Documentary Films At FDR Library In Hyde Park Focus On Immigration

HYDE PARK, N.Y. -- The Pare Lorentz Center at the FDR Presidential Library in Hyde Park will present the

The Pare Lorentz Center at the FDR Presidential Library will present the film festival.
Photo Credit: *Facebook (Pare Lorentz Center at FDR Library)*

01/19/2016 4:30 p.m.

"Winter 2016 Documentary Film Series: Immigration, Migration and the American Dream" beginning at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 6.

These free screenings will include four films that address the themes of immigration and migration -- focused on the plight of the worker -- from the Great Depression to present day.

Between films,City Universityof NEw York professor and critic Seth Shire will offer commentary and engage the audience in brief discussion.

The program will be held in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home.

Seating is first-come, first-served. This event is free and open to the public.

Schedule:

3 p.m. -- Pare Lorentz's "The Plow That Broke the Plains" (1936), 28 minutes, directed by Pare Lorentz. This short documentary film is a treatment of the causes of the Dust Bowl and description of New Deal programs to combat its effects. This film will be paired with a new seven-minute film bio of Pare Lorentz, who was considered FDR’s documentary filmmaker.

4 p.m. -- "Farmingville" (2004), 79 minutes, a PBS Point of View featured film is a complex film about the expanding population of illegal immigrants in a suburban Long Island community and the fallout after two laborers become victims of a hate crime.

(Break from 6 - 7 p.m.)

7 p.m. -- "The Immigrant" (1917), 22 minutes. This is a silent romantic comedy short featuring Charlie Chaplin. An immigrant coming to the United States is accused of theft on the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean and falls in love with a beautiful young woman along the way.

"The Overnighters" (2014), 90 minutes. "The Overnighters" is a Sundance special jury award-winning film, directed by Jesse Moss. It engages universal societal and economic themes such as: the promise and limits of re-invention, redemption and compassion, as well as the tension between the moral imperative to "love thy neighbor" and the resistance that one small community feels when confronted by a surging river of desperate, job-seeking strangers.

Call 845-486-1978 for more information on the film series.

The Pare Lorentz Center at the FDR Presidential Library is at 4079 Albany Post Road, Hyde Park.

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