DESCRIPTION

Immokalee, My Home is a portrait of life in Immokalee, Florida, heart of industrial agriculture in the United States and home to its largest population of migrant farm workers. Through visits to carnivals, churches, tomato fields, and workers’ homes, a narrative emerges. The surface story is of one community’s struggle for farm worker rights. Florida farm workers live in slave-like conditions. Some are beaten, not given food or water, or not paid. Yet, they continue to come. This is the deeper tale revealed. Ultimately, it is a tale of migration, of immigration, and of the persistent hope for a better life.

We use Super-8mm and hand-processing techniques in order to add an extra layer of intimacy to our film. The format, with all its imperfections and filmic interventions, liberates the project from the didactically objective tone typical to activist documentaries. Rather, the film takes audiences on a personal, subjective, experiential journey; it is a trip, not a tale. We celebrate a birthday, ride a carousel, pick tomatoes, and remember a mother making tortillas in a Guatemalan village. We teach English, sing in Creole, and speak in Poptí. Immokalee is our story and our protagonist. It is a place where the human cost of food is lived. With sounds and images, we take you to Immokalee.

SCREENINGS

11/14/2009 - *World Premiere*, Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival. NY, NY

12/09/2009 - St. Luke's School & Newcomers High School. Human Rights Day Celebration. NY, NY

4/19/2010 - Singapore International Film Festival, New York Avant Cinema.

4/23/2010 - Cambridge International Super 8 Festival. Cambridge, UK.

9/7/2010 - *Best Film*. International Super 8mm Festival. Szeged, Hungary.

11/18/2010 - SVA Media Festival - American Anthropological Accociation Annual Meeting. New Orleans, LA.

2/17/2011 - FLEXFEST Experimental Film Festival. Gainesville, FL.

3/24/2011- Ann Arbor Film Festival. Ann Arbor, MI.

CREDITS

Kevin T. Allen – co-director
A filmmaker and sound artist. He has created sound installation work for the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Third Coast International Audio Festival, Film(less) Festival, and Deep Wireless Festival of Radio Art. Kevin’s films have shown at the Museum of Modern Art, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Margaret Mead and Portland Documentary and Experimental Film Festival. His film KIEU won first prize at the 2006 Black Maria Film Festival and was featured on Michigan Public Broadcasting. Kevin just finished shooting his next project, LUTHIER, a documentary portrait of an aging instrument maker in Patagonia.

Jennifer L. Heuson – co-director
A filmmaker, scholar, and activist. She has conducted fieldwork in Southeast Asia, South America, and the United States. Jennifer’s works include: Sounds of the Amazon, a sound ethnography of the Peruvian Amazon; Welcome, a documentary about tourism in Asia; and Colors of New York City, an audio-visual exploration of race in New York City. She is currently investigating tourist soundscapes of the Black Hills of South Dakota and shooting an experimental ethnography about cowboys, Indians, family, and the politics of memory.

Kim A. Allen –producer
An educator and human rights advocate with a special interest in modern-day slavery; teaches history and Spanish at St. Luke’s School in New York City and is actively involved in Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch work.

Special Thanks:
Coalition of Immokalee Workers, St. Luke's School, Smudge Studio, Milwaukee Graduate Assistant Association, AFT Local 2169, AFL-CIO, Lydia Andre.

Cruz in the tomato fields