Thread: Controversial Film On Illegal Immigration Debuts And A Talk With Movie's Director

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/cont...vies-director/


Controversial Film on Illegal Immigration Debuts and We Talk With the Movie’s Director

• Posted on August 22, 2012 at 9:45am by Mike Opelka

Next week in Tampa, the documentary “They Come To America” will be screened on the final day of the Republican National Convention. Despite the afternoon screening time on the last day of the GOP’s big week, director Dennis Michael Lynch expects the 1,200-seat theater to be filled to capacity. And after seeing the film and speaking with the director at length, it’s easy to see why.

Lynch did not plan to make this movie. He was working on a very different documentary when he came upon Tom Wedell, an unemployed roofer on Long Island who was protesting the growing presence of illegal aliens in Suffolk County, NY. Each morning, dozens of illegals (mostly men), he said, would gather outside of a 7-11 store in the town of Southampton and offer themselves as day laborers. Mr. Wedell would show up across the street with an American flag and a sign reading “Deport Illegals.”
Photo from The East Hampton Press

Lynch tells the story of driving by the protesting Wedell as he was hearing Neil Diamond on his car radio singing, “They’re Coming To America.” The filmmaker stopped his car, took out his camera and started talking with and filming the protester. Within minutes, he knew he was on to something.
“They Come To America” bounces back and forth between the concerned Americans and the illegal workers (and their supporters). Not surprisingly, many of the Americans interviewed believe the millions of undocumented workers are costing our country its future. On the other side of the argument are the workers and those who are helping them. And they think very differently.


Some of the statements from the illegals that Mr. Lynch interviewed will likely spark an angry reaction from many. This clip shows some of the people who were taking “English as a second language” classes on Long Island, and one gentleman does not sugar-coat his lack of respect for America. He is only here to make money and then go back home. When speaking to Mr. Lynch about this scene, and specifically one man’s unvarnished disdain for America, the director stated:

“When he said that… I changed to Dennis The American from Dennis the filmmaker.”

See it below:
They Come to America Film -- Tomorrow My Son Pay for Your Son - YouTube


http://youtu.be/QUfSGxN0SBs

Lynch said he tried to look at this story from as many angles as possible:

• He actually hired a couple of workers and recorded some revealing comments and very personal moments from one young man.

• He visited Miami and interviewed locals, transplants and native Floridians about the influx of Spanish-speaking people that has overwhelmed the region.

• A trip to the southern border of the U.S. almost gave Lynch a heart attack as he and an assistant were forced to flee from a Mexican cartel that actually fired bullets at them and chased them along the border.

Ranchers who live along the U.S.-Mexican border were particularly graphic in their descriptions of the problems they are forced to deal with because the government will not act to stop the flow of illegals.



Lynch says he was chilled to the bone when one of the ranchers clarified the difference between the problems caused by immigration in the Northeast and the ones they face on the border:

“You’ve got people that want to cut your lawn. We’ve got people who want to cut your throat.”

Despite a lack of access to theaters via film festivals, “They Come To America” has been making inroads via DVD sales and smaller screenings at Tea Party meetings. Lynch told TheBlaze he intends to host screenings with question and answer sessions for Tea Party members in all 50 states.
A relative newcomer to the world of filmmaking, Dennis Michael Lynch has made a powerful movie that will inspire emotional reactions from both sides of the immigration argument. “They Come To America” is well-shot, professionally produced and moves at a solid pace before building to a strong conclusion. And yet Lynch has had a tough time getting his film screened at many of the festivals happening around the country. Nearly thirty film festivals have rejected his work. Why? Could it be due to the subject matter?
The trailer gives you a strong sample of the overall tone and scope of the project:

Here are some additional clips that did not make the final cut of the film, but still warrant watching.


CLIPS FROM THE MOVIE BELOW:

They Come to America - YouTube

They Come To America - Illegals speaking out - YouTube

DENNIS MICHAEL LYNCH Illegal Immigration iimpact Conference, Wilmington, NC

Published August 21, 2012 | O'Reilly Factor | Laura Ingraham

Special Guests: DENNIS MICHAEL LYNCH
FOX News

(Video at the source link also)

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," August 21, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.


