This was one of the most disturbing nights of filming I have experienced in America since Oct. 16, 2007. The next day I was interviewed on MSNBC to report on what I had witnessed.
Prior to that, I wrote this in an email to Annabel Park and Police Chief Charlie Deane (ret.) of Prince William County, VA:
I filmed the entire town hall event last night. I met the Sheriff and gave him two copies of the film. I also gave a copy of the film to the Mayor-elect and a county supervisor. The story in Lawrenceville is a lot more complex than “look how racist people can be” and also more complex than “country folk just hate the federal government” although I saw a lot of that too.
It seems that the administrator of the now-defunct college down there signed an agreement with the federal government to house these unaccompanied minors on the campus, without informing the local elected officials or the People. They have a right to be upset about the lack of transparency. I only counted 2 people who stood up to defend the idea of helping these young people in 3 and 1/2 hours (but I did step out for a while with 1 camera rolling).
Krystal Ball of MSNBC interviews 9500 Liberty filmmaker Eric Byler about the events going on in Lawrenceville, Virginia. The federal government attempted to sign a deal with a local defunct college to house some of the undocumented children from the latest border crisis.
Eric was there in Lawrenceville filming the townhall meeting where the townspeople came out in full force to fight the deal. He informed Krystal that the process was bad. The towns folk felt that the federal government was trying to pull a fast one on them and therefore they came out “guns a blazing.” All but 2 people spoke against the plan to house the young immigrants on the abandoned college campus.
Perhaps if the plan had been better presented, in the light of day, the children might have a residence. The plan was scuttled because of town outrage.
The video begins with some footage some of us might find very familiar.
S.B. 1070 has been tried once before. Learn the history anti-immigration lobbyists want us to forget.
On Sunday Sept. 26th at 8 PM ET / PT, a game-changing documentary about politics and immigration will be broadcast into 100 million homes.
“9500 Liberty” will premiere simultaneously on MTV2, MTV U, and MTV Tr3s (with Spanish subtitles), and America will see how ordinary citizens, Republicans, and Democrats in Northern Virginia join forces to combat extremism, and regain control of a county government.
MTV 360 presents the
WORLD TELEVISION PREMIERE of
9500 LIBERTY
Sunday Sept. 26th
8 PM ET / PT on MTV 2, MTV U,
& MTV Tr3s (with Spanish subtitles)
I hope we get to see the panel discussion with Corey and John Quinones. I will be online tonight during the film. We can use this thread for comments about the film. I am sorry we couldn’t meet as a group. Finding a place seemed pointless with so little get together interest. So…we can do it here.
The Washington Post reviewed 9500 Liberty for its upcoming MTV Premiere this Sunday Night. Perhaps this is the best review I have seen of our hometown film.
Washington Post staff writer David Montgomeryguides his reader audience to the point in the film where we see film maker Eric Byler testifying before the U.S. Human Rights Commission in December of 2007, at which point we see Byler’s point of view. Rather than saying “Ah Ha!”, Montgomery leads us around this shift from neutrality to the fact that the film returns to showing both sides of this bitter debate. He tells us that those with strong opinion on either side might walk away not quite satisfied with the end result.
David Montgomery’s review is posted in its entirety:
The earth may be beginning to turn counterclockwise. There is a slight chance I might be in agreement with Corey Stewart, who just returned home from his trip to NYC where he was on the MTV panel regarding illegal immigration. He joined Annabel Park, Eric Byler, Paul Rodriguez, John Quiones, and others in a discussion led by Times Reporter Fernanda Santos.
The panel discussion was a prelude to the premiere of 9500 Liberty, the award winning documentary directed by Byler and Parks. According to the News and Messenger, Corey was nervous about going and felt that he might be getting set up. He was afraid of MTV using footage to cast him in an unflattering light, completely out of context.
The first showing of 9500 Liberty will be Sunday, Sept. 26 at 8:00 p.m. on MTV2, MTVU and Tr3s MTV.
