Film on the US-Mexico border: The Fence, in Syracuse on May 13

Playing at ArtRage: www.artragegallery.org

FRIDAY, May 13, 2011 7pm Free to the Public
THE FENCE (LA BARDA) 2010
Directed by Rory Kennedy

In Oct. 2006, the U.S. government decided to build a 700-mile fence along its troubled 2000-mile-plus border with Mexico. Three years, 19 construction companies, 350 engineers, thousands of construction workers, tens of thousands of tons of metal and $3 billion later, was it all worth it? Rory Kennedy (HBO’s Emmy®-winning “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib”) follows her subjects through private ranches, protected wilderness, bustling border towns and scrub deserts for a revealing, often surprising look at the controversial southern U.S. border barrier. As many as 500,000 undocumented immigrants are estimated to cross into the U.S. every year. In the aftermath of 9/11, the Bush administration responded to the enormous political pressure to close what was seen as a dangerous open door with a seemingly simple, some say simplistic, solution: a fence dividing the United States from its neighbor to the south.

HBO Documentary Films presents THE FENCE (LA BARDA); a Moxie Firecracker production; directed and narrated by Rory Kennedy; producers, Rory Kennedy, Liz Garbus and Keven McAlester; writer, Mark Bailey; associate producer, Lauren Barker; editor, Sari Gilman; cinematographer, Nick Doob. For HBO: senior producer, Nancy Abraham; executive producer, Sheila Nevins. Sponsoring Organizations: The Justice for Immigrants Campaign of the Syracuse Catholic Diocese, Workers’ Center of Central New York, Nosotros, Your Latino Voice, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coaliton, Syracuse Peace Council, Detention Task Force, La Casita Cultural Center Project, LULAC.