Lipscomb University’s HumanDocs film series, hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences, will be presenting a free public screening of I Learn America, a documentary about five teenage students adapting to life in America, on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. in Shamblin Theatre.
The screening is part of the Tennessee Rights Coalition’s Welcoming Week, an event that highlights the contributions of immigrants to American Communities. The coalition’s Welcoming Tennessee Initiative served as an inspiration to Welcoming America, a nationwide effort to make America a friendlier place.
Lipscomb’s HumanDocs is a social-justice series that aims to create a more just, peaceful and inclusive university and city.
“[This film] reflects the series’ goal of looking at important issues of social justice – in this case, immigration and welcoming others, even when their language, culture, or beliefs differ from ours,” series coordinator and Lipscomb Associate Professor of Spanish Ted Parks said.
The documentary from Jean-Michel Dissard and Gitte Peng looks at the lives of five teenage immigrants – Brandon Garcia, a 15-year-old Guatemalan who crossed the border to reunite with his mother after 10 years, Itrat Shah, a 17-year-old devout Muslim from Pakistan who came to America to join her father after the passing of her mother, Sandra Staniszewska, a 17-year-old tomboy from Poland, Jenniffer Vasquez, a inseparable best friend of Sandra and from the Dominican Republic and Sing Pi, a shy 18-year-old from Myanmar with limited English comprehension.
I Learn America follows the five students closely for a year at the International High School at Lafayette, a Brooklyn public high school dedicated to newly arrived immigrants from all over the world. The students learn how to adapt to life in a new country and to estranged families. They also learn about themselves in the process.
“The film transformed me into a better person,” Vasquez said. “Now I get to see the real me in high school time which makes me be a better person now that I’m growing up.”
“I also feel very proud of my friends Itrat, Sandra, Brandon and Sing, because I always know that no matter what would happen they will never give up.”
Vasquez and Staniszewska are attached at the hip, “like a flower with water.”
Despite being undocumented, Staniszewska said she is comfortable with being herself in a new country.
“I want to open the eyes and hearts to really show I am still the same person inside with the same feelings, same identity and the same human rights as anybody else in this world,” Staniszewska said. “Outside I look like what I look, but inside, and without clothes, I’m just a girl.”
For Brandon Garcia, the things he learned about himself surprised him more than adapting to a new culture.
“I came here to see my mom and that’s it. That’s it all I wanted, to see [her]. So I never thought of coming to this country to learn so many things,” Garcia said.
Dissard, who is passionate about immigration reform, seeks to increase public awareness of young immigrants in the United States through his film.
“By walking in their shoes as they encounter everything from social pressure to visa uncertainties, viewers will come to understand how these children – and the millions like them throughout the United States – are an integral part of American life today,” Dissard said. “In this very human manner, we hope to build the will for change that is essential to the ultimate, longer-term viability of policy reform on immigration.”
Dissard, who was an immigrant to the United States himself at age 15, said schools are the first and ultimate hope for integration, offering immigrant students a chance for sustained participation in a new society.
“It is in school that they determine where they belong in the reality and imagination of their new culture,” Dissard said. “It is through interactions with classmates, teachers, coaches and social workers that they shape their identities.”
Dissard has produced award-winning films selected to appear at the Sundance Film Festival (Raising Victor Vargas and Ezra), and I Learn America was selected to appear at the Nantucket Film Festival in June 2013.
This showing of I Learn America will be the Tennessee premiere of the film.
A panel discussion featuring local experts will follow the film (list courtesy of lipscomb.edu)
Candice McQueen, moderator, dean, Lipscomb College of Education
Molly Sehring, teacher, Glencliff High School, one of Nashville’s most diverse schools
Will Pinkston, board member, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools
Jan Lanier, ESL Coordinator/Title III Consultant, Division of Special Populations, Tennessee Department of Education; and
Karla Chavez, a first-year student at Lipscomb University, who has lived undocumented in Tennessee since she was five and recently received deferred action for childhood arrivals.
The HumanDocs film series is presented in partnership with the Nashville Film Festival and Nashville Public Television.