As a part of Bakersfield College’s undocumented student’s awareness week B.C hosted a movie screening and panel on Friday, Oct. 23 over zoom.
As students signed up for the event on the Bakersfield College website, they got the zoom link in their email.
When the event started advisor Marcela Gamino introduced the short film “No Digas” or “Don’t Tell Anyone”, a film by Mikaela Shwer, and explained how participants did not need to stay on the zoom call while watching the film. They could watch it separately and come back for the discussion at the end but could also stay on zoom to talk while watching the movie. Gamino then put the link and password to the short film in the comments section so that participants could access the website it was on.
The film followed a woman named Angy Rivera who was an immigrant from Columbia who was living in Queens New York. It told the story of Angy’s life growing up in a place where she did not feel accepted and how hard it was for her to go to college because she could not pay for it. It showed how hardworking she was as she worked to make money to go to school and how involved she was in her school’s activist program for undocumented students, and how because of that it led her to get her visa.
After the film was over people came back to the zoom meeting and talked about some aspects of the film and participants loved the film overall and liked how relatable it was. There were some differences they had also discussed how different help was offered at different colleges
When Gamino was asked why this short film was chosen, she responded, “I was researching what films would be shown I was looking for something that would fill some of the aspects to what this week is about and I saw that Delta College had shown this film and loved it. It was a documentary that showed a powerful story, and because of that I decided to show it today.”
The turnout of the panel was insightful and uplifting overall and when the zoom call was ending people thanked the advisors for showing the film.
“Unfortunately, there are no future plans to show any more films like these, but we do keep our eyes out for them too for any future plans” advisor Gamino said.