Living Across Borders: Maya Immigrants in Atlanta  (M. Odem & B. Brown)

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Living Across Borders is a documentary film about Guatemala Maya immigrants in Atlanta and north Georgia. The film follows the story of a Maya family whose oldest son, Alfredo, leaves his hometown in the Guatemala highlands to find work in the sprawling metropolitan area of Atlanta. Through the story of Alfredo and his family, the film explores the distinct experiences of indigenous migrants as they struggle to adapt to life in the modern U.S. South and at the same time to provide for families and communities thousands of miles away. A central theme is the painful dilemma that confronts Maya migrants like Alfredo – in order to care for his family (his wife and daughter, siblings, and his aging parents), he must abandon them for years at a time. The film moves back and forth between Atlanta and Santa Eulalia, Alfredo’s hometown in Guatemala to show the hardships of family separation and the profound impact of migration for both immigrants in the U.S. and the family members they left behind.

The initiatives leaders have been engaged in research, location shooting, interviewing and script-writing on this project since 2000, working in both Atlanta and the Guatemala highlands. They have a 40-minute rough cut (work in progress). The RDI funding for this project is being used for final editing, music track production, recording voiceovers, paying voice over talent, translation work and conforming (final assembly of all the elements). Once completed, this program broadcast both regionally and nationally and be distributed it to libraries, schools, and universities.