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Work in Progress

Luis Valdovino

1990 00:14:00 United StatesEnglishColor4:3Video

Description

An experimental video about cultural and political disputes surrounding immigration and naturalization processes. Work In Progress explores the effects of the 1986 U.S. Immigration Reform Law and individuals who did not qualify for amnesty under this reform, therefore remaining undocumented. Interweaving government policies, media exposure, xenophobia, Latin folklore, and cultural conditioning—as revealed through interviews and stock footage—Valdovino interrelates the complex forces that shape illegal alien identity and experience for Mexicans who cross the border, and takes on the "terminal disease of discrimination and hatred of foreigners" that often characterizes our society.

About Luis Valdovino

Luis Valdovino is part of a wave of Latino videomakers creating works that testify to the experiences of Latino Americans in confronting categorical discrimination on the basis of language and culture. With the viewpoint of an insider, Valdovino raises difficult issues of racism and exclusion in our supposedly “democratic” society, showing the injustice and hypocrisy of the American Dream when it means being over-worked and under-paid, exploited, and unrecognized in the land of opportunity.