An examination of the U.S. immigration system through the lives of two…
Erasing The Border
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- Citation
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View on the Pragda STREAM site
Mexican American artist Ana Teresa Fernández imagines a creative way to make the US-Mexico border wall disappear.
Citation
Main credits
Herrero Garvín, Laura (film director)
Herrero Garvín, Laura (screenwriter)
Thomassin, Romain (screenwriter)
Naseem, Amanda (film producer)
Other credits
Director of photography, Pamela Albarrán; editors, Ashley Roby [and 3 others]; music, Nanai [and 3 others].
Distributor subjects
Visual Arts, Activism, Migration Studies, Latin American Studies, Latinx, Culture + Identity, North America, Family, Short Films, International RelationsKeywords
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(waves crashing)
(seagulls calling)
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- [Ana Teresa] The Pacific
Ocean does traverse
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Mexico and the United States.
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And this idea of flow and tides
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and how the currents move so freely
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and how we're not allowed
to move that freely.
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(waves crashing)
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(quiet bouncing music)
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- [Ana Teresa] There's
nothing more heartbreaking
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than to have someone
you love be right there
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and not be able to just reach across.
00:02:04.160 --> 00:02:08.920
I saw this big beast
just laying on the sand.
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It feels like a huge dragon that is
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cutting across the terrain.
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And then you see the tail of it
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penetrate into the ocean
and part the waves.
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I wanna be able to get rid of it,
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even if just for an instant,
even if for a glance
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people look up and it doesn't exist.
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(music)
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My name is Ana Teresa Fernandez.
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I'm a visual artist, I'm
originally from Mexico.
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I grew up in Tampico, Tamaulipas
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which is a small town in
the Gulf Coast of Mexico.
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When I was 11 years old my parents told us
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that we were gonna be
living in the States.
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It's a huge privilege to be brought up
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in two places at the same time,
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heavily influenced by
both sides of the border.
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My mother has been an
incredible inspiration
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for my character but also for my work.
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She started documenting the border
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right about the time that
I left for university.
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We became artists at the same time.
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She picked up a camera and
I picked up a paintbrush.
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There is this very strong silent
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resilience that I find in her.
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My performances, my paintings,
a lot of the imagery
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I use has been based on that silent way
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of protesting through your actions.
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Can you bake us a recipe to
make the perfect sky color?
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- Oh I'll try, you may be a dreamer.
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(machine whirring)
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(music)
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- Thank you so much.
- You're welcome.
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(music)
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- [Around the border there
has been a growing community
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where it's friends who've been apart
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and it's all about celebrating
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that moment of coming together.
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They know that they need to
create that support system.
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How can we get you
closer to your loved ones
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and they do it and it's incredibly
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powerful and beautiful to witness.
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(peaceful music)
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(laughing)
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- [Ana Teresa] We have
to fight to create spaces
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where people can come back together.
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(upbeat music)
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That's when art becomes
incredibly useful as a tool
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where you allow people to
reimagine what's possible.
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It's a collective insistence
of yes we want this thing away.
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We want to erase as much of it as we can.
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I think it's one of the
most impactful moments
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as an artist, as a human being.
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I realize that the piece
was gonna translate
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it from being a wall that divides
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through the ocean and
the sky that expands.
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I couldn't think of a
much more peaceful way
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of doing it then just by
using my weapon which is paint
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in a very poetic way where
I'm not telling people
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what to think, I'm just pulling
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down the sky to kiss the ground again.
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Nature and humanity has seasons
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where you allow for growth
and what we're doing
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with borders is stunting that growth.
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And why is that, why can't we just
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continue to flow with
the ocean back and forth?
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(upbeat music)
Distributor: Pragda Films
Length: 12 minutes
Date: 2018
Genre: Expository
Language: Spanish; English / English subtitles
Grade: High School, College, Adults
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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