LAS ABOGADAS: Attorneys on the Front Lines of the Migrant Crisis

LAS ABOGADAS: Attorneys on the Front Lines of the Migrant Crisis – a benefit to pay for the new 16′ screen!
Showing: Thursday, May 25, 7:30 PM
Title: Las Abogadas: Attorneys on the Front Lines of the Migrant Crisis
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Genre: Documentary
Director: Victoria Bruce
For a group of extraordinary women who practice immigration law, the refugee crisis is a call to action they can’t ignore.
LAS ABOGADAS follows a group of immigration attorneys over a multi-year odyssey as the U.S. Government under President Trump upends every law meant to protect those fleeing from persecution, violence and war. USA, 2022, 60 minutes.
Doors open at 7:30 with the 9 piece Afro-Brazilian and World Music band, Rosario featuring T.E.N.S. Las Abogadas will screen at 8:00, followed by recent immigrants to our community telling their stories, and ending with another performance by Rosario featuring T.E.N.S.
Growing up in an immigrant family Humberto Rosario learned to navigate the complexities of cultural identiry through rhythm and rhyme. “Te Encontro no Samba” (T.E.N.S.) is a dynamic Afro-Brazilian music project founded in 2017. What began as a small “roda de Samba” performance group has now evolved into explorations of other sounds of the African diaspora.
If you have been in The Nyack Center in the last year you are no doubt aware that the screen that was installed in 2005 had come to the end of its days – and maybe you heard us say that a new screen and rolling mechanism would cost $13,000 (which ultimately became $16,000). The Nyack Center did purchase a beautiful new screen that Rivertown Film is helping pay for, and we need to do that without jeopardizing the ongoing programs of Rivertown Film or those of the Nyack Center, whose services support – among others – immigrant communities such as those shown in Las Abogadas.
  
PLEASE HELP US. The screen at the Nyack Center is a community resource unlike anything that can be found in Rockland County. This is a special circumstance, and WE NEED THOSE OF YOU WHO UNDERSTAND WHAT A UNIQUE RECOURCE THIS IS to help us pay for it, URGENTLY! Purchase a ticket, take part in our raffle, make a donation to our screen fund or become a sponsor.
From setting up a legal clinic in a Volkswagen bus in the middle of five thousand desperate migrants, to forcing border guards to follow the law and accept a blind woman into U.S. custody, to crossing the border to counsel African migrants stuck in Tijuana, to standing up to human traffickers in a makeshift refugee camp along the Mexican side of the border, to giving legal advice in the brutally hot Mexican sun to families desperate to see American soil — we watch our Las Abogadas characters’ surreal journeys to try and help.
In their own narration, we hear how each woman came to do the work they do. With archival footage we see their own personal stories of migration and their desire to give others the same opportunities.
Best of Women’s Voices – Portland Film Festival
Best Documentary – L.A. Independet Women Film Awards
Best Documentary – Vancouver Women in Film
Best Feature – Vancouver Women in Film
Camera Eye International Award – 6th Annual Women Filmmakers Festival
Best Documentary – ONE Country, ONE Film International Film Festival
Best Documentary – Awareness Festival
Best Social Justice Documentary – Queen City Film Festival
Best Documentary – Pembroke Taporelli Arts and Film Festival
Best in Fest – Valkyrie International Film Festival