Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Having grown up on Long Island, I can tell you that it's always been something of an oddity.  In the midst of what is generally thought of as one of the most "liberal" states in the nation lies this island jutting away from the island of Manhattan upon which you will find one of the most segregated areas of the country.  I can remember watching the "great white flight" in the town I grew up in and a slower exodus from the town I lived in as an adult.  Even now, there are many areas in which people will happily crow about the complete lack of minorities.

Farmingville tells the story of the town by the same name in Suffolk County.  Although illegal immigration is a problem across the country, tensions seemed to boil over in this town.  It's a town where many illegal workers gather to obtain day work and was the sight of an attempted murder that was labeled a hate crime.  Two men were offered work and hopped in a truck.  They were taken to an abandoned building where they were given tools and told they were going to help clean up the basement.  Once down in the basement, their alleged employers attacked them.

The town was already a focal point for tension between illegal aliens and Long Island residents.  With a population of just 15,000 the influx of 1,500 illegal aliens into the town was significant.  They hung out on corners and took day work with landscapers, plumbers, electricians, and contractors.  Tensions escalated when the residents try to organize and get law enforcement to deport illegal aliens only to be frustrated at every turn.  There are incidents of vandalism to properties the illegal workers live at as well as random attacks on the workers.  It heightens after a woman is killed by an illegal alien driving drunk who then skips bail and disappears.  This is soon followed by the attack on the two men.  Ironically, the two men arrested in the attack weren't even from Farmingville - they were from Queens and part of a white supremacist group.

Filmmakers Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini attempt to strike a balance to show both sides of the tension.  The residents do have a point.  I can’t think of any homeowner who would be overjoyed to find the house living next to them changing hands and suddenly there are thirty people living there. There are other issues that come along with the workers such as the loitering where they look for work as well as cultural differences.  In the country the laborers come from, some behaviors are acceptable that we don't find acceptable in this country (or used to and don't any longer).  Some of the complaints sound like little more than the same issues there used to be about construction workers making cat-calls when a pretty woman walked by - the only difference being racial here.

When the Suffolk County Legislature tries to fund a worker hiring site, people bristle more.  They have a point about spending money to help the people who are here illegally.  However, the issue is that the INS hasn't done what it should have been doing and on the local level this would have been the best solution, even though it left a bad taste in the mouth of many people who voted for it.  However, national anti-immigrant groups get involved and help the local group, Sachem Quality of Life, to organize opposition to the hiring site.  This organization unfortunately becomes a bit radical and gets “help” from anti-immigrant groups across the country.  I think it speaks volumes, though, to the real motivation of the people of Farmingville that a rally headed by these outside influences was sparsely attended.  The people are concerned about their own quality of life, but they aren’t about to throw their hats in with a bunch of racists looking to use Farmingville to advance their own cause.

The issue is complex, and the filmmakers unfortunately spend little time on that.  These workers are filling a gap in our society.  They are often doing work that no one else wants to do for very little money.  Who wants to think about paying $7 or more for a head of lettuce due to what we have to pay in fair wages to the worker?  A contractor is interviewed and speaks that he has tried to hire Americans and has found that after two weeks they start not showing up and complaining about the work.

I sympathize with the residents completely, and my personal opinion is to go after the people who employ these workers, instead of the workers themselves.  As has been seen with the economic downturn, if the jobs aren't there, the aliens don't come into the country.  They come in because they know they can find the work.  It's also the fault of everyone who uses these services and turns a blind eye to what's going on as long as it means that they are getting "a good deal".  Whether it’s who you hire to cut your lawn or the contractor to build an addition to your home there’s a lot to be said for all of us being part of the problem.  

In addition to the residents being shown organizing, the illegal workers do as well.  There were some names familiar to me from my days of working for a community organizer on Long Island shown here who tried to help the workers.  Most of them are good, decent people who are just trying to help their families back home.  At every turn, though, they face opposition.  Citizens object to their being allowed to use soccer fields at a local school on Sunday afternoons, even though no one else is using them.

While there are no real solutions presented in Farmingville, it goes a long way to taking the illegal immigration issue out of the mouths of pundits and shows how complex it really is.  Illegal immigration isn’t something that can be solved with slogans and jingos or rallying cries.  It’s an issue that would really need every one of us to take inventory of just how we contribute to the problem and how much more we are willing to pay for certain goods and services were it to end.  I thought the film was balanced and presented the residents in a fair light.  They were right to say it wasn’t right to marginalize their concerns by calling them racists when they objected to the influx of illegal aliens.  It’s also fair to say the workers have valid points about the way they are treated.

Why can’t we all just get along?

DVD EXTRAS:

• Directors Outtakes
• PBS Online Resources



Other "political" movie reviews:
 
An Inconvenient Truth ~ The Big One ~ Blue Gold: World Water Wars ~ Born on the Fourth of July ~ Bowling For Columbine ~ Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy ~ A Crude Awakening ~ Democracy University: Volume One ~ The End of Suburbia ~ Fahrenheit 9/11 ~ FLOW: For Love of Water ~ The Ground Truth ~ Giuliani Time ~ Hacking Democracy ~ Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train ~ The Hunting of the President ~ The Insider ~ Iraq For Sale ~ Jesus Camp ~ J.F.K. ~ JFK: The Case for Conspiracy ~ Lake of Fire ~ The Laramie Project ~ The Murder of JFK ~ No End In Sight ~ Outfoxed ~ Outrage ~ Religulous ~ Roger and Me ~ Senator Obama Goes to Africa ~ Teddy Roosevelt: An American Lion ~ Terrorstorm ~ This Divided State ~ Truman ~ Truman: The 33rd President ~ The Unforeseen ~ War Feels Like War ~ War Made Easy ~ What Would Jesus Buy? ~ With God On Our Side

© 2009 Patti Aliventi

Recommended: Yes

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