WITNESS Screening: Rights on the Line

Rights on the Line exposes the ugly anti-immigrant politics that lurk behind the Minuteman Project and similar vigilante groups. Shot by human rights activists and border residents, the video tells the story of border crossers and communities whose rights are being violated – and provides a close-up look at vigilantes through interviews and disturbing footage of their nighttime patrols.

Preceding the screening of Rights on the Line, the short film Victoria Para Chino will be shown. The film is a fictionalized account of an actual event. On May 14, 2003 an abandoned truck trailer without its cab was found near the town of Victoria in South Texas. When police arrived, they discovered more than 75 Mexican and Central American immigrants inside. The passengers, ranging in age from five to 91 years old, had endured more than four hours inside the unventilated trailer in what had become a botched attempt to cross the U.S. border without documentation. Seventeen people were dead, and those who survived were suffering from severe dehydration, heat exhaustion, and oxygen deprivation. An additional two people later died, bringing the death toll to 19. Cary Fukunaga’s 13-minute film brought this tragedy to the attention of Park City audiences when it screened at the 2005 Sundance Festival, where it also received an Honorable Mention from the Shorts Jury.

At the conclusion of both films, there is a panel discussion.

Rights on the Line and Victoria Para Chino are presented as part of the Impact Festival.