Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís visited Oberlin this week for the screening of their film, Borderland: The Line Within, at the Apollo Theatre. Over the course of their time in Oberlin, they visited classes, spoke with students, and hosted a Q&A following the film’s showing.
“The screening of Borderland: The Line Within is meant to be generative,” Sebastiaan Faber, professor of Hispanic Studies, said. “What they’re asking is, ‘What kind of things can be done now to prepare for future reckoning?’”
Yates and de Onís head Skylight, a nonprofit responsible for creating documentary films that center protagonists’ stories in the name of human rights and strengthening networks between activists. Faber, a longtime friend of Yates and de Onís, has helped organize past Skylight screenings at Oberlin, including that of their film, Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, which included outtakes from Yates’ prior work that were used as key evidence in the trial against Guatemala’s former dictator. Their latest film was created with past truth commission processes in mind. Faber noted that Latin America and the rest of the world may have much to teach the U.S. about exposing governmental abuses of power.
Paco de Onís, producer of Borderland, explained in an interview the importance of applying the same tools used by the government to track undocumented immigrants to monitor detention centers and removals of people from their homes and families by ICE. In the documentary, digital humanists analyze data on everything from these centers to companies and politicians with funds linked to ICE to demonstrate the vastness of the border industrial complex.
“They turn the tables,” de Onís said. “The whole point of journalism is a kind of surveillance of the government and society, in the sense that you’re bringing into account if there’s corruption, mishandling of government. Journalists can bring that to light.”
Together, Yates and de Onís are forging a path in documentary film that traces narratives back to those experiencing them and puts the authority in their hands. From there, narrators like Gabriela Castañeda and Kaxh Mura’l delve into their own experiences. The former is an organizer working to empower undocumented women through education on their rights as immigrants. The latter is a Guatemalan land activist who was forced to flee his home and seek asylum in the U.S. following death threats from a mining company.
“It’s important to realize what is being done and who’s doing it,” Faber said. “It’s the communities most affected that are also the most active resistors and the smartest resistors and the most inventive resistors. … The movie lays out what the interests are that are driving much of this so that the audience can come out more informed, more hopeful, and with a clearer sense of what they can do.”
The question of what could be done weighed on many students’ minds following the screening. As Yates described it, people become emotionally invested in the lives of those they’ve met in the film. During a Q&A following the Wednesday night showing, one student inquired about how Obies can use their privilege to help those who need it. Yates and de Onís pointed students to identify their local representatives and find out what is being paid for in their district by the border industrial complex, then voice their concerns. Yates in particular emphasized that all students should ensure that immigrants they know have their name, address, and phone number, in case they ever need to use it. More broadly, she spoke to the idea that everyone affects change differently, and the power is in one’s commitment to the cause.
“That is a great question,” Yates said. “And, I can’t really answer that for you. But what I can say is, you have to throw yourself into some activity … and become proximate to the immigrant community.”
In creating films that take years to come to fruition, Yates and de Onís place value back on long-term reporting. They tell compelling stories about complex issues in a moment when news is often reduced to a stream of information that can feel distant from peoples’ day-to-day lives. Borderland closes the gap by championing individuals and their place among the national headlines. Yates and de Onís know better than anyone what it is to devote themselves to the facts that build the basis for future justice.
In response to the screening and surrounding events, students have shown curiosity and gratitude. Yates and de Onís’ visits to various classes sparked conversations regarding the process of shooting and editing a documentary like Borderland. College first-year Griffin Larson-Erf spoke of his own interest in the field of journalism and said that the film reminded him why reporting is still valuable.
“Everybody says ‘tell the story, document’ … because we think it’s going to help.” Larson-Erf said. “We don’t actually know. And, yeah, maybe you can still argue about it, but what [Yates and de Onís] have shown is … there’s a point. … I’m glad the documentary exists, that all of their work exists, and I’m hopeful.”
Samantha Soto, College second-year, described at once the distinctiveness of each individual story in Borderland and the familiarity of the film’s sentiment as a child of immigrants.
“Having family members, friends that have been deported, the process of leaving your home country to go to the United States … [they’re] experiences that aren’t too out of this world,” Soto said. “I’m glad more awareness about this is spreading to Oberlin.”
