CULTURE [FILM]
Moving Pictures For The Garcia Family, a filmmaker returns home to St. Louis Written by
DOYLE MURPHY
E
mmett Williams’ new documentary opens on the quiet of a Maplewood church. Over the years, the 52-yearold filmmaker has trained his camera on a wide variety of topics in locations across the United States and beyond. Struggling commercial fishermen in laska. Protesters at Standing ock. Illegal logging in the ma on. For The Garcia Family, Williams returned to St. Louis, where he grew up and went to high school, to tell the story of le arcia, who took sanctuary from de ortation more than three years ago in hrist hurch. fter an establishing shot of the building, the documentary cuts to the married father of five, who is visibly holding back emotion as he discusses the decision to live there in a basement apartment. t first, I didn’t think it would take so long, but no, I’m still here, arcia says in S anish, adding that there was a time that he thought of eeing with his family, who are all citi ens, but he knew that they would be caught and se arated. I ust can’t abandon my family. The short documentary, which clocks in at ust under minutes, is acked with candid moments as Williams trails along with the laconic arcia and his wife arly, who has become a fierce advocate not only for her husband, but for changing a U.S. immigration system that has left their family and others in impossible situations. Williams, a Parkway entral High School grad, has been a documentary filmmaker for more than a do en years through his company Mission Man Media. He worked as a rint ournalist after leaving the University of Missouri
Alex Garcia, shown in the new documentary. | COURTESY MISSION MAN MEDIA and eventually landed in New ork ity as a freelancer. He was looking for a way to make some money when a friend invited him to work on the show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? That led to nearly a decade in television, but he began to feel the pull of other projects. I decided that there was a bunch of stories that I wanted to tell, and the way to do that was to uit and become a documentary filmmaker, he says. ne of his first ro ects was a film on native families in laska. Williams later created a web series called Fargesn which told personal stories a year after Michael Brown’s death. He is now in Rio de aneiro making a documentary on the innovative architecture of the favelas. Each time he begins a new project, he says, he has to earn the trust of the eo le he’s filming. “With all these things, it’s people who are tired of being e loited, he says. He learned about the arcias from his longtime friend Jen Rich, whom he met as a kid during summers in the arks at am Sabra. ow a fellow filmmaker, ich had read about the family and urged Williams to return to St. Louis and make a documentary about them. He ew in almost immediately and sle t on her couch while film-
ing. Rich signed on as a producer. t first, the arcias were e tremely apprehensive, Williams says. They made the choice in to go ublic with the sanctuary decision. Since then, they have been the subject of multiple stories, including features in the Riverfront Times as well as long pieces in national publications. arly arcia and the cou le’s children have participated in demonstrations and marches, and the family has tried to highlight the inequities of the U.S. immigration system with online rallies and petition drives. But it has all been a calculated risk, one that could have ust as easily enticed the Trump administration to abandon the .S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s longtime practice of avoiding sensitive locations, including churches, when taking people into custody to be deorted. arcia had been caught crossing the border as a teen and deported. He entered again not long after and had lived in Poplar luff, working and raising his family until when he moved into the Maplewood church. ven before , he had ho ed to gain permanent residency, but the deportation order from nearly two decades ago remains on his record, blocking the ath. nd as the arcias saw rum se arating
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families at the border, caging children and denying refugees access to the United States, they worried agents could show up any day at the church. It is always at least a little awkward to have a filmmaker tagging along, and given the circumstances, Williams understood the family’s concerns about allowing him in. “But as they trusted me, it was like this oodgate of emotion and just sincerity about not only what they’re going through, but they’re really honest about how hard things are for them, Williams says. o kee going through that was ust ama ing to be a art of. he film uses a seven mile march from downtown St. Louis to the church on the second-year anniversary of le arcia’s move into sanctuary as the narrative spine, but Williams weaves in intimate scenes of Carly and the kids at home without le , a lobbying trip to Washington to press lawmakers for reforms, and y on-the-wall views of life in the church. I definitely have a social ustice bent to all my work, but really the thing that draws me to a project is a ersonal story not even like doing something ama ing, but there’s something about their character that draws me to them, Williams says. He found that in the arcias. It was their honesty and drive in the face of going through so much, Williams says. He is now re aring for film festivals, but a limited video-ondemand release has already been well received, and he’s begun licensing the film to universities, including Saint Louis University, for use in classes. nd even though the filming is over, Williams says he’ll continue to care about the arcias and ho e le is able to move out of the church soon. He and the family have become friends through spending so much time together. “For me, it’s such a gift to be able to film other eo le’s lives, he says. I can’t see that connection ending after the film is over. he arcia amily is available for rent online until February 28. Half of the proceeds will go to the Garcias. More information about Emmett Williams’ films is available online at missionmanmedia.com.
FEBRUARY 24-MARCH 2, 2021
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