Stewart obviously was pleasantly surprised:
“I didn’t expect there to be much common ground,” Stewart said. “But there at the end, much to my surprise, some of the panelists and I believe most of the audience agreed that if you are here illegally and then commit a crime and pose a danger to society, you should be deported.”
What’s to not agree with? I don’t think any of us want to be rubbing elbows with criminals. That is why we here at moonhowlings.net have supported the 287(g) program as well as the physical arrest resolution. So if we are to take Corey at his word in the above statement, then yes, today the earth reverses its spin. I agree with the above quote made by Corey Stewart. I have always felt that way.
Stewart doesn’t think that the MTV experience will garner him votes from young people. I don’t agree there. Young people are all over the political spectrum. Perhaps if that panel discussion is shown and Corey illustrates that he is reaching out for common ground rather than crushing his opposition, he might pull in more votes than he thinks.
I didn’t know that Greg Letiecq sent Eric and Annabel to Mr. Fernandez and that sign. I never asked. I assumed they had just stumbled on it.
In the radio, Eric asks the people to not be judgemental of the people of Prince William. He explains his position and presents himself as a moderate. Having talked to Eric at length, many times, he isn’t too far off the mark.
See what you think. It is a totally different perspective from that which you have been led to believe.
Meanwhile, those in Manassas City who continue to blame Eric and Annabel might want to send a thank you note to Mr. L. It seems he got things going.
As we prepare for this film to go national, into millions of households, it is good to know these things.
[note: this thread is about 9500 Liberty and not about other organizations. ]
“9500 LIBERTY” TO PREMIERE ON MTV NETWORKS, PRESS SCREENING TONIGHT Award-winning film on SB 1070 precursor will reach 100 million homes starting Sept. 26
(NY, New York) Sept. 7th, 2010 – MTV Networks will announce upcoming air dates for 9500 LIBERTY at a high-profile screening/panel discussion in New York this evening. The critically acclaimed documentary chronicles the social, political, and economic impact of The Immigration Resolution, a law closely resembling Arizona’s SB 1070 that was briefly implemented in a Virginia county in 2008.
9500 LIBERTY screening, panel discussion, cocktail reception
NY Times Building
620 8th Avenue (Entrance on 41 street), Time Square}
5:30 to 8:00 pm
John Quinones, ABC Primetime Anchor
Annabel Park, 9500 Liberty co-director and Coffee Party founder
Corey Stewart, Prince William County BOCS Chairman
Chuck Wexler, E.D. of the Police Executives Research Forum
Maria Kumar, Voto Latino Co-founder
Paul Rodriguez, Comedian
moderated by New York Times reporter Fernanda Santos
9500 LIBERTY is directed by Annabel Park and Eric Byler, founders of the Coffee Party, which holds its first national convention in Louisville, KY Sept. 24-26, the same weekend as the film’s cable premiere.
Park will speak on tonight’s panel along side Tea Party favorite Corey Stewart, a leading figure in 9500 LIBERTY. This will provide an opportunity for the two to reconcile conflicting accounts of events portrayed in the film. For instance, Stewart has publicly denied the vote on April 29, 2008 that removed the most controversial aspect of the law (a key scene in the film), and made claims about immigration and crime that contradict statistics cited in the film.
As Chairman of the Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, Stewart used “The Immigration Resolution” as the center of his reelection campaign in 2007. Implemented on March 6, 2008, Stewart’s law required police officers to question people they had “probable cause” to suspect may be in the country illegally. With Arizona’s version pending in federal court and other jurisdictions around the country considering similar measures, Prince William Countyremains the only jurisdiction in the United States to implement such a mandate. Stewart is now lobbying to revive the law, this time throughout Virginia.
The cable debut of 9500 LIBERTY will be on Sunday, September 26th at 8pm (ET/PT) on MTV2, mtvU (MTV’s 24-hour college network), and Tr3s: MTV, Música y Más (formerly MTV Tr3s) as part of Hispanic Heritage Month.
“The decisions our elected representatives make on immigration reform now will impact our audience for generations,” said Stephen Friedman, EVP & GM of MTV Networks. “As the national debate rages, MTV is committed to engaging America’s youth as informed and active participants – and sharing this powerful film is a great way to start that process.”
