I was challenged to revise my assumptions of immigrants…

April 3, 2020

NIRV filmmakers Qin Li of China and Kebrewosen Densamo of Ethiopia represented CSFilm and New Immigrant and Refugee Visions at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry on Wednesday, February 26, 2020.

Students, faculty and staff joined the two filmmakers in watching and discussing Campaign for a New American (Li) and Borrowing Fire (Densamo).

“I feel more connected to and empathic toward immigrants and refugees and less condescendingly sympathetic towards them,” remarked event host and Masters candidate Alex Gruber following the event.

I was challenged to revise my assumptions of immigrants and refugees: these people certainly need help and protection from individuals, communities, and various levels of government, but they also do remarkable things in the current system, problematic as that system is.

More selected comments:

  • We hear about immigrants struggling to survive in their new communities, but in [these films] we see the protagonists thriving and striving to make a difference in their new home.
  • “I feel motivated to continue learning about and advocating for immigrants and refugees in the United States and abroad…and it would be good to worship more with [them].”
  • “The stories reminded me to have an appreciation for the richness that new cultures bring to America. All voices contribute in some way to the fabric of our country.”

Many thanks to BC School of Theology and Ministry, Alex Gruber and Marcia Ryan for organizing and hosting this event!


Our Screen&Discuss events are making impact around the country and you can can organize a Screen&Discuss event in your community, too!

To learn about our upcoming events and new resources, be sure to subscribe to our mailing list. And in order to continue our public engagement Screen&Discuss tour through cities and towns around America, we need your support! Please donate to CSFilm today.


Related Posts:

War is a Racket! by The Department of Homeland Inspiration – featuring the Art Ranger and Michael Sheridan

War is a Racket! by The Department of Homeland Inspiration – featuring the Art Ranger and Michael Sheridan

Art Ranger, along with her colleague Michael Sheridan, review “War is a Racket” by Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler. This highly decorated war hero becomes dogged activist and tours the country giving speeches about how he was in effect, a bully for the corporations, then quit.  Art Ranger and Sheridan share excerpts of the text as well as a piece of their minds. Sonic textures provided by our back up band, The Dirty Pens.

ON THE MEDIA | Disrupting Journalism: How Platforms Have Upended the News, Columbia Journalism Review

ON THE MEDIA | Disrupting Journalism: How Platforms Have Upended the News, Columbia Journalism Review

After decades of shrinking revenues, and an increasing expectation among consumers that journalism should be free, the global media industry has reached a crisis point. As legacy news outlets shut down or lay off staff, misinformation and conspiracy theories run rampant, blurring the line between fantasy and reality. Trust in our institutions of governance continues to decline, fueling an alarming rise in extremism and political violence across previously stable democracies. In the Global South, the impact of journalism’s decline has been even more striking, with the rise of a new generation of autocrats skilled in manipulating the online conversation to suit their consolidation of power.

ON THE MEDIA | Meet the Next Generation of Mexican Filmmakers, Global Press Journal

ON THE MEDIA | Meet the Next Generation of Mexican Filmmakers, Global Press Journal

After the 1994 [Zapatista] uprising, a boom in documentary films focused on indigenous themes and communities — but the overwhelming majority, Sojob says, were made by people from outside the state. Her own interest in storytelling began when, using a camera that her father gave her, she recorded an ongoing land conflict between the people of Chenalhó and the neighboring town of Chalchihuitán. Unless there was some sort of testimony, she realized, no one would know what was happening, “that it was us, ourselves, who had to get out everything that was happening within, from our own context, from our community.”

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *