Interns Janelle Louis (left) and Sokleang Keo work on their film with program coordinator Abaigeal Duda. (Robert Spencer for The Boston Globe)Student film captures area's immigrant experience
January 24, 2008
By Joel Brown
Globe Correspondent
The Boston Globe (Massachusetts, USA)
Anyone who thinks the North Shore's population is still homogeneous should swing by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem on Saturday morning for the premiere of "Old Places, New Faces."
The film by five student interns in the Museum Action Corps program, subtitled "Immigrant Experiences Shaping Boston's North Shore," touches on the experiences of Irish and Caribbean immigrants, people from India and Albania and Haiti, from all around the globe.
But you don't really have to see the movie to get the point. Just talk to the filmmakers.
Geraldy Olea, 16, a junior at Salem High School, arrived from Puerto Rico a year ago. Martin Ozoria-Polanco, also 16 and a junior at Salem High, emigrated from the Dominican Republic with his parents in 1999. Janelle Louis, 16, a junior at Beverly High School, and Melissa Miranda, 19, a sophomore at Salem State College, are the children of immigrants from the Dominican Republic. And the parents of Sokleang Keo, 18, a senior at Lynn Classical High School, escaped conflict in Cambodia.
"This project could help other immigrants coming here, to let them see there's harshness but you can still succeed in a new country," said Keo.
The students edited their film in a cramped office in the administrative building across the street from the museum.
The grousing about sound levels and missing interviews as deadline approaches is no different than you'd expect to hear in a Boston TV newsroom.
"We all did the same research. Interview, brainstorm - we all work together," said Louis.
"It's surprising how remarkably well they get along and how really fair they are to listen to, understand, and acknowledge each others' ideas and find a way to incorporate them together," said Abaigeal Duda, a Museum Action Corps program coordinator.
Judging by the rough cut, the early portions of the film include a little Ken Burns-style history lesson, panning across still photos of 19th-century work in the granite quarries and Gorton's fisheries. But the 35-minute film swiftly moves on to the present day, tackling struggles with discrimination and economic hardship, language, and cultural assimilation.
Interviewees range from Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll to an unnamed African immigrant who says living here is better "because you can stay alive."
State Representative Marie P. St. Fleur of Boston, the first Haitian-American to hold public office in Massachusetts, delivers forceful answers about making an impact in our society.
Conducting that interview was very emotional, Miranda said.
"Probably it has to do with that I dream of someday being in that position," said Miranda, a political science major. "I felt like throughout the interview she was talking to me. . . . It was really a learning experience. To understand that there are some people out there who have the same life experiences I do probably, and that have been able to make it through their hard work, it was a very, very amazing experience to me. I got teary-eyed and everything."
"I interviewed my dad, so that was easy, because he's my dad and I see him every day," Louis said. "I learned about his parents and how they came and he came to America, so that was really cool. I didn't know that it was really hard for him to get here, and it makes sense why he has different values, like education is a really big thing for him."
As much as the students want to document the changing cultural profile of the area, they're also changing simply by virtue of their age.
As the oldest of the group, Miranda came in feeling she had to take the lead, and she said she has enjoyed watching the others change.
"Throughout the whole period of the internship, from the summer to the fall semester, I saw them make a huge difference. They all had this huge growth in how they carry themselves and how they do things and how they even started communicating with each other," Miranda said. "In the beginning, I was like 'Oh my God, what are we going to do?' because they were so quiet and so timid, and they wouldn't say anything or do anything different. [But] as soon as they got comfortable with each other, they were working hard and willing to do things."
A very American kind of success is also on some minds.
The sly-witted Ozoria-Polanco was the master of all tech needs for the production.
Told by a visitor there will always be a job for a guy with that kind of knowledge, he asked with a smile, "How is that guy's life; is it easy or hard? What does he get paid?"
Saturday's 11 a.m. premiere of "Old Places, New Faces" is free and open to the public. After that, the film will be available free to communities and schools for screenings. For more information visit pem.org.
The film by five student interns in the Museum Action Corps program, subtitled "Immigrant Experiences Shaping Boston's North Shore," touches on the experiences of Irish and Caribbean immigrants, people from India and Albania and Haiti, from all around the globe.
But you don't really have to see the movie to get the point. Just talk to the filmmakers.
Geraldy Olea, 16, a junior at Salem High School, arrived from Puerto Rico a year ago. Martin Ozoria-Polanco, also 16 and a junior at Salem High, emigrated from the Dominican Republic with his parents in 1999. Janelle Louis, 16, a junior at Beverly High School, and Melissa Miranda, 19, a sophomore at Salem State College, are the children of immigrants from the Dominican Republic. And the parents of Sokleang Keo, 18, a senior at Lynn Classical High School, escaped conflict in Cambodia.
"This project could help other immigrants coming here, to let them see there's harshness but you can still succeed in a new country," said Keo.
The students edited their film in a cramped office in the administrative building across the street from the museum.
The grousing about sound levels and missing interviews as deadline approaches is no different than you'd expect to hear in a Boston TV newsroom.
"We all did the same research. Interview, brainstorm - we all work together," said Louis.
"It's surprising how remarkably well they get along and how really fair they are to listen to, understand, and acknowledge each others' ideas and find a way to incorporate them together," said Abaigeal Duda, a Museum Action Corps program coordinator.
Judging by the rough cut, the early portions of the film include a little Ken Burns-style history lesson, panning across still photos of 19th-century work in the granite quarries and Gorton's fisheries. But the 35-minute film swiftly moves on to the present day, tackling struggles with discrimination and economic hardship, language, and cultural assimilation.
Interviewees range from Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll to an unnamed African immigrant who says living here is better "because you can stay alive."
State Representative Marie P. St. Fleur of Boston, the first Haitian-American to hold public office in Massachusetts, delivers forceful answers about making an impact in our society.
Conducting that interview was very emotional, Miranda said.
"Probably it has to do with that I dream of someday being in that position," said Miranda, a political science major. "I felt like throughout the interview she was talking to me. . . . It was really a learning experience. To understand that there are some people out there who have the same life experiences I do probably, and that have been able to make it through their hard work, it was a very, very amazing experience to me. I got teary-eyed and everything."
"I interviewed my dad, so that was easy, because he's my dad and I see him every day," Louis said. "I learned about his parents and how they came and he came to America, so that was really cool. I didn't know that it was really hard for him to get here, and it makes sense why he has different values, like education is a really big thing for him."
As much as the students want to document the changing cultural profile of the area, they're also changing simply by virtue of their age.
As the oldest of the group, Miranda came in feeling she had to take the lead, and she said she has enjoyed watching the others change.
"Throughout the whole period of the internship, from the summer to the fall semester, I saw them make a huge difference. They all had this huge growth in how they carry themselves and how they do things and how they even started communicating with each other," Miranda said. "In the beginning, I was like 'Oh my God, what are we going to do?' because they were so quiet and so timid, and they wouldn't say anything or do anything different. [But] as soon as they got comfortable with each other, they were working hard and willing to do things."
A very American kind of success is also on some minds.
The sly-witted Ozoria-Polanco was the master of all tech needs for the production.
Told by a visitor there will always be a job for a guy with that kind of knowledge, he asked with a smile, "How is that guy's life; is it easy or hard? What does he get paid?"
Saturday's 11 a.m. premiere of "Old Places, New Faces" is free and open to the public. After that, the film will be available free to communities and schools for screenings. For more information visit pem.org.
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