Blending aspects of docu-drama and artists film with a searing indictment of American immigration policy and its treatment of detainees, Portland Greens cinematic essay is a hard-hitting cinematic essay based on first-hand experience, and a moving tribute to the strength of vulnerable people forced to deal with a systematic and inflexible abuse of power. Every day, more than 30,000 people are held, without trial, in privately-run detention centres by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Portland Green was once one of them, detained in a converted warehouse in Elizabeth, New Jersey, ten miles from New York City, and in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. Six years later, by telling the story of four mothers held in a cell in a similar facility, her provocative creative documentary exposes a system whose casual disregard for the rule of law and the human rights enshrined in the US Constitution, has turned ordinary people into collateral damage in the war on terror. It is a system which has also cost the US taxpayer $1.7 billion dollars in 2010. The film will be made available through theatrical exhibition, DVD and online screening platforms. Additionally it will be used by partner NGOs as a tool in their work with immigration reform.

More information about the film is available here: