Sunday, November 15, 2009
3:00 PM
Screening with Spanish subtitles
Q&A with the filmmakers
St. Francis of Assisi
18825 Fuller Heights Road
Triangle, VA 22172
The screening is still free, but it is NOT tomorrow. It’s next Sunday. We apologize to anyone who made plans to attend. It was a miscommunication.
Heads up folks! There will be 2 screenings of 9500 Liberty this weekend. The first one will be down in Charlottesville on Friday. The local screening will be this Sunday, Nov. 8 at 3 pm at St. Francis of Assisi in Triangle. There will be a discussion after the film screening.
Many people asked for advanced notice so here it is so you can make plans early.
Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009
3:00 PM
St. Francis of Assisi (admission is free)
18825 Fuller Heights Road
Triangle, VA 22172
Friday, Nov. 6, 2009
5:00 PM
Vinegar Hill Theatre (Cost is $6.50)
220 W Market Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902-5027
Update: Please note that the Triangle screening is free. The Vinegar Hill Theatre venue cost is $6.50
There were a number of things that disappointed me in this article in the Manassas Journal Messenger, including a huge mistake in misquoting Chief Deane. But this part disappointed me, puzzled me, and pissed me off. The writer editorializes that 9500 Liberty,
works to demonize board Chairman Corey Stewart, R-at large, who was running for re-election in 2007 when he and Supervisor John T. Stirrup, R-Gainesville, pushed to pass the resolution.
I’m not sure what the writer was thinking when he added this perspective to what is supposed to be a straight news article. First of all, there is no call for using such a strong word. Second of all, the film does not “work” to do anything other than show Chairman Stewart being very good at what he does. If you like the idea of immigration culture wars dividing your community right before an election, Corey is no demon in this film, he’s a saint. No one in the film criticizes him. No one who spoke after the film directly criticized him. In fact, his name didn’t even come up. I was among a number of audience members who were shocked that certain of the Chairman’s most dastardly deeds were NOT included in the film. I wasn’t going to respond to the comment other than to say I agreed, but this was posted yesterday by Last Best Hope:
Billed as a film that “makes Corey Stewart look like an idiot” (this was the big quote in a MJM article from someone who got a sneak preview), the film revealed nothing I did not already know about him, while omitting many of the things he did to make himself look, if not idiotic, at least unhinged. There was nothing about Stewart instantaneously forwarding internal BOCS emails to Greg Letiecq so that the Letiecq Internet Frenzy machine could be used to bully the Board into firing Chief Deane. That was Stewart’s lowest moment and a glaring omission from the film. Stewart’s second lowest moment, or most brilliant depending on your agenda, was using county funds to send out a political post card during his “fighting illegal immigration” reelection campaign setting up the circus act BOCS meeting in Oct. 2007. While this is 10 times more predictable, it was also 10 times more infamous and more discussed at the time. I was looking forward to seeing Maureen Caddigan’s brilliant move to hold the Chairman’s feet to the fire when he tried to limit the very people he invited to participate to only one minute at the podium. I believe Stewart lost the vote 6 to 2, and the result was 12 hours of Citizens’ Time to delay a vote that was already decided before they showed up. But this was skipped as well.
Last Best Hope concludes by saying, “Basically Stewart is not in the film other than Board meetings, and I’m not sure this alone makes him look like an idiot.” I could not agree more. If anything, the film was soft on Corey Stewart, considering how it should, or could have been made. Much was left out that could follow Corey politically.
Speaking of soft pedaling, I thought the film went too easy on Mr. Fernandez as well. Most people I have talked to say that his sign hurt the Hispanic community more than helped it, by handing Greg Letiecq a perfect gift with which to demonize (here is where the word is apt) the Hispanic community. Greg got more mileage out of that sign. He signed up more people because of it than he ever would have with his laughably manipulative pictures of men with ski-masks holding machine guns.
The voice over in the film criticizes the wording of the third sign, which was over-the-top offensive, but only because the inflammatory language could endanger his kids. A fair point, but it did more than endanger kids, it pissed a lot of people off, of all races, who might not otherwise have been that critical of the sign. Fernandez insulted the very people who were actually trying to help; the coalition of people who were working to fight back the powers of darkness ended up being included in the broad-brush insult.
Tomorrow will be the first Prince William County screening of the completed film 9500 Liberty.
From 9500 Liberty Press Release:
Woodbridge, VA (October 6, 2009) — Residents of Prince William County are hopeful that a film screening will restart dialogue about an immigration culture war that divided the county in 2007 and 2008. Friday’s 8 PM showing of 9500 Liberty, hosted by St. Paul’s Methodist Church in Woodbridge, will be the first ever presentation of the film with Spanish subtitles. An interpreter will facilitate discussion between residents and county officials following the award-winning documentary.
