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by the same folks who brought us SB 1070), in Prince William County, Virginia that passed in 2008 and was quickly repealed because of devastating economic effects (read more about it here). 9500 Liberty captures both sides of the battle in Prince William County through numerous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.