Educational Media Reviews Online

This film looks at the problem of illegal immigrants coming over the U.S.-Mexican border. The title comes from the official government policy of deterrence; in theory, if you make it difficult for people to sneak across the border, they will be deterred from trying. As the film title implies, they are still coming.

The focus is on one area in southern Arizona and the conflict between the local inhabitants and the ever-growing number of border patrol officers. The officers have established roadblocks along all major routes north from the area and many locals are tired of the harassment every time they have to travel to another town. The locals are also tired of the dead bodies of immigrants being found in the desert – those who died while trying to avoid the main roads.

I found this film very unsettling to watch. One likes to believe that our law enforcement officers, including Border Patrol, are good, decent, caring people who have a difficult job to do and deserve our support. Yet, this film shows many of these officers acting like a goon squad. Locals have reported numerous incidents of being harassed, dragged from their cars, and even beaten while trying to pass a checkpoint. Since this is far more likely to happen to someone who is Latinx than someone who is white, there is a clear case for racial profiling. Yet, official complaints yield no results.

The people in Arizona are now fighting back to get their checkpoints removed. They have people watching the sites to document any abuse of power and to provide citizens with information about their rights. They are also working to provide humanitarian aid to any immigrants passing through the area.

This film is designed to be fully bilingual. Not only is everything that is spoken in Spanish translated into English subtitles, but everything said in English is also shown in Spanish subtitles. Although this is laudable, I did find it distracting at first. The instinct is to read anything that shows up in a subtitle. With this film, you have to learn to ignore the subtitles whenever you can understand what the speaker is saying.

As I said, I found this film to be unsettling. I would recommend showing it to mature audiences only. I would hesitate to show it to high school students. There are some incidents of law enforcement violence. The film is also unusually long for a documentary, running for well over an hour. In the end, however, it is an intriguing blend of professional filming, cell phone video, and animated sequences.

They do say that the best films are the ones that you can remember watching. This is certainly a powerful film that I will not be forgetting any time soon.

Awards:
Best Documentary Feature 2019, Imagine This Women's International Film Festival; Award of Merit, Impact Docs Award; Silver Award, Spotlight Documentary Film Awards; Silver Winner, International Independent Film Awards; Outstanding Excellence 2019, Docs Without Borders Film Festival; Chandler International Film Festival, Best Arizona Film 2020; Big Muddy Film Festival, 2021 John Michaels Award for Activist Film; Depth of Field International Film Festival, Outstanding Excellence 2019

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