AMNESTY: A Tale of Two Immigrants

by James D. Scurlock

Two months after 9/11, Los Angeles transplant and aspiring filmmaker James D Scurlock meets Yolanda Garcia, who has spent nearly twenty years collecting cans and bottles in the dangerous alleys of Venice Beach, California in order to send her three children to college. Over the next several months, Garcia will frustrate his attempts to make a documentary of her eldest son's imminent graduation from M.I.T.. Scurlock will not get the film he wants but something far better: a lifelong friendship and a reason to live. "Parents of the Year," the documentary that resulted, ultimately won the audience award at the 2004 Los Angeles Film Festival and was broadcast by HBO.

36 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 15, 2016

About the author

James D. Scurlock studied at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania before dropping out to pursue an entrepreneurial venture and later a documentary film career. His first film, Parents of the Year, won numerous awards and was an official selection of more than twenty-five film festivals. His first feature-length documentary, Maxed Out, explored our culture of debt and won the Special Jury Prize at South by Southwest. His first book, a companion to the award-winning documentary, was nominated for the National MS Society's "Books for a Better Life" Award. He has written, primarily about the impending (and now realized) financial crisis, for Slate, Newsweek, The Huffington Post, and AARP Magazine, among others. He has also appeared on numerous programs, including Nightline, The Today Show, and CNBC’s Power Lunch. Scurlock lives in Santa Monica, California.