including the winner of the 2020 academy award, for sure documentary. this year, with some of the best films we ve ever been privileged to showcase. they tackled some of the biggest issues of the last 18 months, from democracy and covid, to race and the teaching of history. you are about to see three films here, plus my conversations with two of the directors. first up is the facility, directed by seth west lure. later in the program, you ll see mail down in dixie, and golden age karate. we hope you enjoy. [noise] my name is i am originally from honduras. my father is a citizen. my wife is a citizen. my son has been born here. my mom is a legal resident. i ve been here for 20 years. so, what is the point of ice having me here for? my name is andrea [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] covid-19 can be characterized as a pandemic. all of italy, a country of 60 million
a, have you heard from nilson? he is in delta, in the i m so worried about nilson because he got a really health condition. and with him refusing medication, one of the ice lady said he s gonna get a permit from the judge, to force feed us. hello. nilson this colin view from irwin
pandemic, and the sort of this move by all of us to start using video communication tools, it made it possible for me to get inside an ice facility, but i probably never would have been able to get into otherwise. the detention center at one point, and i wrote about this in the new york times magazine story that i published last year, did sever my access to the video app. and some of the people inside lost access to the tablets that they ve used, to have these conversations. i was able to sign back up, and sign back in, and continue to have these conversations, and collecting footage that ultimately resulted in the documentary at the facility. but it allowed you, in some ways, to least briefly take us into the facility, which i think made you stand out. let us take nilson. he didn t know why he was held for as long as he was held, and he is not quite sure how he is released, at least as far as the film is concerned. can you fill in some of the
planks? you know, ice detention, immigration detention, just to fill in some background here. it s civil detention. it s not prison. it s not meant as punishment, at least as a legal matter. it s a thing that exists to hold most dozens who are facing the threat of deportation, ostensibly so that they don t have scones, showing up in court. it s at the discretion of the federal government and ice. so, nearly everybody who was detained in i.c.e. detention could actually be released at any point at the discretion of immigration and customs enforcement. and policy shifts dramatically from administration to administration, about who is detained, who s prioritized, who s held in detention, who was released and lead to stay at home with families. nilson and andrea, the people in my film, really had no idea when they would be released. they were detained pursuant to policy at the time under the trump administration, that nearly anybody who could be
detained would be detained. so, nilson had been pulled over for driving violation, and was locked up in i.c.e. detention after an arrest following the driving isolation violation. and we had come to los angeles from columbia by a tourist visa, intended to come into the country. but when officials at the airport asked if she feared returning to our country, she was detained and treated as an arriving, as an arriving asylum seeker. you know, the trump administration, arriving asylum seekers were summarily detained. she was held for nearly two years, without any idea when she would be released. but set, both are still here, right? both are still in america. they won t set away out of country. that s right. they were held for months. and then, allowed to stay, period. that is right. i mean, andrea is in court, proceeding for asylum case. nilson is waiting for a green