The final film of the 2023-24 KIPCOR Film Series focuses on a social issue at the center of current discussion and controversy.
Estamos Unidos, a film by Alvaro M. Morales, tells the story of a migrant caravan’s journey from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, to Mexico City in early 2019.
Their odyssey began amidst interventions from the governments of Honduras, Mexico and the United States that aimed to halt the normalization of caravans as a new immigration route.
The screening is Sunday, April 7, at 2 p.m. in Krehbiel Auditorium in Luyken Fine Arts Center. The talkback following the film will feature the filmmaker himself, via Zoom.
Alvaro “Alva” Morales is a social entrepreneur who works at the intersection of technology, storytelling and activism.
He directs and produces projects in virtual reality, augmented reality and traditional documentary formats. His projects have received support from National Geographic, Meta, the Tribeca Film Institute and Open Society Foundations, among others.
Rooted in his experience as a formerly undocumented American, Morales’s work focuses exclusively on advancing public discourse around immigration justice.
He is currently in the final year of a joint MBA-MPP program at Yale University, where he is exploring how to best position his career for social impact.
Morales says of his film, “The caravans were turning upside down the traditional migrant passage through Mexico. They were taking a journey that typically occurs in the shadows, and … making it as visible as possible for safety and political leverage.
“With this in mind, I saw an important role filmmakers and allies had to play in the caravan movement.”
Estamos Unidos illustrates the stakes and human toll of migrating to the United States, as well as the courage of those seeking opportunity and refuge.
With a U.S. presidential election looming, the film provides an important look at the immigrants whom politicians employ as scapegoats for their anti-immigrant rhetoric.
KIPCOR, the Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution at Bethel College, sponsors the film series each school year. It is free and open to the public, with a freewill offering taken to support KIPCOR and the series.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel ranks at #23 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of “Best Regional Colleges Midwest” for 2023-24. Bethel was the first Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see http://www.bethelks.edu
