South Side Projections concludes an ongoing series of films about undocumented immigrants with a free screening at 7 PM Saturday night at the U. of C. Logan Center for the Arts of the locally produced documentary Elvira (2009). The film, directed by Columbia College graduate Javier Solórzano Casarin, profiles Elvira Arellano, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who became an activist for immigrants’ rights after she was arrested in the early 2000s. Arellano, who will attend Saturday’s screening, had been working at O’Hare Airport when she was arrested by immigration authorities; after being released, she found sanctuary with her son (who was born in the U.S.) at a church in Humboldt Park. As she waited for her case to be tried, Arellano took part in rallies for the rights of undocumented immigrants, becoming a symbol for many; she also garnered the attention of U.S. politicians who offered to sponsor her stay in the country. Despite her prominence, Arellano was deported to Mexico in 2007. She returned to Chicago in 2014, where she was reunited with her son, and the two returned to the Humboldt Park church. Arellano will share her story on Saturday and discuss how she continues to stay involved in the immigration rights movement.
Phillips adds that he’s learned as much from people who have attended the series as he has from the films themselves. “There was one amazing older man who attended the screening of The Other Side of Immigration. He was born in Spain, and his family fled the Franco dictatorship to go to Argentina, and then they ended up fleeing a dictatorship there. He was talking about echoes of the dictatorships he fled in the Trump administration. That was a great addition to the conversation.” For Phillips, conversation is what the series is about—he especially values the connections he’s made within Chicago’s immigration rights community. “One of our collaborators on the series has been the Spanish-language cultural magazine Contratiempos, who we worked with two years ago on a series of labor-oriented films, and Moira Pujols, the director of Contratiempos, has been really helpful about making connections between us and the Latin American community. Because I’m a white guy from outside of the community, it takes introductions before people in these organizations will talk to me.”
