Graduate student Hannah Levinson, in conjunction with the Latin American Coalition and Charlotte-based Haberdashery Films, recently launched an IndieGoGo campaign to raise support for “From the Back of the Line,” a 30-minute film about undocumented migrants living and working in Charlotte. The documentary will premiere Friday, May 3, at UNC Charlotte Center City.
Planning for the film, which grew out of Levinson’s master’s thesis project, started in December 2012. Three micro-grants from UNC Charlotte’s Center for Professional and Applied Ethics, Chancellor's Diversity Challenge Fund, and Office of International Programs funded initial efforts.
To help Haberdashery filmmaker Matthew Shearer complete the production components of the project, the collaborators launched the fundraising campaign on IndieGoGo, the global “crowd funding” network that uses the Internet and social media to connect independent projects with individual donors. A film trailer was posted in March with the goal to raise $3,000 in 30 days.
Within three days “From the Back of the Line” surpassed its goal. The campaign continues through Thursday, April 18, to generate funding to broaden outreach efforts that will expose the film to a wider audience.
Through interviews and research, “From the Back of the Line” documents the struggles of individuals caught in low-priority deportation procedures, parents raising mixed status families and high school and college students who have lived in the United States since childhood.
“Making sure this film is edited and released is critical for the immigrant community in Charlotte,” said the Latin American Coalition’s Armando Bellmas, director of communications at the Charlotte-based immigrant rights organization. “’From the Back of the Line’ will bring the conflicted reality of living in a mixed immigration status family to a wider audience that otherwise wouldn’t know such a world exists.”
The Center for Professional and Applied Ethics, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Chancellor's Diversity Challenge Fund, the Department of Communications, Department of Latin American Studies, Department of Philosophy and the Office of International Programs are cosponsoring the May 3 documentary premiere, which will be free and open to the public.