LAURA INGRAHAM: In the "Personal Story" segment tonight, a new documentary is making waves but not everyone is happy with it. "They Come to America" takes the viewer on an uncomfortable journey, from the rough Mexican border to the mean streets of New York and its leafy suburbs where illegal immigrants take jobs from American workers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THEY COME TO AMERICA")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The builders that used to hire me and my guys come up here to get the cheap labor and they cut me right out of the picture.

Now my taxpaying American citizens aren't paying the bills anymore. Who's paying the bills. These guys. They get their checks and they send it back home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you looking at right over there, those white buildings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a cartel headquarters for distribution of drugs in this area. I will tell you, you go near there, you're dead. You're dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys do drug cartel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on.

(END VIDEO CLIP, "THEY COME TO AMERICA")

INGRAHAM: But according to the filmmakers, it has been impossible to get the mainstream media's attention. Joining us now from New York is the filmmaker, Dennis Michael Lynch. Dennis, pretty provocative stuff. Not all that surprising to me because I've been covering this issue for many years and interviewed ranchers and property owners and people who've been on the frontlines, border patrol.

But nevertheless, you're not a political guy, right. You're not somebody who's been, you know, lobbying for immigration, amnesty or the other way around for more enforcement. You're just a filmmaker.

DENNIS MICHAEL LYNCH, CREATOR, "THEY COME TO AMERICA": Yes, I'm not political at all. In fact, I'm ashamed of this, I haven't voted in the past 20 years. And when I did vote 20 years ago, I couldn't tell you if I voted for the democrat or the republican.

I jumped in this topic just by chance, really. And what I came away finding -- I mean, you're not surprised because you've been in the game, I came away --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THEY COME TO AMERICA")

I cannot believe how bad illegal immigration is and how it is that it's affecting America. And the fact that you don't hear this on television every day. I couldn't believe what I found, Laura.

(END VIDEO CLIP, "THEY COME TO AMERICA")

INGRAHAM: And the most shocking thing that you discovered in interviewing people at the site of the large illegal crossings all the way to the workforce was what.

LYNCH: Laura, there are more than people who want to come here to cut your lawn, crossing the border.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THEY COME TO AMERICA")

There are people coming here who want to cut your throat. And I'm a guy who was at 9/11 watching it like this. I saw people jumping 80 stories. What makes somebody do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP, "THEY COME TO AMERICA")

These are violators. You know, a lot of times, people don't remember that's a part of illegal immigration. I also found people across the country who are afraid to speak about this topic because they get classified as a racist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THEY COME TO AMERICA")

I found schools closing and, yet, ESL programs for illegals rising up. It makes fundamentally no sense. I know we've got the President giving out work permits to illegal immigrants when we've got 23 million out of work.

(END VIDEO CLIP, "THEY COME TO AMERICA")

These people don't want welfare. They want jobs. America is getting crushed with illegal immigration. Crushed. And, yet, it gets tucked under the rug like it's no big deal.

It is the number one problem facing our country today and in the years to come whether you realize it or not.

INGRAHAM: I think when you talk to people who really aren't political, they're not aligned with one party or the another, they might vote republican one year and democrat the next.

They can't figure out why the United States of America, with all of her technology and all of her will and all of her brain power, can't enforce the border. And my answer to them is always because there's been an unholy alliance between the left and the right for many years not to enforce the border or to look the other way oftentimes.

LYNCH: Laura, everybody's guilty here. This is not a blue or red problem. This is an American problem, OK. We've got people crossing our borders. We've got people taking jobs and undercutting Americans. And we just don't seem to care.

And I'll tell you what. There are people who care. There are millions of people watching you tonight saying, "Thank goodness. Somebody is finally telling the real story."

If they go to theycometoamerica.com and order the DVD, Laura, I send them three because I want them to take the other two and send them out to a swing state or I want them to take somebody who doesn't think that illegal immigration is the problem it is.

I will not stop this fight, Laura, until everybody knows about the film.

INGRAHAM: Mr. Lynch, we appreciate it, shut out by the mainstream media.

Documentary blows the lid off illegal immigration - Interviews - The O'Reilly Factor - Fox News

Related.
http://www.alipac.us/f9/illegal-immi...ou-see-262965/