditions, the social and cultural characteristics of the countries to which they are emigrating, they arrive to find out that they don’t fit in, cannot speak the language, can’t find jobs and are disliked by the natives. In the meantime, they have created another problem, which makes it almost impossible for them to turn around and go back to their native countries. Monya Tambi from Sierra Leone was such an immigrant and says so in this documentary. His views have changed radically about America and Americans in general. His experience as an immigrant has been nothing short of a horror, making him one African immigrant whose experience has been negative.
ARE IMMIGRANTS AND MIGRANTS THE SAME?
Who is an immigrant as opposed to an emigre or a migrant? Is the word immigrant used solely in reference to foreigners who have resettled in another country? What about people who migrate from one city to another in search of jobs, within a country? What is the difference between immigrants and migrants? Is there a difference between migration and emigration? Vicente Panama, an immigrant and a leading labor advocate describes the role the union plays in advocating for immigrant rights, and the progress made in the past. As an advocate and labor activist, Panama is the driving force on immigration related issues for one of the most powerful labor unions in New York city.
DO IMMIGRANTS ALWAYS WANT TO GO BACK HOME?
The last thing an immigrant from the Third World wants to happen to him or her is to die and be buried in a foreign country; they prefer that their lives end where they were born.. They try as much they can to return home when they are alive and in control; they don’t want to wait till it is too late, to die or become too senile or incapacitated and others can make a decision on their behalf, decisions that will conflict with their beliefs and wishes and about which they can do little or nothing.
Kwame Otieku, an immigrant from Ghana hopes to return to his native country in the near future, and plans to set up dual homes; a summer home in Ghana and a winter home in the United States. An engineer by profession, he is, in large measure, a success story, and talks about his two sons with pride. Both his sons, the product of a marriage between an American and African, are college educated and currently holding down professional jobs. He describes his immigration experience as ‘positive’ and worth the time, effort and energy he put into making it work for him
THIS IS A DOCUMENTARY FOR IMMIGRANTS AND NON-IMMIGRANTS ALIKE. IT IS ALSO POLICY MAKERS WHO NEED TO KNOW WHAT’S GOING IN THE IMMIGANT COMMUNITIES.
What this documentary does for immigrants:
If you are like most immigrants, you left your country with the idea of returning home some day. That is the fundamental fact for most immigrants, especially those from the Third World countries. Very few people leave with their minds made up right from the beginning to live the rest of their lives in another country. Only refugees leave their countries with their minds made up to not return simply because their lives may be in danger when go back.
Again, if you are like most immigrants, especially if you come from a Third World country, you don’t want to grow old in another country. More importantly, you most definitely don’t want to retire and or die in any country other than yours.
You probably didn't’t think, neither did it occur to you that you would be living in another country for as long as you have. You are not the only one. All over the world, there are countless numbers of men and women just like you. They left their countries with the idea that they would be gone for a short time. They had no idea that they would be forced to live in a kind of voluntary exile for many years as immigrants.
When Nana Sarpong of Ghana was given a visa to travel to the United States, he was so confident of returning home within such a short time that he seriously thought of driving his car to the airport, and park it there until he returned back. He was lucky he changed his mind. That was twelve years ago. He is still in the United States and doesn't’t know now, twelve years later when he would return to his native Ghana.
The numbers prove the point being made; the majority of immigrants who still live in countries other than their own would prefer to go back home to live, but don’t and quite often, can’t. And the question is why?
In this documentary, Kofi Quaye and Hopeton Smalling both with immigrant backgrounds feature people explaining why most immigrants are not able to go back home because they do not have what it would take to return home. Most immigrants, especially those from the developing countries, often described in the geopolitical context as THIRD WORLD want to return home in a way that would show that they were successful in their stay overseas. Quite often, an immigrant is considered a success when he returns home with lots of cash, builds a nice house for himself and his family, begins a business if he or she is still young or retire and is able to live in affluence even by the standards of his native country.
ABOUT US
This documentary is the product of a partnership between two New York State based organizations, HC Media and Mysteek Foundation and has been an ongoing project over the course of the past six years. Hopeton Smalling and Kofi Quaye both of Syracuse set out to accomplish the goal of putting together a documentary designed to provide a forum for both immigrants and non –immigrants to discuss immigration and the ‘immigrant experience’ in its various manifestations. For those planning to immigrate to any country, this documentary provides insight, information and even advice on the ‘myths’ and ‘realities’ of the immigration, and helps to make them better prepared to deal with the challenges of immigration and also assist immigrants to deal with and find solutions to problems that prevent them from reaching their goals, particularly on immigrant rights and other legal questions pertaining to immigration.
WHAT WE DO
BOOKS. PAMPHLETS. BOOKLETS .
Mysteek Foundation Mysteek Foundation publishes books, pamphlets, booklets and other educational and informational literature and materials on contemporary topics
HC MEDIA
HC Media specializes in multi media productions. Both are based in Syracuse.
HOW TO CONTACT US
Tel: 1-877-422-6889
Immigrant Network
Fax: 315-471-7899
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