UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Sundance Award-winning filmmakers Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera will participate in a discussion after an online screening of their film "The Infiltrators" at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, open to all campuses and their communities. The event is co-presented by the Latina/o Studies Program and Penn State’s Sustainability Institute as part of the "Intersections: How We Respond" film series and Penn State’s Hispanic Heritage Month.
Attendees can sign up at this link.
“Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera’s award-winning body of work transcends categorization, having developed both documentaries and sci-fi films focused on social justice, identity, immigration and borders,” explained Peter Boger, assistant director for community engagement in the Sustainability Institute. “This screening offers Penn State a rare opportunity to engage with master storytellers blending storytelling forms to explore critical issues of social justice.”
"The Infiltrators," which won two prizes at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, tells the true story of undocumented college students affected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, who work with the National Immigrant Youth Alliance to protect individuals threatened with deportation. The film portrays the actions of two of the students who voluntarily allow themselves to be captured by Immigrant and Customs (ICE) so they can work from inside detention centers and advocate more effectively. The film includes a mixture of documentary footage and dramatic re-enactments of the students' experience and "reveals their courage in risking deportation, avoiding paid snitches and facing retaliation by ICE."
Since Spring 2019, the Sustainability Institute’s “Intersections” series have attracted more than 2,000 attendees to dialogues about advancing sustainability. Each film in this year’s series profiles different ways people address sustainability — political action, economic adaptation, artistic endeavors — and comes with suggestions for how attendees can get more involved. The series also illustrates the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals, which Penn State uses as its basis for incorporating sustainability into teaching, research, operations and outreach.
All screenings are shown unrated and are free and open to the public at all Penn State campuses. Registration is needed to attend. For more information, contact Peter Boger at pgb45@psu.edu.