“Two years later, there remain a lot of hurt feelings, misunderstandings, and mistrust on all sides of this issue,” said Carlos Castro, founder of the Ayuda Business Coalition. “The language barrier is part of that, so hopefully having the immigrant community talk about this film together with police officials and members of the Board of Supervisors will be a significant step toward reconciliation.”
Friday, October 9, 2009 at 8:00 PM
St. Paul’s Methodist Church
1400 G. Street
Woodbridge, VA 22191
Admission: $109500 Liberty tracks the fate of the most controversial aspect of Prince William County’s Immigration Resolution, a mandate that required police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they had “probable cause” to suspect was an undocumented immigrant. As racial and political turmoil rose to a fever pitch, the Board of County Supervisors granted emergency funding for the “probable cause” mandate on October 16, 2007, only to repeal it two months into its implementation.
And,
9500 Liberty won the Jury Award for Best Documentary at the Charlotte Film Festival on September 24, then sold out its Washington DC premiere on October 1 turning dozens away. “Over the years, American documentaries have become, increasingly, the better films that I see,” remarked film critic Desson Thomson who hosted the DC event. “Tonight is no exception. And I think what’s most powerful about this film is the people who evolve — who go from a vote that was made under duress and fear, to a vote of principle and courage.”
From Eric Byler email:
I am putting finishing touches on the bilingual version of 9500 Liberty. Spanish subtitles for the English parts. English subtitles for the Spanish parts. It’s like seeing the world in color for the first time!
If you ever want to fully appreciate what happened here in 2007 and 2008, if you care enough to really know, see the film with us Friday night sitting among members of the Spanish speaking community, with members of our county government, and members of our law enforcement community. I think it will be a cathartic experience to collectively process the events that unfold in the film while in a gathering that is truly representative of our community, with the language barrier cast aside, and shared comprehension for the first time since the whole thing began. No matter where you stood on the controversy when it all went down, even if you think you’re firmly entrenched on one “side” or the other, I think this experience will bring you closer to understanding where the “other side” is coming from.
Please invite the readers and contributors at AntiBVBL.net to come to our screening. Many of them are characters in the story, both on screen and off. There are many in this community who hope and expect that this event will be a step toward healing, truth, and reconciliation. With everyone’s participation, I think it will be.
The following interview with Anabel Park and Eric Byler was on tonight on Channel 4:
Congratulations to Eric and Anabel for winning the Best Documentary Award at the Charlotte Film Festival last night! The award is the Indy Truth Award for Best Documentary and is a very prestigious award.
The film will show again at 3:30 on Sunday. Eric and Anabel were featured on two Charlotte NPR radio programs. Check them out at the 9500 Liberty website.
Here are the upcoming plans for these talented film makers:
Next stop, we will be premiering in DC on October 1st at the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival as the opening night film. You can buy tickets here for the screening and reception.
http://www.apafilm.org/festival-2009/9500-liberty/
This is our big hometown premiere screening with the “stars” from the film and a big after party so it is not to be missed if you are in the DC area.This is the list of scheduled screenings including Prince William County, Honolulu, St. Louis, San Diego, Charlottesville, etc. We are adding more screenings including in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles in the coming weeks. http://9500liberty.com/screenings.html
Thank you for supporting us throughout these months. Some of you have been with us for nearly two years. In fact, the second-year anniversary of the creation of the 9500 Liberty YouTube Channel will be celebrated on October 9th with the residents of Prince William County with a special community screening of the film at St. Paul’s Church in Woodbridge.
Please plan on seeing the film. According the the website:
9500 Liberty reveals the startling vulnerability of a local government, targeted by national anti-immigration networks using the Internet to frighten and intimidate lawmakers and citizens. Alarmed by a climate of fear and racial division, residents form a resistance using YouTube videos and virtual townhalls, setting up a real-life showdown in the seat of county government
.
Sharing an e-mail from Eric Byler —
Dear Friends,
Annabel Park and I have a documentary coming out this fall. 9500 Liberty explores the social, political, and economic fallout from one of America’s fiercest battles over immigration policy at the local level. We feel that our film will help illuminate what is really at stake in the upcoming national debate over immigration policy.
Watch our trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlZkL_0lZ1Q
Please share our new website: http://9500liberty.com/
Please join our Facebook group at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=13491935091&ref=ts
And/or please follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/9500Liberty
Thanks,
Eric Byler & Annabel Park
Author John Grisham hosted a fundraiser in Arlington for Charlottesville-based Legal Aid Justice Center, The fundraiser featured the story of the Immigration Resolution in Prince William County, filmed by 9500 Liberty. I felt the entire story should be posted. Here it is, with credit to Mr. Hunley.
