Undeterred

Militarization and community resistance on the US/Mexico border.

2020

76 mins

Undeterred tells the story of the build up of enforcement along the US/Mexico border and how it functions. Through intimate portraits, raw footage and artful animation, it shows how life in one small town has changed and how local residents have organized to push back and resist those changes.

Gripping, and beautifully executed".

Noam Chomsky

Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Laureate Professor University of Arizona

Synopsis

Undeterred is a documentary about community resistance in the rural border town of Arivaca, Arizona. Since NAFTA, 9/11 and the Obama and Trump administrations border residents have been on the front-lines of the humanitarian crisis caused by increased border enforcement build up. Undeterred is an intimate and unique portrait of how residents in a small rural community, caught in the cross-hairs of global geo-political forces, have mobilized to demand our rights and to provide aid to injured, oft times dying people funneled across a wilderness desert.

The film was made by Eva Lewis, a resident of Arivaca and long time member of People Helping People in the Border Zone (PHP). Undeterred was created in close collaboration with the Arivaca community and members of PHP.

Reviews

Excellent, Highly Recommended for academic film collections.

Ashley Sosa

Video Librarian

Awards and Screenings

Chandler International Film Festival - Best Arizona Film, 2020

Docs Without Borders Film Festival - Outstanding Excellence, 2019

Imagine This Women's International Film Festival - Best Documentary Feature, 2019

Depth of Field International Film Festival - Outstanding Excellence, 2019

Big Muddy Film Festival- John Michaels Award for Activist Film

Director Commentary

My name is Eva Lewis and I am the producer and director of Undeterred. I am an independent artist, organizer, media maker and storyteller. I have long been interested in the intersections between art, immigration and militarism.

In 2013, I moved to Arivaca, Arizona, the border community in the heart of the Sonoran Desert, that is the subject of Undeterred. The desert is awe-inspiring, beautiful and deadly. Men and women die every day attempting to cross it. When visiting the area, you are confronted at every turn with the ubiquitous military like presence of the Border Patrol. Having spent time in conflict zones, such as Colombia and the Gaza strip, where military occupation is an unchanging fact of life, I can honestly say that from my perspective, the US/Mexico border is a low intensity war zone.

Living here is a daily struggle in reconciling the competing realities of small town life and the death and suffering of the border. Yet, the courage and humanity of Arivaca residents to resist the policies creating this suffering has inspired me and given me hope. I feel that my experience living and working in conflict zones, has given me the necessary background to tell the story of the border crisis in this town. In addition my relationship with the Arivaca community, built through living here, has given me an access to and understanding of this story that I believe to be unique. At every step of the way, the making of Undeterred has been a community effort, a story told about and through the collective process. The entire film was made in close collaboration with the community organizers who are its subjects.

Through this process I have tried to show not just images of protests and talking heads but the day-to-day shots that capture the texture of life for those most affected by conflict and militarism. The story of Arivaca is that of both a breathtaking and deadly landscape, inspiring community activism and tragic human suffering, the struggle for a just immigration policy and the encroachment of militarism into our lives and our collective psyche. The intent of this project is to document this through the art of film, to show the desert and the border for all their misery and beauty as well as their potential for transformation.