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"The Visitor"
Confronts U.S. Immigration Policy
In "The Visitor," actor and filmmaker Tom
McCarthy's follow-up to his award winning directorial debut "The
Station Agent," Richard Jenkins ("Six Feet Under") stars as a
disillusioned professor whose life is transformed by a chance encounter
with a young immigrant couple in New York City. Together they grapple
with the issues of the treatment of immigrants and the legal process
post 9/11.
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Tom McCarthy talks with Judy
Rabinovitz, Senior Staff Counsel with the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project,
about the making of the film. |
After the attacks, authorities arrested and
detained over 1200 people in connection with terrorism. But their
identities, whereabouts and the actual charges brought against them
were withheld from their families, the media and the public. For a
nation built by immigrants on the guiding principle of justice for all,
the question of due process, detention and deportation for refugees and
immigrants has become a hotly-debated topic.
The ACLU has allied with Participant Media for a
social action campaign focused on the film's underlying themes of
illegal detention, treatment of immigrants and the legal challenges
immigrants face. The ACLU is helping to spread the message of the
campaign and educate audiences about immigrants' rights by distributing
material, speaking at special screening events, and facilitating
discussion on these issues around the country. More information on the
social action campaign, including a downloadable discussion guide is
available at www.takepart.com/thevisitor.
The film opened in New York and Los Angeles on April 11th and is now
playing nationwide.
ABOUT THE FILM
>
ACLU at Sundance: When Immigration Policies Tears Families Apart
(1/24/2008)
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Review of "The Visitor" (New York Times, 4/11/2008)
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Profile of Richard Jenkins (New York Times, 4/6/2008)
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