photo: Austin Counts
Opposing views over issues like SB 1070 and TUSD ethnic studies reached a fever pitch last year, putting Arizona in the national media spotlight. In turn, these issues have resulted in some negative consequences for people living on both sides of the border.
Austin Counts and Curtis Prendergast have been documenting these events and others for their upcoming film, THE BORDER: Issues in the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands, over the past year. The project is being funded through Kickstarter.com, a website that connects people who have a creative project with those that want to fund creative projects.
Counts and Prendergast have already raised their minimum goal of $1,500 to continue pursuing the project. However, in order to properly produce and distribute the documentary on the lowest possible budget, an additional $3,000-$4,000 is needed.
The plan is to take the viewer through issues like: the division of Tohono O’odham lands by the U.S.–Mexico border, the effects of SB 1070, trade in the Arizona-Sonora, water rights and the border, and the fight over ethnic studies in Arizona public schools.
Filming and editing is about 60 percent complete and expected to be finished by the end of the year. Counts and Prendergast first began working on this project as part of a journalism course at the University of Arizona last year.
The final result was a 30-minute documentary called Another Side of the Border produced for KUAT in 2010. They continued their work in journalism through the Sonoran Chronicle- sonoranchronicle.com, an online news portal that focuses on border and immigration issues.
The students are accepting donations through kickstarter.com until 8:59 pm on Monday, May 2. If you would like to support their documentary, please click this link THE BORDER: Issues in the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands or email austincounts@hotmail.com.
