Register for the week-long Human Rights in the Americas symposium REGISTER HERE FOR MOVIE AND SNACKS
As part of the University of Miami School of Law’s week-long Human Rights Symposium, you are invited to a free screening of two films that illuminate the lived experiences of migrant families navigating the U.S. immigration system at 6:15 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17. Admission is free but registration required at links above.
“Paper Children,” directed and produced by acclaimed filmmaker Alexandra Codina, reveals America’s invisible refugee crisis through the eyes of one family that defies a broken system with their unwavering resilience.
Deep in the everyday life of the loving and optimistic Gonzalez family, the horrific violence of gang-ridden Honduras and the encroaching threat of draconian US enforcement are almost forgotten. The film goes beyond the traditional immigration narrative to a nuanced, intimate story which implicates us all in how we care for the most vulnerable. Runtime: 64 minutes.
“En Manos de Dios” (“In the Hands of God”) is the missing piece in the immigration narrative—what happens after the journey to refuge and navigating the immigration roulette. In this intimate portrait of a new father, trauma is replaced by tenderness and the promise of a future. (15 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles.)
A panel discussion following the screening will explore the experiences of immigrants – in U.S. immigration proceedings as well as in the Dominican Republic and other parts of the Americas –and how film can serve as a vehicle for truth-telling, healing, and mobilization in the face of systemic injustice.
The panel will be anchored by Codina and will reflect on the intersection of storytelling, legal advocacy, and community resilience.
Speakers include:
Gabrielle Apollon, Director of Haitian Immigrant Rights Project in the Global Justice Clinic at the New York University School of Law;
Sui Chung, the Executive Director of Americans for Immigrant Justice and a nationally recognized leader in immigration defense;
Sarah Paoletti, Founder and Director of the Transnational Legal Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, whose scholarship and advocacy center on transnational labor rights and migrant justice in the U.S.;
Andrea Pochak, IACHR Commissioner and Rapporteur for Human Mobility and for Memory, Truth, and Justice.
Free food and drinks will be provided outside the cinema starting at 5:30 p.m.
Admission is FREE but registration required at links above.
