Breaking the Silence: Film, Memory, and Migration as Acts of Resistance

Partner Pacific School of Religion
Learning Pillar Contemplative Activism
Rigor Level Low

This course explores how personal narrative, historical memory, and documentary cinema intersect to confront injustice, promote human rights and can contribute to changing the prevailing dehumanizing narrative about immigrants and refugees.

Through the life and work of filmmaker and advocate Luis Argueta, participants will examine the role of film in exposing systemic violence, recovering silenced histories, and fostering solidarity with displaced and immigrant communities. Drawing from Argueta’s immigration trilogy and earlier films, the course highlights how breaking the silence can be a form of healing, liberation, and civic engagement.

Learning Objectives

● Understand the relationship between personal narrative, historical memory, and justice
● Analyze how film can confront oppression and promote solidarity
● Reflect on their own silences and untold stories
● Develop strategies to use storytelling for advocacy and education
● Create and present a short multimedia story based on a personal or community narrative
● Develop a toolkit or media resource for raising awareness about immigrant rights

Course Components

The Power of Storytelling to Overcome Fear and Silence

  • Exploring the roots of repression and the liberating act of speaking one's truth

    10 Minutes
    Assignment
    Lesson Locked

Seeing the Invisible | Migration and Labor

  • Making the unseen visible | How film exposes hidden labor and systemic inequality

    10 Minutes
    Assignment
    Lesson Locked

Historical Memory and Trauma

  • Understanding how trauma is inherited and resisted across generations

    10 Minutes
    Assignment
    Lesson Locked

Humanizing Migration | The Beginning of The Immigration Trilogy

  • Centering human dignity in the face of criminalization and exclusion.

    10 Minutes
    Assignment
    Lesson Locked

Bearing Witness and Continuing the Journey

  • Recapping Key Themes | Deepening Reflection | Embracing Future Action

    10 Minutes
    Assignment
    Lesson Locked

Breaking the Silence: Film, Memory, and Migration as Acts of Resistance

Taught by Luis Argueta

Storytelling—especially through film—is a powerful act of resistance. By actively listening to the voices of the marginalized, telling their lived experiences, we can create a safe space and allow their voices to resonate and reach others through artifacts we create (e.g., documentaries, written stories). In this manner we challenge systems of fear, oppression, and exclusion and begin to change the prevailing dehumanizing narrative about immigrants and refugees.

Purchase
Luis Argueta

Meet Your Instructor,
Luis Argueta

Luis Argueta is a Guatemalan American award-winning filmmaker known for his multinational immigrant narratives. His coming-of-age film, The Silence of Neto, is Guatemala’s 1st Oscar submission and is credited as being the inspiration for many of Guatemala’s current young filmmakers. The Guardian newspaper listed Mr. Argueta as one of Guatemala’s National Living Icons, alongside Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu. Argueta is the only filmmaker to receive the Order of the Quetzal, Guatemala’s highest honor. In 2019, he received the Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award from the National Peace Corps Association and was the 2021-2022 Lund-Gill Chair at Dominican University. At the Guadalajara International Film Festival, 2021, he received the The Mayahuel International Guest of Honor Award. He has been a researcher and consultant for Migration Policy Institute since 2017. His series of immigration documentaries:  abUSed: The Postville Raid, ABRAZOS, The U Turn, and Ausencia have made him a noted lecturer on immigration.  His  films can be viewed on-line at www.luisarguetaa.com. 

Join this course’s forum conversations