Immigration is a tough issue in America. There is no one solution because there is no one problem. Immigration hurts and it helps. The author of "Ask a Mexican!," Gustabo Arellano, said it best: "The immigrants of the past are the Americans of today." So begs the question: without immigrants, is there an America? (excerpt from the Paisano Review of Beyond Borders, "The Great Migration," by Taylor Reynolds, 4/22/08, Sect. Entertainment)
Target Gallery presents the film "Beyond Borders: The Debate Over Human Migration" as part of its special programming schedule for the exhibition "Mixing Bowl: Immigration and Diversity in America."
The gallery is excited to have the Executive Producer, Simon Burrow, fly in from California to lead a panel discussion about immigration immediately following the screening of the film. Below is a brief synopsis of the film and a link to the website to view the trailer. http://www.beyondbordersfilm.com
The film will be shown on Friday, February 4 beginning at 7PM at the Torpedo Factory Art Center. SHORT SYNOPSIS
Beyond Borders moves past the headlines and takes an in-depth look at the hot-button issues of legal and illegal immigration. Beyond Borders explores the psychological forces driving the immigration controversy from both sides of the debate. Anti-immigration activists demand we stop this "illegal alien invasion,” while some pro-immigration forces speak of a Reconquista, a reclaiming of the American Southwest by Mexico. In search of a middle ground, Beyond Borders travels across the U.S. and beyond to give voices to those on the front-line of this issue, including candid interviews with Border Patrol agents, radio celebrities, demographers, the Minute Men, potential migrants, and a host of experts including Noam Chomsky (Distorted Morality) and Gustavo Arellano (Ask A Mexican). Beyond Borders is an entertaining and enlightening film that asks: Is migration a basic human right?
Simon Burrow: Simon, the producer of the documentary film, Beyond Borders is himself an immigrants' success story. Twenty-two years after founding an industrial manufacturing company, Brandon International, he sold his firm and decided to devote his life to the basic human right to migrate. He came to the United States from England in 1957, he strongly believes in democracy, free markets and individual freedom. He feels it is wrong to restrict immigration. After moving to California, where he began his career as a "hippie carpenter," he was offered a job running a plastic bucket factory. He eventually founded Coventry, an industrial manufacturing company which numbered 250 employees with factories in Mexico and China.
Simon's motivation for the film is to make the world a fairer place, believing that "Immigration is the next big human right." His organization, Radical Immigration believes that it is morally wrong to restrict where people live and that getting to a world where people can move without restrictions will take time, education and experience. Simon believes that the phrase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" does not have a geographic caveat attached to it.
Simon holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance degree from California State University, Los Angeles. He serves as a teacher and guest lecturer in business and ideals at Cal Poly, Whittier College, University of Southern California, Mount SAC and his alma mater, CSULA.
