The College of Liberal Arts Inaugural Common Book Program: Film Screening — Anayansi Prado's "Children in No Man’s Land"

March 25, 2011

The College of Liberal Arts Inaugural Common Book Program: Film Screening — Anayansi Prado’s “Children in No Man’s Land”

Documentary filmmaker Anayansi Prado is well known for her documentary film Maid in America (2008).  Her second independent production, Children in No Man’s Land, is about the 100,000 unaccompanied immigrant minors who cross the U.S./Mexico border every year. Children in No Man’s Land recently premiered at the Guadalajara International Film Festival.

Q & A with Director Anayansi Prado will follow the film screening.

Sponsors: The Center for Community Engagement and the Department of Journalism

This inaugural Common Book Program is focused on Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Devil’s Highway, which recounts the true story of 26 Mexican men and boys who crossed the border into an area of the Arizona desert known as the Devil’s Highway. Only 12 of the original 26 men and boys made it safely across. Urrea is an award-winning writer, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, and poet. He will be visiting our campus to give a public lecture and to participate in small-group discussions with students who are reading the book this semester. We are also pleased to have filmmaker Anayansi Prado screen her film Children in No Man’s Land as part of the week’s program.

These events follow on the heels of the recent History Students Association event about the Bracero Program and will be followed by an event, hosted by the Department of Linguistics, about borders and language later in April. In short, we have an active semester in terms of welcoming the much-needed discussions concerning border issues, immigration, and the resulting social/cultural geographies.

All are welcome to the 2011 Common Book events! Sign-in sheets for student attendance will be available.

For more information, please contact Dr. Deborah Thien at dthien@csulb.edu.