“To compete in the 21st century, America needs a new generation of leaders who have grown up thriving in the richness of diversity,” Park said. “People under 30 know intuitively where we need to go as a nation. We need to hear from them more often.”
Disclaimer: All guest posts are the opinion of the poster and do not necessarily represent the views of moonhowlings.net administration. M-H
Fri, 08/27/2010 – 11:14am — AnnabelPark
I have been asked many times in recent days, “What do you think about Glenn Beck?” I haven’t commented because I haven’t been focused on him enough to really know. But since his rally at the Lincoln Memorial this weekend is distracting so many Americans who could put their time to much better use, here is my take:
I wrote the following in Wednesday’s Facebook post, without mentioning Mr. Beck but with him partially in mind:
Before we call someone a racist, we should ask ourselves: are we moved to call someone a racist because we feel compassion for the victim or because we feel hatred toward the perpetrator? What if, instead of being divided against each other over race, we stood together against those who perpetuate economic injustice against us all? Imagine how the world would change.
Martin Luther King’s march was called the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” While so many of us are immensely distracted by Mr. Beck and other wedge issues of the day, Rome burns. If we continue to follow Pied Pipers who want to see our country fight itself rather than come together to solve our problems, what problems can we expect to solve? We are headed for a deep economic depression if We the People fail to show our leaders that we want solutions not distractions. To do that we must lead by example.
In short: Glenn Beck’s rally is a corporate-sponsored ragtime show. An unfortunate distraction in tough times when we should be pulling together.
An update on 9500Liberty from The Austin Chroniclein Phoenix, AZ. Perhaps this review is the most accurate of all the different accounts of what really happened in Prince William County. Obviously, 9500Liberty has become very relevant in recent weeks and months as things heat up over immigration in Arizona.
This interesting documentary, which has spent the last half-year on the film-festival circuit, has achieved, rather suddenly, the utmost in topicality in the wake of Arizona’s passage of its infamous “show me your papers” law. Byler and Park’s film records the 2007-2008 events in Prince William County, Virginia, that surrounded the passage of a similar measure aimed at curbing illegal immigration.
The county board of supervisors there unanimously passed a law requiring police officers to stop anyone whom they had probable cause to believe was an illegal alien. Byler and Park, co-founders of the Coffee Party, were there to observe every public moment as the board wrestled with the fallout and concerned citizens galvanized around both sides of the issue. Events grew more complicated once the police chief calmly informed the board that new taxes would have to be passed in order cover the $14 million of estimated extra expenses to train his people in the details of upholding the law and to purchase cameras to mount on the dashboards of all police cruisers.
Most telling, however, was the eventual testimony of the leaders of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the group ultimately behind both the Virginia and Arizona initiatives. In Virginia, the group helped guide the efforts of the indefatigable blogger who founded Help Save Manassas, the group that led the charge against the illegal aliens.
In the end, this film exposes the calculatedness of politicians who exploit the immigration issue as a boon to their election bids. Part of what makes 9500 Liberty so special is what Byler and Park did with their footage before it was assembled into this feature film. They created a YouTube channel and posted all their interviews and clips online as they were gathered, and they encouraged viewer participation in shaping the material and steering the filmmakers toward unexamined aspects of the subject.
In time, the Virginia statute was amended to eradicate the “probable cause” provision, so that a person’s legal status could not be investigated unless the individual was first apprehended for another crime. The film has served as a cautionary tale, until the legislators in Arizona, of course, stirred things up again. Byler, whose previous narrative films Americanese and Charlotte Sometimes both won Audience Awards at previous South by Southwest Film Festivals. 9500 Liberty has little of the flowing grace of those movies and evidences the jagged video look and on-the-fly cinematography common to so many modern documentaries. Yet what this film has in urgency and timeliness makes it a unique witness to our times.
Eric and Annabel were certainly in the right place at the right time.
