"Important" - Educational Media Reviews Online | KATHLEEN BRYAN EDWARDS AWARD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS - Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
Immigration Studies • Sociology • Youth Activism • Latinx Studies • Political Science • Civil Rights • EducationDate of Completion: 2018 | Run Time: 87 minutes | Language: English & Spanish with English & Spanish subtitles | Captions: Yes | Includes: Discussion Guide & Additional Resources | Directors: Anayansi Prado & Heather Courtney | Producers: Anayansi Prado & Heather Courtney
THE UNAFRAID is a feature-length documentary that follows the lives of three DACA students in Georgia, a state that has banned them from attending its top public universities, and from qualifying for in-state tuition at any other public college. Using observational footage shot over three years, THE UNAFRAID tells the personal stories of a group of friends connected by an underground movement called Freedom University. Through the stories of Alejandro, Silvia, and Aldo, viewers learn what it's like to be both a young American and undocumented in the U.S. at a time when anti-immigrant sentiment is growing, emboldened by a President who has issued orders to end DACA and restrict immigration. The narratives of their lives will intersect at protests and rallies, and then expand out from this unifying force to the personal daily challenges faced by them and their families. THE UNAFRAID goes beyond the media’s portrayal of the ‘dreamer’ poster child and truly humanizes the experience of undocumented and DACA students, their families and communities.
Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO) | Reviewed by Barb Kundanis, Longmont Public Library
Recommended
"The film raises the issues of immigrant rights and the quest for opportunity. The personal stories of these students illuminate their efforts and the need for activism and support. This is an important view on a timely topic to educate and inform the public."
Video Librarian
"A timely, sympathetic film, this is recommended."
Immigration Law Clinic, University of Texas School of Law | Barbara Hines, Clinical Professor of Law
"This is an insightful and moving film about the obstacles facing youth who have lived their entire lives in the US. It will serve as a useful teaching tool for introducing and discussing immigration issues that divide our country."
California Lutheran University | Cynthia V. Duarte, Director, Center for Equality and Justice, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology
"The documentary THE UNAFRAID is an intimate look at the lives of DREAMers in the state of Georgia. We watch them fight for their dignity, access to education and future as Georgians and Americans... Caught in the middle of a political storm, they carve out their lives of work, family, school and activism, trying to secure a future for themselves and those around them."
Villanova University | Raúl Diego Rivera Hernández, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Mexican Literature & Latin American Studies
"THE UNAFRAID is a powerful, timely and a must-watch documentary about three brave DACA students, Silvia, Aldo and Alejandro, banned by the state of Georgia from attending top public universities at in-state tuition rates... Masterfully directed by Anayansi Prado and Heather Courtney, THE UNAFRAID creates a cinematic landscape in which the personal is more political than ever, and unapologetically draws the viewers’ attention to a striking reality knocking at our doors."
Films for the Feminist Classroom | Reviewed by Luz María Gordillo, Associate Professor and Program Leader of History at Washington State University Vancouver
"The Unafraid is about resistance, struggle, and people who are displaced from their communities of origin yet try to make sense of 'home' in a place that is unwelcoming and, at times, inhumane."
Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures | Jimmy Patiño, Professor of Chicano & Latino Studies at University of Minnesota
“[T]he film inspires and informs through centering the voices of the youth themselves, highlighting moments of community strength and brilliance. It does this while demonstrating the brutal limitations that anti-immigration laws create, and ends with important questions and unresolved situations for Silvia, Aldo, and Alejandro—revealing that this regime negatively represses many lives in our community and, according to the youth most affected, their politicization is what they hold onto dearly in looking to the future."
Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights | Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
Closing Night Film | Human Rights Watch Film Festival New York
Official Selection | Double Exposure Film Festival
Official Selection | New Orleans Film Festival
Official Selection | Milwaukee Film Festival
Official Selection | 41 North Film Festival
Official Selection | St. Louis Film Festival
Official Selection | Austin Film Society/
Official Selection | Southern Circuit Tour
SCREENINGS
Harvard University
University of Maryland
Southwestern University
Cal State Northridge
St. Francis College
Alameda County Bar Association
Working in the Public Interest Conference
Urban Affairs Association
Director & Producer of THE UNAFRAID
Anayansi Prado is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and instructor. She directed and produced the award-winning documentaries Maid in America, Children in No Man’s Land and Paraiso for Sale, which were broadcast nationally on PBS. Anayansi is a Rockefeller Media Fellow and is a Creative Capital Artist. She is a Film Expert for the American Film Showcase and works on a regular basis with the State Department’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs to bring documentary filmmaking training to aspiring filmmakers in developing countries.
Director & Producer of THE UNAFRAID and BREAKING THE NEWS
Heather Courtney is a Guggenheim fellow and an Emmy® winning filmmaker. She won an Emmy®, an Independent Spirit Award, and a SXSW Jury Award with her film Where Soldiers Come From. Heather was also a fellow at the Sundance Edit and Story Lab. She has directed and produced several other documentary films including award-winners Letters from the Other Side and Los Trabajadores/The Workers, which both focused on immigration issues, and were broadcast nationally on PBS. She has received awards and funding from ITVS, the Sundance Documentary Fund, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, Latino Public Broadcasting, the Austin Film Society, the Fulbright Fellowship and the International Documentary Association.