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'Twilight' Director Chris Weitz Takes On Alabama Anti-Immigrant Law
http://crooksandliars.com/kenneth-quinnell/twilight-director-chris-weitz-tak
February 16, 2012 05:00 PM
'Twilight' Director Chris Weitz Takes On Alabama Anti-Immigrant Law
By Kenneth Quinnell
Chris Weitz, director of the popular "Twilight" movies, directed a series of videos taking on Alabama's anti-immigrant law; the strictest in the the country. The campaign, titled "Is This Alabama?" launched with four compelling videos.
In June 2011 Alabama enacted H.B. 56—the most extreme state-level anti-immigrant bill passed to date—which went into effect in September. Now Hollywood director Chris Weitz has turned the camera on Alabama and is asking “Is This Alabama?”
In addition to the videos, the website also features resources on learning more about the bill and why it is even worse that Arizona's SB 1070:
Alabama’s law, H.B. 56, similar to Arizona’s infamous S.B. 1070, is intended to make every facet of life so difficult and uncomfortable for undocumented immigrants and their families that they leave the state.
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Powerful, moving and real - I happened to watch it last night.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Better_Life
This article is about the American film directed by Chris Weitz. For the 2011 French film directed by Cédric Kahn, see Une vie meilleure.
A Better Life is a 2011 American drama film directed by Chris Weitz. The screenplay, originally known as The Gardener, was written by Eric Eason based on a story by Roger L. Simon. On 24 January 2012, star Demián Bichir, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor...
Background
This film is unique among Hollywood productions in that it is set in a Hispanic community and features an almost entirely Hispanic cast.[3]
Weitz uses A Better Life to explore the culture and geography of Los Angeles. Rev. Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries, run by former gang members, helped Weitz and his crew with finding locations and making their film as authentic as possible. The language of the script was modified to reflect the actual slang used in Los Angeles, even reflecting linguistic differences from street-to-street.[4]
[edit] Release
A Better Life was released on June 24, 2011 by Summit Entertainment.
[edit] Critical reception
Critical response to A Better Life has been positive. The film has garnered an 86% "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes.[5] The critical aggregator Metacritic awarded the film a score of 64 out of 100, signifying "generally positive reviews".[6] Demián Bichir was nominated for an Academy Award as lead actor on Jan. 24, 2012. Manola Dargis, film critic for The New York Times, called the film "Touching and startling."[7] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called the film "a haunting movie that gets under your skin."[8] Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Dave Karger called A Better Life an "unfussy, yet quite powerful drama with a terrific central performance by Demián Bichir." Karger called the film an "awards contender" and wrote, "With the right reviews and commercial reception, it could go even further."[9]
Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote that "the performances are pitch perfect" and he gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4.[10] The New Yorker critic Richard Brody wrote: "The story unfolds without hagiography, pity, or trumped-up heroism, as the filmmaker approaches the lives of everyday people with modest compassion and imaginative sympathy.[11] Amy Biancolli, writing in the Houston Chronicle, said "It's straight, true and heartbreaking, a masterstroke of raw emotional minimalism".[12]
This article is about the American film directed by Chris Weitz. For the 2011 French film directed by Cédric Kahn, see Une vie meilleure.
A Better Life is a 2011 American drama film directed by Chris Weitz. The screenplay, originally known as The Gardener, was written by Eric Eason based on a story by Roger L. Simon. On 24 January 2012, star Demián Bichir, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor...
Background
This film is unique among Hollywood productions in that it is set in a Hispanic community and features an almost entirely Hispanic cast.[3]
Weitz uses A Better Life to explore the culture and geography of Los Angeles. Rev. Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries, run by former gang members, helped Weitz and his crew with finding locations and making their film as authentic as possible. The language of the script was modified to reflect the actual slang used in Los Angeles, even reflecting linguistic differences from street-to-street.[4]
[edit] Release
A Better Life was released on June 24, 2011 by Summit Entertainment.
[edit] Critical reception
Critical response to A Better Life has been positive. The film has garnered an 86% "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes.[5] The critical aggregator Metacritic awarded the film a score of 64 out of 100, signifying "generally positive reviews".[6] Demián Bichir was nominated for an Academy Award as lead actor on Jan. 24, 2012. Manola Dargis, film critic for The New York Times, called the film "Touching and startling."[7] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called the film "a haunting movie that gets under your skin."[8] Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Dave Karger called A Better Life an "unfussy, yet quite powerful drama with a terrific central performance by Demián Bichir." Karger called the film an "awards contender" and wrote, "With the right reviews and commercial reception, it could go even further."[9]
Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote that "the performances are pitch perfect" and he gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4.[10] The New Yorker critic Richard Brody wrote: "The story unfolds without hagiography, pity, or trumped-up heroism, as the filmmaker approaches the lives of everyday people with modest compassion and imaginative sympathy.[11] Amy Biancolli, writing in the Houston Chronicle, said "It's straight, true and heartbreaking, a masterstroke of raw emotional minimalism".[12]
Talk about C&L burying the lead.
