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Documentary on alien workers’ plight in the works
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Posted on Aug 28 2008
A local filmmaker is launching a new documentary production this weekend delving into the lives of foreign workers who are the parents of U.S.-born children and the trials they face under the immigration system.
Foreign workers in the CNMI often face the prospect of repatriation to their home countries for a host of reasons yet the troubles this causes can be compounded when it happens to parents of American children, who are forced to make tough choices about what to do next.
“These people are my neighbors, my friends and my kids’ friends,” independent filmmaker Rabby Syed said in an interview Tuesday. “These people should have improved immigration status which will allow them to stay in the U.S. and take care of their U.S. citizen children.”
Syed is aiming to address this issue in a new documentary film titled Witness due to begin filming in the near future and will host a gathering of parents Sunday at American Memorial Park in a bid to gain help on the project.
The film, he said, will consist of interviews with parents and children.
“My style will be simple and very natural because the issue is very natural,” Syed said. “The people who watch will be able to put themselves in the situation of these families and share their pain.”
Syed plans to present the film to the U.S. House and Senate, he said, in a brand of “signature campaigning through film” to gain assistance on the issue for foreign workers and their families.
Labor activist and former Coalition of United Workers president Irene Tantiado is also rallying support for Syed’s project.
“This is for all parents out there who are sympathetic to this situation,” said Tantiado.
The meeting Sunday will take place from 5pm to 7pm.
