The most popular segment in Annabel Park and Eric Byler’s new movie about Northern Virginia’s illegal-immigration debate has been viewed more than 36,000 times on YouTube.
Park was interviewing a Hispanic Manassas resident who posted an enormous sign on his property urging Prince William County to stop “its racism” to immigrants. Then a white man standing by the fence asked for someone who spoke English. Byler took the microphone and jogged over to the man, where a group gathered and the tension was visible.
The man said, “Learn how to speak English,” and several in the group responded, “I speak English just fine.”
The movie takes its name, “9500 Liberty,” from the address where the confrontation took place. Rather than make a conventional feature film for the 2008 festival circuit, Park and Byler began posting their work at the popular online site YouTube in five-minute snippets.
“We thought, ‘’Wait a second, this has to be seen right now,’” Park said.
Park, 39, moved from Korea to Houston in 1978 and remembers being told to “go home” and “learn English” as a child. She sees comparisons between that experience and the attitudes today in Northern Virginia.
“It’s definitely interesting,” said Prince William County Chairman Corey Stewart of the movie.
Stewart is a leading advocate for the county’s plan to give police more power to launch deportation proceedings, and a prominent figure in the film.
As Park and Byler filmed at homes, offices and meetings, Byler sensed a dramatic division in the community.
“There are people whose lives have changed drastically, transformed from a sort of American dream to a sort of 1950s racial atmosphere,” he said. “We haven’t gotten to the ’60s yet with regard to this issue.”
