Works by Theresa Cha, Luis Valdovino, Portia Cobb, Louis Hock, Michael Cho, and Craig Baldwin

*Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's poetic film and video installation Exilée (1980, 25 mins, B&W, Super-8mm/3/4” video) will be shown twice beginning at 6:30 p.m. (correction: 50 mins)
As the “Save Our State” initiative on today's ballot makes clear, the issue of who controls language is decisive in the effort to control (political) borders-not just in the blatant example of “English only” debates, but when immigration is publicly discussed in terms of economic costs to the state, displacing primary issues of racism and class. Luis Valdovino's Work In Progress (1990, 14 mins), made in response to the 1986 Immigration Reform Act, wittily explores its impact on illegal aliens. Drive-By Shoot! (1993, 12 mins), by Portia Cobb, is an insightful meditation on the words “drive by” and “shoot,” connecting ideas of movement, patrols, immigration, and progress with the shooting of black people with both guns and cameras. Louis Hock's “The Winners' Circle,” an excerpt from The Mexican Tapes: A Chronicle of Life Outside the Law (1985, 28 min excerpt), documents the experiences of undocumented Mexican women and men in San Diego's affluent North County who are vigorously deported by U.S. Immigration, and just as eagerly sought after by hotel, restaurant and nursery businesses as an indispensable source of inexpensive labor. Michael Cho's humorous Animal Appetites (1991, 18 mins) centers on a single case of two Cambodian immigrants accused of eating a dog, an incident which is used to legislate cultural norms. In ¡O No Coronado! (1992, 40 mins, 16mm) the Spaniard Vasques de Coronado's search for gold in the “New World” is reconstructed and re-examined while a dizzying array of found footage interrogates history-making itself. Craig Baldwin's depiction of the brutal conquest was timed as an antidote to Quincentenary fever and its displacement of native people with a celebration of a “founding” moment.-Kathy Geritz
This program is presented in conjunction with “Immigration and Cultural Identity: What Does It Mean to Become an American in the ‘90s?,” a conference at California College of Arts and Crafts, November 6-12. With thanks to Lynn Kirby, Associate Dean of Media Studies, and Kate Randall, Assistant Conference Coordinator.