Jonathan Hunley
Manassas News and Messenger
ARLINGTON—A line of people started forming quickly around Prince William County police Chief Charlie T. Deane.
They wanted to introduce themselves, shake his hand, maybe even chat him up.
The eager group wasn’t all law enforcement members, though, or even people who had followed Deane’s more than four decades as a policeman.
They were interested in Charlie Deane, Movie Star.
Deane was one of a handful of Prince William area folks who came to the Rosslyn Spectrum Theatre on Thursday night for the latest screening of “9500 Liberty,” a documentary on the region’s fight over immigration.
The issue, which flared in 2007, lately has taken a back seat to economic woes. But it played out again on the big screen and was introduced by an even bigger name.
The movie, 78 minutes in its current incarnation, was the centerpiece for a $25-a-head fundraiser for the Charlottesville-based Legal Aid Justice Center, which advocates for low-income Virginians.
The event was headlined by best-selling author and Charlottesville resident John Grisham, a supporter of the Legal Aid Justice Center, which has a program geared toward immigrant workers.
“9500 Liberty” was made by Gainesville resident Eric Byler and his fiancee, Annabel Park, who lives in Silver Spring, Md. They began filming in August 2007 after Prince William supervisors first took on the issue of immigrants in the county illegally.
They first released videos on the Web site YouTube, and have gradually added to and tweaked the work. Thursday was the first time the current version was screened, but Park said it likely will be revised further.
A screening of the film “9500 Liberty” is scheduled for Thursday, May 21 at 7:30 pm at the Rosslyn Spectrum Theater. It’s based on youtube.com/9500liberty and covers two years in the debate over immigration in Prince William County. It’s being hosted by John Grisham and it’s a benefit for the Virginia Justice Center.
http://www.justice4all.org/Event
There is a private reception for donors, then a screening followed by a panel discussion. The screening tickets are $25 each. Virginia Justice Center works for the rights of the most underprivileged in our society.
Another screening is scheduled for June.
Update: Today Robb Pearson, featured in the videos below, joined the conversation and answered a host of questions and comments from Anti posters. Thanks Robb for your insights into anti-illegal immigrant psychology.
For those not familiar with Robb Pearson’s story, you should watch the Part 1 before Part 2. In Part 1 Robb tells us how a hunger for attention prompted his transition from popular blogger to infamous anti-illegal immigrant activist. His honesty here sheds some light on the psychology of Greg Letiecq, whom he briefly references in this part of the interview.
But Part 2 contains a surprising revelation about the anti-illegal immigration mindset. If you think you understand the mindset now, you will understand it differently after watching this.
NotGregLetiecq, 16. September 2008, 18:33:
Okay. So. Is anyone else watching this? The Supervisors voted 5 to 3 in favor of a motion by Frank Principi to add a discussion of Stirrup’s Duecaster appointment to the topics to discuss for closed session.
Those in favor: Principi, Caddigan, May, Jenkens, and Nohe.
Those opposed: Greg Letiecq’s Errand Boys, Covington
There had been a discussion about a DVD submitted into the record by Eric Byler, of the 9500Liberty You Tube channel, but I am unclear about whether or not they agreed at the time to watch it in closed session.
When the Board reconvened about 90 minutes later, the other appointments all passed unanimously except for Supervisor Nohe abstaining on the vote to confirm Supervisor May’s appointment, Kris Nohe (his wife) to the same Human Services committee for which Robert Duecaster was about to see a vote. When Chairman Stewart introduced the Duecaster appointment, there was a long discussion. Jenkins said he hadn’t had the opportunity to view the video embedded above.
So, he asked that the vote be delayed until the Board could see it privately.
Supervisor Stirrup responded that there was prejudice in the video (I believe he meant prejudice AGAINST Duecaster, ironically enough).
Supervisor Principi said, “I’m in the same boat” with Supervisor Jenkins, and that he was torn between following the usual procedure (my phrasing) and using his vote to express his concern about a man whose “reputation precedes him.”
Chairman Stewart said they should not watch the video before voting because 9500Liberty was “against the Board’s Resolution” (not exactly true but okay).
Supervisor Principi said we don’t need to watch someone else’s interpretation, we have our own footage from Channel 23’s coverage of Citizens’ Time. He said we can ask our communications department to edit the same three speeches together from their own footage. He repeated the request that the vote be delayed until such time as a Channel 23 version of the same events could be produced for the Board’s edification.
Supervisor Caddigan said she planned to vote against the appointment. She said she had not heard about any of this beforehand, and felt uncomfortable voting in the affirmative if she was being denied the opportunity to see the video. She said she was disturbed by some of the Duecaster quotes that were read to her at Citizens’ Time.
