Enemy Alien: Confrontation with detention regimes of past and present.

As the 10^th anniversary of 9/11 arrives, Alwan for the Arts is presenting a screening of Enemy Alien (outreach/education version, 60 minutes) followed by a discussion of the film's themes of shared struggle between Muslim and Japanese Americans in the face of wartime xenophobia and racism, and how this solidarity can inspire an effective response to the massive expansion of immigrant detention and deportation which has continued from 9/11 to this day.

Enemy Alien, a first-person documentary, is the gripping story of the fight to free Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a gentle but indomitable Palestinian-born human rights activist detained in a post-9/11 sweep of Muslim immigrants. Told through the eyes of the filmmaker, the grandson of Japanese Americans interned during World War II, this documentary takes on unprecedented intimacy and historical resonance. 

As the filmmaker confronts his own family legacy of incarceration, his involvement in the current struggle deepens. Resistance brings consequences: In retaliation for organizing a massive protest from inside detention, Farouk is beaten and locked in solitary confinement, and his American-born son Tarek is arrested in a counterterrorism investigation into the documentary itself.

A project of Life or Liberty
Directed by Konrad Aderer

Thursday, September 8

7:00pm

Alwan for the Arts

16 Beaver Street

Manhattan, NYC

 

(via http://enemyalien.org )