Wayne Ewing’s New Film, “Border Wall”
I’m proud to say that I spent the early part of this week building another site for film maker and Viking comrade Wayne Ewing. This newest site is for his most recent project that will debut at the Denver Film Festival in November, The Border Wall. From the site:
The Border Wall examines the effect of the Wall where it began as a double fence in San Diego in the 1990’s. Local activists argue that militarization of the border and the walls have simply driven undocumented aliens to cross through more dangerous terrain, causing the deaths of over 5000 people. However, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R., CA) – the author of the Secure Fence Act of 2006, claims that there was a 50% drop in crime in San Diego County after the walls went up along the border, and that the wall saves lives.
In Arizona, The Border Wall looks at the seven miles of wall recently built near Sasabe, and discovers a horde of illegal immigrants simply going around the end of the wall into mountainous terrain where the filmmakers find two Mexican ladies lost and terrified. Undocumented immigrants dying of thirst in the desert often find help from No More Deaths, an organization of volunteers dedicated to saving lives in the desert of Southern Arizona, and the film follows them patrolling the desert, and cleaning up the immense amounts of trash left behind by migrants.
Also in Arizona, The Border Wall examines a legal challenge by the Defenders of Wildlife to wall construction in the fragile San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area which was at first successful in the fall of 2006 in persuading a federal judge to halt all construction. But Secretary Chertoff invoked the extraordinary power given him by Congress with the Real ID Act of 2005 to waive any law that he determines stands in his way of building the wall. Chertoff waived 19 laws.
Wayne is best known for his extraordinary documentary on the Good Doctor, “Breakfast with Hunter”. You also may remember our interview with him discussing “When I Die”. In the past few years Wayne has put his focus back on issues of justice - or lack of justice - in the American system. I’m looking forward to seeing the completed film in November some of which will be shown during tonight’s airing of NOW on PBS.
Tags: Chertoff, DHS, NOW, The Border Wall Movie, Wayne Ewing