Supervisor Nohe said that while he was disturbed by the comments of Mr. Duecaster, which he called “deeply offensive to me,” he was going to vote yes out of respect to Supervisor Stirrup, not out of respect toward his appointment.
Chairman Stewart said that he doubted whether the Duecaster quotes were accurate. It seemed to me that it was in Stewart’s power to deny the Board an opportunity to see the DVD, and it was in his power to force a vote.
They then voted, as RobbPearson reported on the previous thread:
FOR Duecaster’s appointment:
Stewart
Nohe
Stirrup
Covington
May
AGAINST Duecaster’s appointment:
Principi
Jenkins
Caddigan
After the vote, Supervisor Jenkins said this is the first time he had ever been denied the opportunity to see information pertinent to a vote. Because he had been contacted by so many concerned citizens, he asked County Attorney Horton if, now that the DVD was in the public record, would it be made available to citizens. The answer was yes.
9500Liberty Special Screening
Thursday August 7th • 6:30 PM
James J. McCoart Administration Building • Occoquan Room
1 County Complex Court • Woodbridge, VA
6:30 PM
Immigration Policy Change in Prince William County (6 minutes)
Followed by a 20 minute Q/A about PWC’s current immigration policy
7:00 PM
9500Liberty Special Screening August Update (80 minutes)
Followed by a one hour discussion and Q/A
Added scenes will include Chris Pannell, a former Help Save Manassas Executive Board Member, explaining why she left Help Save Manassas, the first "Save Prince William County’s Economy " Party, and Chief Deane’s official response to the Letiecq/Stewart charges of treason before the Board of Supervisors April 1, 2008.
Stewart claims $3 million in an $850 million budget is not significant. Excuse me, wasn’t that the initial costs that the County identified as being attributable to illegal aliens? How could it be significant in one instance but insignificant in the other?
And what is it with Stirrup and this point of order?
An article in the Gainesville Times today provides an intelligent, in-depth review of the 9500Liberty special screening to explain the April 29th roll-back of the Immigration Resolution.
For those who were not there last Friday, there is another screening in the works for next week, probably Thursday. In the mean time, here is the more popular of two clips on the 9500Liberty channel, even though the other one is more interesting:
I feel like this was a much more inquisitive piece of writing. The MJM article focused on varying reactions while this article focused on the content of the film:
The film had its share of suspense and drama, even for those who were familiar with the outcomes of each board vote.
Nohe is presented at some points in a fashion similar to a reality television show star who sits in front of a camera and talks about what was going through his mind in between clips of a particular situation.
His most prominent role comes during the climax when the board was trying to decide on a tax rate. At the centerpiece of the funding issue was the $3.1 million price tag to put video cameras in police cars. Deane has asked for the cameras to allow officers to fight the inevitable lawsuits based on charges of racial profiling.
“The whole program’s getting unbelievably expensive,” said Nohe.
Part of the problem was that the resolution had changed several times since its inception.
Originally, it called for police to check the immigration status of every person stopped for a violation. It was later changed to allow police to check the immigration status if the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect is an illegal immigrant. That variation is the one that prompted the chief to ask for cameras in the police cars.
In order to pay for the cameras, the real estate tax rate would have had to be set at 98.7 cents per $100 of assessed value. After the 98.7 rate failed on a 4-4 vote, Principi asked for a 97-cent rate on a motion to eliminate the cameras and require all immigration checks to be done post-arrest.
That failed 7-1.
Viewers find out here that during a behind-the-scenes meeting between Stewart and Principi, the Republican chairman asked the Democrat to go back on his resolution.
“There’s not a hell’s worth of chance that I would oppose it,” the Woodbridge supervisor said he responded, later adding that since their break, he had the five votes needed to get a similar version of his motion passed with fewer cameras and all immigration checks moved to post-arrest.
It passed unanimously, leading Principi, who once said the illegal immigration resolution was “essentially failing,” to tell the filmmakers on camera, “I’m going to declare victory and go home.”
The post-arrest scenario, which is what was finally adopted, means that after a person has been charged with a crime, police will investigate their immigration status. Since every person charged will be checked, there is less concern about racial-profiling complaints.
The Manassas Journal Messenger reports on the Friday night screening of the latest version of the 9500 Liberty screening.
According to the article,
The reaction to the film ran the gamut, after its showing Friday night at Trinity Episcopal Church in Manassas.
Chris Pannell, who left Help Save Manassas this spring, praised the video. Woodbridge Workers Committee Nancy Lyall enjoyed the film, but expressed her outrage at the resolution.
City Councilman Jonathan Way said the presentation was interesting but that he learned nothing new.
“It was far less contentious and argumentative than I thought it might have been,” Way said.
Conversely, Help Save Manassas member Maureen Wood said the video was one-sided, made Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart look like a fool and the filmmakers and she would never “see eye to eye on this issue.”
