Immigration Activist Documentary Sneak Peek

Directors and activists Eric Byler ’94 and Annabel Park are coming to present a sneak peak at the micro-budget documentary that insiders in Washington expect to be the “Inconvenient Truth” of America’s immigration debate. Based on the innovative YouTube channel: 9500Liberty.

An unofficial Wesfest event sponsored by the April Planning Committee & East Asian Studies Department.

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Date: Saturday, April 18
Time: 3 pm
Place: PAC 001

More info from the Washington Post after the jump:

[January 11, 2008]

How did Prince William County, one of the richest, most diverse counties in the nation, become a flashpoint in America’s battle over immigration? What led to threats of racial violence during public meetings and grown men screaming at children on the streets? And how did a team of Asian American documentary filmmakers end up in the middle, with both pro-immigration and anti-immigration forces demanding that they take sides?

On Oct. 9, Eric Byler and Annabel Park began posting short video clips on a YouTube channel they created called “9500Liberty”. The “interactive documentary” project took its name from a street address in Old Town Manassas where a sign had been posted, reading: “Prince William Co. Stop Your Racism to Hispanics!” The sign — on what was known as “Liberty Wall” — protested a county policy that requires police to check immigration status during routine traffic stops and denies some services to undocumented immigrants.[…]

Since it started, “9500Liberty” has been viewed more than 270,000 times and garnered comments from all over the globe, including hate mail and death threats. On Friday, Byler testified before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. […] Their videos help to inspire a citizen uprising, an insurgency spearheaded by white, middle-class housewives. The uprising succeeds in lobbying the Board to make significant modifications to the policy, and begins to rebuild the county’s sense of community.