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For Immediate Release
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Contact:
Drew R Figueroa, 212-982-5008, drew@moxie-films.com 917-312-8859(cell)
Moxie’s ‘Farmingville’ Is Season Opener
Of P.O.V.’s 2004 Series on PBS on June 22
Sundance Film Festival Award-Winner Is Season Opener
Of P.O.V.’s 2004 Series on PBS on June 22
“Farmingville is a primer for anyone – whether lawmaker or citizen – who cares to better understand
the usually unseen cost of America's appetite for cheap labor.”
- Carolyn Curiel, The New York Times editorial
“Farmingville . . . should become required viewing for every decision-maker and local official in
the State of New York.” - Newsday editorial
In some ways, it’s a familiar American story: an influx of illegal immigrants crossing the border from
Mexico to do work the locals won’t; a flourishing “low-wage” labor market that depends on them;
rising tensions with the resident Anglo population; charges and counter-charges of lawlessness and
racism; organizing and counter-organizing – then a violent hate crime that tears a community apart.
But this isn’t the story of a California, Texas or other Southwestern town. It’s the story of
Farmingville, New York, on Long Island.
And what is happening in this New York City suburb, as captured in Carlos Sandoval and Catherine
Tambini’s powerful new documentary, Farmingville, provides a dramatic glimpse of the new front
lines in America’s struggle over immigration and national identity.
Sandoval and Tambini’s Farmingville, which won a Special Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film
Festival, has its broadcast premiere on Tuesday, June 22, 2004 at 10 p.m., kicking off the 17th
season of the P.O.V. series on PBS (check local listings). Farmingville is one of four P.O.V. 2004
Election Issue Specials, along with Bill’s Run: A Political Journey in Rural Kansas (June 29), War
Feels Like War (July 6) and Last Man Standing: Politics Texas Style (July 20). The awardwinning P.O.V. is American television’s most-watched independent documentary showcase.
Farmingville meticulously reveals the underlying forces, and the human impact, of what has become
the largest influx of Mexican workers in U.S. history – a migration that economic globalization is
carrying beyond border areas and major cities and into the small cities and towns of America. The
filmmakers spent nearly a year in Farmingville, talking to all sides and filming the conflict as it
unfolded in legal and political maneuverings, community organizing, vigilante action and, most
tragically, violence. Farmingville achieves a remarkable intimacy with many of the principal players
in the town’s drama, who share their personal hopes and fears, revealing just how profoundly local all
politics, even global politics, are.
Farmingville is a complex, emotional portrait of an American town in rapid transition from a
relatively homogenous community to a 21st-century village. “We wanted to tell this story from the
inside out,” says co-producer Sandoval, “to capture the story as it happened. We shot over 200 hours
of footage, in two languages, to reveal the personal stories behind the headlines and sound bites.”
“This is the latest battle over the American Dream,” adds co-producer Tambini, “one that puts every
American town on the front line of deciding just who shares – and who controls – that dream.”
(Continued...)
MoxieDocs Co-production Award. The turning point of art and activism, journalism and history, can
come to form the documentary film. Propelled by this, our production partnership tradition continues.
With continued support from the film industry, and the public awareness of the need to produce
profound non-fiction stories, our sponsorship campaign goal is to provide the means for complete
production, postproduction, and theatrical distribution to the selected documentary proposal.
Our Documentary division stands as a testimony to the voice of the individual, and potential to make a
lasting difference in public awareness via the moving image. The MoxieDocs Award has become one of
the most valuable production resources available to documentary filmmakers. Projects considered are
those in work-in-progress stages.
Farmingville is a co-presentation of Independent Television Service (ITVS), a Co-production of
American Documentary, Inc., produced in association with the Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), the
Sundance Institute and Moxie Films.
Farmingville is funded by generous grants from: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation, The Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, The Horace and Amy Hagedorn Foundation,
New York State Council for the Arts, The Bishop John R. McGann Mission of Caring Fund of Catholic
Health Services of Long Island, The Soros Documentary Fund, The Long Island Community
Foundation, The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, Avid Technologies, and generous individual donors.
Festivals & Awards:
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Sundance Film Festival (2004) – Special Jury Award: Best Documentary
San Diego Latino Film Festival (2004) – Best Documentary
CineFestival (2004) – Best Documentary
RiverRun International Film Festival (2004) – Human Rights Award
Full Frame Documentary Festival (2004)
Arizona International Film Festival (2004)
South by Southwest Film Festival (2004)
MoxieDocs Co-Production Award (2001)
MoxieDocs Award: NEXT DEADLINE September 30,2004 visit MOXIE-FILMS.COM for
guidelines and application.
Leadership Sponsors: AVID Technology, Liman Video Rental, Postworks, SoundSpace, Magno LabLink, Fuji Motion Picture Film, CineMedia Systems, Kits & Expendables.
Media Sponsors: Filmmaker Magazine, indieWIRE, M@xracks, Arista Printing.
Additional Support: Women Make Movies, NY Women in Film & Television, DocuClub, Film/Video
Arts, AIVF, NY Documentary Center, IFP East, International Documentary Association, San Francisco
Film Arts Foundation.
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