Links from: http://www.facebook.com/ABetterLifeMovie?sk=wall
http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/02/09/demian-bichir-undocumented-immigrants/
Oscar nominee Demian Bichir speaks for millions of undocumented immigrants like me
by Jose Antonio Vargas
Feb 9201205:38 PM ET
You’ve never met a character quite like the one Demián Bichir plays in his Oscar-nominated turn in A Better Life, a little-seen but must-watch film for anyone who wants to have a real conversation about immigration in America. Playing a Mexican gardener caring for his American-born teenage son, Bichir illuminates a largely invisible, if not downright untouchable, character in contemporary American life: an undocumented immigrant.
<...>
There are moments in A Better Life of such heartbreaking truth — the conversations between father and son, the fear, anguish, and shame on Bichir’s face as he encounters a cop on the street — that the film transcends language and race. Here’s a film from a mainstream Hollywood director (Chris Weitz) tackling a controversial issue our officials in Washington don’t know quite how to address. In its quietly affecting way, it’s a groundbreaking piece of cinema.
Indeed, it’s rare to watch an undocumented immigrant portrayed with such complexity. It’s rarer still to experience a film about an undocumented immigrant told from the immigrant’s perspective. In an awards season that has lauded The Help, about black maids and the white families they serve in 1960s Mississippi, Bichir represents the help — gardeners, farmhands, and other undocumented workers — at the mercy of present-day laws in Georgia and Alabama. But A Better Life is not a political movie in the same way that illegal immigration is not a political issue. It’s a nuanced human story.
I’ve seen Bichir before, as Fidel Castro in Steven Soderbergh’s Che and as a drug-running mayor in Showtime’s Weeds. To call his performance in A Better Life a “transformation,” as critics have done, does not do him justice. His performance gives dignity and voice to the 11 million undocumented human beings—gardeners and babysitters, would-be engineers, doctors, and writers — whom he inevitably represents. He is doing something more than acting. At a time when undocumented people are referred to as “illegals” — when common sense and empathy escape many of our politicians — his performance is an act of salvation.
Bichir, an American citizen, has dedicated his surprise Oscar nod to people like me. In our eyes, he’s already won Best Actor.
Oscar nominee Demian Bichir speaks for millions of undocumented immigrants like me
by Jose Antonio Vargas
Feb 9201205:38 PM ET
You’ve never met a character quite like the one Demián Bichir plays in his Oscar-nominated turn in A Better Life, a little-seen but must-watch film for anyone who wants to have a real conversation about immigration in America. Playing a Mexican gardener caring for his American-born teenage son, Bichir illuminates a largely invisible, if not downright untouchable, character in contemporary American life: an undocumented immigrant.
<...>
There are moments in A Better Life of such heartbreaking truth — the conversations between father and son, the fear, anguish, and shame on Bichir’s face as he encounters a cop on the street — that the film transcends language and race. Here’s a film from a mainstream Hollywood director (Chris Weitz) tackling a controversial issue our officials in Washington don’t know quite how to address. In its quietly affecting way, it’s a groundbreaking piece of cinema.
Indeed, it’s rare to watch an undocumented immigrant portrayed with such complexity. It’s rarer still to experience a film about an undocumented immigrant told from the immigrant’s perspective. In an awards season that has lauded The Help, about black maids and the white families they serve in 1960s Mississippi, Bichir represents the help — gardeners, farmhands, and other undocumented workers — at the mercy of present-day laws in Georgia and Alabama. But A Better Life is not a political movie in the same way that illegal immigration is not a political issue. It’s a nuanced human story.
I’ve seen Bichir before, as Fidel Castro in Steven Soderbergh’s Che and as a drug-running mayor in Showtime’s Weeds. To call his performance in A Better Life a “transformation,” as critics have done, does not do him justice. His performance gives dignity and voice to the 11 million undocumented human beings—gardeners and babysitters, would-be engineers, doctors, and writers — whom he inevitably represents. He is doing something more than acting. At a time when undocumented people are referred to as “illegals” — when common sense and empathy escape many of our politicians — his performance is an act of salvation.
Bichir, an American citizen, has dedicated his surprise Oscar nod to people like me. In our eyes, he’s already won Best Actor.
"Hopefully more and more people will jump into iTunes and Netflix to see our film. That will be the biggest reward we could get. I dedicate this nomination to those 11 million human beings who make our lives easier and better in the U.S.” ...Mr. Demian Bichir.
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