{"id":18346,"date":"2019-04-12T09:45:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T17:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=18346"},"modified":"2019-09-30T16:23:58","modified_gmt":"2019-10-01T00:23:58","slug":"acclaimed-filmmaker-david-sutherland-tells-the-story-of-a-family-torn-apart-by-deportation","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/acclaimed-filmmaker-david-sutherland-tells-the-story-of-a-family-torn-apart-by-deportation\/","title":{"rendered":"Acclaimed Filmmaker David Sutherland Tells the Story of a Family Torn Apart by Deportation"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Sutherland<\/strong> takes his time to tell a story, both in the years he spends with his subject, the amount of footage he shoots, and the ultimate running time — which always feels earned.\u00a0 His film Country Boys<\/em>\u00a0took seven years to bring to fruition as Sutherland returned again and again to the hills of Appalachian Kentucky to crystallize the coming of age ordeal faced by his two teenage subjects. It aired in 2006 and went on to become one of the most widely viewed programs on PBS that year. And his 1998 PBS film The Farmer’s Wife<\/em>, a three-part, 6.5 hour film that cataloged the trials of a poor Nebraskan farm family, was hailed as \u201cone of the extraordinary television events of the decade,\u201d and drew in\u00a018 million viewers.<\/p>\n

Sutherland’s previous film for Independent Lens<\/em>\u00a0and FRONTLINE was the powerful Kind-Hearted Woman,<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and now he’s back with a new co-presentation, for the powerful film\u00a0Marcos Doesn’t Live Here Anymore<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Baltimore Sun<\/em>‘s\u00a0David Zurawik wrote<\/a> of Sutherland and Marcos<\/em>:<\/p>\n

That extreme politicization of the national conversation about immigration is part of what makes director David Sutherland\u2019s ‘<\/span>Marcos Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore’ such a special documentary. The director so tightly and sensitively focuses on one family, that 10 minutes into the two-hour film, no matter what your politics are, you will likely find yourself rooting for Elizabeth Perez, a mother of two young children at the start of the film and former Marine sergeant living in Cleveland, to find a way to be reunited with her husband, Marcos, who has been deported to Mexico. If you are not familiar with Sutherland, you should know that he made what I <\/span>consider<\/span><\/a> one of America\u2019s 10 greatest documentaries with ‘The Farmer\u2019s Wife,’ a six-hour 1998 production for Frontline.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I spoke with David on the phone from his homebase in Boston, where he talked about how he first connected with Elizabeth and Marcos and their family, on how the story evolved, on serendipity, on what he learned about immigration, and how the Perez children adapted and changed.<\/p>\n

On how he honed in on Elizabeth and Marcos’ story<\/a> in particular, with so many other stories of immigration and deportation:<\/b><\/p>\n

David Sutherland:\u00a0<\/b>I was always interested in immigration as a topic. I had a lot of interns who were Latino and my older sister had lived in Mexico for five years as a painter; I used to go visit her in the summer when I was in college. So that\u2019s how I became interested in the topic.<\/p>\n

As to how I found Elizabeth and why her? One of my son\u2019s best friends used to work for the National Council of La Raza [now UnidosUS] in DC, so while I was there he connected me with Veronica Dahlberg[the founder and executive director of HOLA Ohio, a grassroots organization.] We got along extremely well, and I went to Ohio several times and she took me everywhere — through her, I witnessed a deportation and went to vigils for people who\u2019d died in the desert, some of the undocumented workers\u2019 spouses who were trying to come back. Through her I met Elizabeth – we instantly hit it off and when I heard her story I decided that was the story I wanted to tell. It became a film about deportation, rather than immigration.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

On the kids in the movie:<\/b><\/p>\n

We see the kids change — they\u2019re very young at the start, but as they get older they become very aware of what’s happening \u2014 you don\u2019t think they know but they do. Rocky, the younger one, was so resistant to moving to Mexico and learning Spanish but you see, even just 8-9 months later, his Spanish becomes amazing, he\u2019s got the accent and everything.<\/p>\n

Marcos told me that scene had such an impact on him, seeing what the kids were going through while he was in Mexico.
\n\"Son\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the fates of other people seen in the film<\/b>:<\/b><\/p>\n

There are so many scenes with meetings of these people, many of whom later ended up being deported. So to watch the film now, \u00a0it\u2019s mindblowing how many of them are gone, even from the marches. You wouldn\u2019t know it but that\u2019s really what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n

On keeping in touch with Elizabeth and Marcos, and what they thought of the film:<\/b><\/p>\n

I mostly email with Marcos. He wrote a beautiful note to me and my co-producer. He was very emotional and thought the film very accurate about them. But I\u2019m always nervous about that. I showed it to Elizabeth, Veronica and the lawyer David Leopold. I am always uptight when I show it [to the subjects]. But apparently, Marcos watched it four times in a row, so that tells you something. The major thing he said aside from liking it was he found it accurate.“I want people to feel like they’re living in their skin, in an accurate way. I pride myself as a portraitist.”<\/pullquote><\/span><\/p>\n

Both Elizabeth and Marcos found their emotions and all that were very accurately depicted. And for me, I\u2019m looking for mood, and I want people to feel like they\u2019re living in their skin, in an accurate way. I pride myself on being a portraitist. And then the issues come out naturally. So if they found it accurate, even some of the scenes that are more painful or difficult, and were fine with it, then I\u2019m happy.<\/p>\n

The film is not an advocacy piece \u2014 they\u2019re imperfect people. Anyone you\u2019re going to follow like this, they\u2019re not perfect, but they wouldn\u2019t be interesting if they were and you wouldn\u2019t care about them if they were \u2014 if you care about them enough to ask that question at the end, \u201cwhat happens next,\u201d even if you\u2019re pro or anti-immigration, it means you were living in their skin, that you were concerned about them. If you\u2019re still talking about them or worried about them and want to know more, it means you took a good look at a family going through deportation and understand.<\/p>\n