Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens for an encore screening on the World Channel tomorrow, Tuesday, September 20: EAST OF SALINAS
Laura Pacheco and Jackie Mow’s look at the life of a child of migrant farmworkers debuted on Independent Lens late last year. The film went on to screen at IFF Boston, and at Latino fests in San Diego and Boston.
Pacheco and Mow’s film focuses on eight-year-old José Anzaldo, who was brought from his native Mexico to Salinas, an agricultural center in northern California, where they are farmworkers. José’s potential has been noted by his third grade teacher, Oscar Ramos, because the latter shares a similar background. Oscar was able to change his future through education, and hopes for the same for his young student, but he knows the harsh reality facing José and others like him, as they face fears of deportation, unstable living situations, and the lack of documentation to allow them to obtain higher education. While José’s is just one of two million stories, as noted in the film’s ending, and can’t hope to capture the complexity of the undocumented issue, it certainly helps to humanize those caught up in its debate.
what (not) to doc 