The director of TWO TOWNS OF JASPER and BANISHED takes on the deadly consequences of US immigration and the economic disparity between the US and countries to the south.
Marco Williams, already known for a number of films exploring issues of social justice and racism in America, turns his camera on the story of would-be undocumented workers who attempt to cross into the Arizona from Mexico, but end up dying in the unforgiving Sonoran Desert. Driven to migrate due to a lack of economic opportunity, and unable to do so legally because of current immigration policies, more than 1500 have died in this manner in the last decade. Williams traces their stories, taking a multiperspectival approach – following ill-prepared migrants planning to cross, border agents who try to stop them, humanitarian groups who try to provide resources such as water, forensic teams that work to identify dead bodies, and migrant families back home who often don’t know what’s happened to their loved ones. Focusing primarily on those who have already died, Williams aims to give voice to those who have already been silenced, and create a dialogue among the living to stop further needless deaths.
Williams has just over a quarter of his Kickstarter campaign goal left to raise. There’s one week left for supporters to pledge about $20,000 towards the finishing costs of the project. Those interested in keeping updated about progress on the film can also learn more at the doc’s website.
I’m always curious to see Williams’ new projects – he has an instinct for finding stories that need to be told and shared with larger audiences. This film falls in direct line with his important previous work – as Williams notes in his Kickstarter promo video, he sees immigration as the civil rights issue of the 21st Century. Revealing the identities and histories of unknown dead border crossers returns to them a dignity that they deserve, and replaces a generic idea of “illegal” with individuals, bringing a human face to the issue of US immigration policy. THE UNDOCUMENTED has the potential of going beyond rhetoric to influence public opinion through human stories rather than statistics.
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