The AFL-CIO and one of its civil rights groups has written to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano demanding that all agreements between Arizona law enforcement and DHS cease. AFL-CIO is the largest labor union in the United States. According to the Huffington Post:
On Friday, the union conglomerate AFL-CIO and the civil rights coalition, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, became the latest institutions to urge for the isolation or boycott of Arizona when they requested that Homeland Security terminate its training of local law enforcement officials in the state.
“We write to express our deep concern with the Department of Homeland Security’s continued cooperation with state and local law enforcement in Arizona pursuant to Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (‘the 287(g) program’) in the aftermath of Arizona’s passage of Senate Bill 1070, and we ask that you immediately rescind all 287(g) program agreements in Arizona,” the letter reads.
The message continues:
“We are grateful that President Obama has spoken out to correctly call the Arizona law ‘misguided.’ However, more than words are required from the federal government at this time. As we explain below, the enforcement of Arizona’s law fundamentally depends on the use of federal government resources for the implementation of its racial profiling regime. Unless DHS terminates all 287(g) program agreements in Arizona, the federal government will be complicit in the racial profiling that lies at the heart of the Arizona law. Such a result would place the DHS at odds with this Administration’s stated views on SBI070, and at odds with basic American values of tolerance and non-discrimination.”
The letter is by far the most serious effort to date to make Arizona’s new immigration law untenable for the state. Other groups have urged economic and travel boycotts as a way to target the state government’s tourism revenues. Should DHS adopt the AFL-CIO’s suggestion (and it’s a big question whether the Department will) it would deny the state the type of law enforcement expertise that the immigration law was designed to beef up in the first place.
The legislation passed by Arizona state government would make the failure to carry immigration documents a crime. It would also give law enforcement officials fairly broad powers to detain those suspected of being in the country illegally.
“A review of DHS’s 287(g) program agreements in Arizona makes clear that once SB1070 becomes effective, DHS will be complicit in the enforcement of Arizona’s misguided law,” reads the letter, signed by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Wade Henderson, President and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “We urgently request that you exercise your authority to immediately rescind all 287(g) program agreements in Arizona and, in this manner, avoid making the federal government complicit in the enforcement of Arizona’s misguided law.”
So what, you might say. PWC and City of Manassas both participate in the 287(g) program. What impact will the dust up in Arizona have on our MOU with Homeland Security?
Meanwhile things show no signs of calming down in Arizona. 9500Liberty is now being shown in Tucson per request of the community. Sarah Palin is out there saying ‘We are all Arizonans now.’ Is that sort of like being a Hokie for the day?
Jan Brewer and Palin blamed President Barack Obama for the state law, saying the measure is Arizona’s attempt to enforce immigration laws because the federal government won’t do it.
“It’s time for Americans across this great country to stand up and say, ‘We’re all Arizonans now,'” Palin said. “And in clear unison we say, ‘Mr. President: Do your job. Secure our border.'”
The former Alaska governor appeared with Brewer at a brief news conference on Saturday. The event launched a website that Brewer said was an effort to educate America about border security and discourage an economic boycott of the state.
I hate being simple minded but did Mexicans just start coming across the border since President Obama took office? I could have sworn this was an issue before then. Silly me.
At least some folks will be well-known out in AZ. Bill Goodykoontz of the Arizona Central tells a story he describes as chilling and provocative. Funny the names that pop out at us from the Grand Canyon State. Meanwhile, theaters in Tempe continue to be sold out.
In 2007, Prince William County in Virginia enacted a policy requiring police officers to question anyone they had probable cause to believe was in the country illegally
All eyes are still on Prince William County as the residents of Arizona feel our pain at the Harkins Valley Art Theater near Phoenix. The theater has been packed each night for screenings of 9500Liberty. Eric Byler has been in the Phoenix area for approximately a week now. This afternoon he hosted a radio show with 3 Republican business people who disapprove of the law passed, SB 1070.
Many folks from Arizona now know all about 0ur county. A write up in AZ newspaper Phoenix New Times revealed:
The film chronicles the heated battle over an Immigration Resolution (drafted by the same folks who brought us SB 1070), in Prince William County, Virginia that passed in 2008 and was quickly repealed because of devastating economic effects (read more about it here). 9500 Liberty captures both sides of the battle in Prince William County through numerous interviews and video clips, some of which provoked the audience at Harkins into both jeers and cheers.
