Border Film Project: Photos by Migrants & Minutemen on the U.S.-Mexico Border

by Rudy Adler, Victoria Criado, Brett Huneycutt

Every year, thousands of undocumented migrants attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, and every year, the Minutemen, a volunteer group of citizens who patrol the border, try to stop them. As the debate over immigration became increasingly fierce and polarized, three friends came up with an ingenious idea to both clarify and humanize the complexities of the issue.

For three months, Rudy Adler, Victoria Criado, and Brett Huneycutt distributed hundreds of disposable cameras, along with the means of returning them, to migrants and Minutemen so they could document their own journeys. The friends received over two thousand photographs that present both sides of the issue—and reveal the harsh realities on the ground. Capturing images from both sides of the border, Border Film Project tells the stories that no news piece, policy debate, or academic study could possibly convey.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art

176 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2007

Reviews

[Breanna S · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does a good job of showing why people migrate and what the journey can look like, as well as shows why the minutemen volunteer to aid the border patrol. The minutemen seem to have good intentions, but don't understand the intricacies of why people migrate, and how they make that journey more difficult.

I think this book could have used the blank spaces better, and could have added more quotes and stories from the interviews they conducted, to put the photos in context. Overall though, this book is worth taking a look at.

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is very fascinating. this group gave disposable cameras to people trying to cross the border and also the militia minutemen who try and stop people from crossing the border. the photos are amazing. similar photos sometimes put on the same page make for interesting comparisons/contrasts. the quotes also are simple but good. surprising too, some of the militia people's quotes. not exactly what i expected.
sticks in your mind.

[Carrie Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Border Film Project is a compilation of photographs taken on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Disposable cameras were given to both migrants and Minutemen. The photographs are moving, they describe the dangerous journey faced by undocumented migrants attempting to enter into the United States as well as the fear and anger of the Minutemen who are hunting them in our deserts.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors distributed disposable cameras to people both crossing the US/Mexico border and people policing the border. You get a very personal and unbiased look at the lives of the people involved, something that's usually missing from the immigration debate.

Also, one of the authors used to be my upstairs neighbor.

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

With a now-legal (but he wasn't when he originally came to the States in the 80's) Mexican son-in-law, with a large Mexican family, half of whom live in the States, and half of those who are legal, and half who aren't -- this book hits close to home. A stunning, shocking, heart-breaking documentation of this complex issue. There are no winners here.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kept thinking of Sarah's report from last summer--how park rangers and border patrol slashed or removed the barrels of water that were left for migrants, classifying them as "trash."

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was of special interest to me, as I could recognize many of the places in the photos.