..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

March 7, 2006

For Immediate Release

Women featured in immigration documentary denied visas; can not attend SXSW screenings

"A much-needed examination of the collateral damage of illegal immigration ... sensitive ... effective and emotionally potent."
- John Anderson, Variety

After successful screenings and reviews at Slamdance, LETTERS FROM THE OTHER SIDE will be screening at the 2006 SXSW Film Festival beginning March 10, although the women featured in the documentary will not be able to attend. The U.S. Consulate in Mexico City has denied their visa applications, despite letters from the director of the film, SXSW, and assistance from Congressman Lloyd Doggett’s office.

“Unfortunately, the failed attempt to get visas for the women in my film echoes some of the themes of the film which is how difficult it is for a Mexican to be able to enter this country legally. It’s nearly impossible,” says the film’s director Heather Courtney.

LETTERS FROM THE OTHER SIDE interweaves video letters carried across the U.S.-Mexico border by the film's director with the personal stories of women left behind in post-NAFTA Mexico.

In one video letter exchange, a U.S. Homeland Security official watches a video of Laura, a Mexican woman whose husband died in 2003 along with 18 others in the worst immigrant smuggling case in U.S. history. "How many more deaths does it take for the U.S. government to do something?" she asks.

Director Heather Courtney interacts with her subjects through her unobtrusive camera, providing an intimate look at the lives of the people most affected by today's immigration and trade policies. Her use of video letters provides a way for these women to communicate with both loved ones and strangers on the other side of the border, and illustrates how as an American she can carry these video letters back and forth across a border that these women are not legally allowed to cross.

The immigration debate is heating up again, with the U.S. House recently passing a bill that includes building 700 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. By focusing on a side of the immigration story rarely told by the media or touched upon in our national debate, LETTERS offers a fresh perspective, painting a complex portrait of families torn apart by economics, communities dying at the hands of globalization, and governments incapable or unwilling to do anything about it.

LETTERS FROM THE OTHER SIDE is a co-production of Front Porch Films and KERA-Dallas/Fort Worth, in association with the Independent Television Service (ITVS).