For example, when a woman tells the Prince William County Board of District Supervisors that they must “Never forget 9/11 and who did that to us – illegals,” the audience at Harkins Valley Art let out a collective grumble. Minutes later, they roared in unified laughter when a man tells the Supervisors, “Don’t confuse the 9/11 with the 7-11.”
Naturally our own Alanna and Elena are folk heroes and Eric is extremely busy. That is what happens when you have directed a film on immigration and one of the biggest news events of the day suddenly becomes a highly controversial state law in Arizona rather than a resolution in a county in Virginia.
When asked by Lydia Aranda, a local Wells Fargo executive and a member of the Governor’s Latino Advisory Council, what was the main lesson he’d (Byler) learned in Prince William County that continues to be relevant here in the county, he responded:
“If [co-director] Annabel [Park] were here, I know what she’d say,” Byler replied. “The biggest lesson is that the immigrants in our community are already integrated into the economy, because the economy does not discriminate based on your national origin. A dollar is a dollar.”
Byler also denied that demonstrations and rallies were productive in our area. He said that community leaders and business people spoke with supervisors individually and those private conversations are what ultimately lead to a softer approach.
It looks like a home boy it one out of the ball park with 95ooLiberty.
Manassas Gets First Look at “9500 Liberty” Award-winning Documentary Recounts 2007-2008 Immigration Culture War
MANASSAS, VA — Jan. 22, 2010
Mid-way through a national tour that has netted two film festival awards and two city proclamations, “9500 Liberty” returns to the place where it began when George Mason University’s Verizon Auditorium hosts a Tuesday 6:30 PM screening on Jan. 26.
This is the first time the feature length documentary has screened in Manassas, home to several of the film’s primary figures, including Greg Letiecq, a blogger and political activist who helped engineer the passage the nation’s most aggressive local ordinance designed to “crack down” on illegal immigration, and Gaudencio Fernandez, a building contractor who protested the law by erecting a series of banners on his property near the Old Town Manassas train station. The film reveals in dramatic detail how and why the controversial “probable cause” mandate for immigration status checks was repealed in April, 2008 by the Prince William County Board of County Supervisors.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
6:30 PM
Verizon Auditorium, Occoquan Building
George Mason University, Prince William Campus
10900 University Boulevard
Manassas, VA 20110-2203
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Directors Eric Byler of Gainesville, VA and Annabel Park of Silver Spring, MD have traveled with the film to ten states in recent months, with a host of upcoming screenings that include Hampden-Sydney, VA, Ohio, Montana, and Nebraska. In February, “9500 Liberty” will be presented to Members of Congress at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
Tuesday’s screening, presented with Spanish subtitles, is the opening night for the Immigration and Human Rights Cinema series, hosted by George Mason University and the local interfaith group Unity in the Community. It will be followed by a Q & A discussion with the filmmakers and representatives of the Prince William County Police Department, including a Spanish speaking Officer.
“9500 Liberty” won Best Documentary at the Charlotte Film Festival last September, and the Audience Award at the St. Louis International Film Festival in November. The Mayor of Austin, Texas and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors both issued proclamations commending the film prior to public screenings. The filmmakers expect to announce a cable television premiere and a DVD release date in coming weeks.
The prizewinners of the 18th annual St. Louis International Film festival were announced during the closing night party at the Moonrise Hotel on Sunday.
The audience-choice award winner was “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.” The acclaimed film about an abused girl learning to read was also the audience choice at the Sundance and Toronto film festivals and seems assured of a slot in this year’s Oscar race.
But it was a close competition. By mere thousandths of a percentage point, “Precious” eked out a win over the Swiss/Italian romance “Marcello Marcello,” which was named best international film.
The award for best documentary went to “9500 Liberty,” which scrutinizes immigration policy and racial profiling.
An audience award is what it sounds like. It appears that 9500 Liberty was definitely running with the big dogs. Precious is doing quite well at the box office and can be seen at any theater.
