This collaborative work in progress focuses on Border Field State Park in San Diego, California. Border Field State Park is also known as “Friendship Park,” and marks the southern-most point on the West Coast of the continental United States, located exactly where the United States, Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean meet.
The existing fence within “Friendship Park” was one of the last remaining locations along the 2000-mile U.S./Mexico border allowed for face-to-face communication across the boundary within a large urban area. This alone has made the park an important gathering place for families that have been separated due to immigration status. Border Field State Park also encompasses a significant Native American Kumayay cultural site, as well as a fragile protected ecological habitat known as the Tijuana River Estuary.
Washington politicians and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) decided in 2007 to unilaterally suspend all environmental regulations, and ignore local concerns, in order to construct a 150 foot wide triple fence extending into the Pacific Ocean, utterly destroying this last remnant of what was originally known as “Friendship Park.” Throughout 2008 construction of the new fence advanced rapidly, and has already reached the last section of the park.
Our film documents the former beauty and diversity of the park from both sides of the border, and explores current policy decisions and their consequences that are framed within anti-immigrant and national security rhetoric. It contains interviews with families, activists and others concerned about the future of this unique place.
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