The starting point of this on-line film festival are two films —The Cambridge Squatter (2016) and Stateless (2020)— that explore two different areas intensely marked by migration and demographic movement: the city of São Paulo in Brazil and the Dominican Republic/Haitian border. By focusing on the lives of undocumented, stateless or homeless people, both documentaries stress the harsh realities migrants and refugees have to face in their new environments.
In our conversation with Brazilian filmmaker Eliane Caffé, director of The Cambridge Squatter, and Dominican American writer Loída Maritza Pérez we will address those issues, asking broader questions about migration as a contemporary phenomenon in Latin America and the Caribbean. How does migration shape notions of identity, belonging, nationality, or home? How do class, race, and gender impact the experience of migration? Can we imagine a world where migrants are integrated to their new realities or where leaving their own countries is not the only option for survival in the first place?
Should you wish to view the films prior to the event, please fill out this form for access.
From the Other Side of the Border: Sawyer Seminar Virtual Film Festival
Guest Speakers:
Eliane Caffé, director of The Cambridge Squatter
Loída Maritza Pérez, Dominican American writer