Lost & Found (Story of a DREAM Act Student)

Short film about an undocumented student at UCLA and the DREAM Act. Originally done through the Armed with a Camera fellowship through Visual Communications in Little Tokyo, LA. May 2007.

An update on Stephanie (2009):
"My life goes on today much like it does in 'Lost and Found'; if anything, it is remarkable in how unchanging it is -- the surreal byproduct of being undocumented. I'm still in the middle of my senior year at UCLA as a Creative Writing major (although this is now my seventh year of college), since I'm eternally forced into long financial hiatuses from school. I still spend half my life on public transportation, hours away from campus; I do odd jobs to survive, from proofreading to housecleaning; I create weird makeshift bedrooms out of friends' dining room floors. And after I finally graduate, I still have no way of knowing what "graduation" will mean for someone like me.

But these past few years of volunteering and sharing my story (with everyone from the mainstream media to community leaders to scared high schools students) have taught me that my one little story represents thousands of untold stories. My life is mighty strange -- strange because one believes it's an experience we wouldn't willingly create for our children -- and yet it is far from unique. I am one among many.

When I was a kid, I never understood why my family was always struggling, broke, moving, or what that secretly meant; I believed, in my own way, that I was just another American kid. Now I am old enough to understand that I was right. I hope the DREAM Act will help me reclaim my identity and my future."

more info on steph: http://dailybruin.com/stories/2008/feb/20/struggling-noncitizen-status/
more info on the filmmaker: http://www.vconline.org/a-camera-and-a-dream.cfm
DREAM Act info: www.dreamactivist.org and www.undergroundundergrads.com

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• DREAM
• act
• ab540
• undocumented
• college
• students
• immigrants
• lost
• and
• found
• stephanie
• ucla
• bus
• tam
• tran
• underground
• undergrads

[kristoffersayshi]

@SimounAngel Empty threats and ad hominem tactics serve your side no good. Too much pathos, losing control of emotions, it's no wonder why the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors act was shot down so quickly in the Senate.

If your side really wants to win, you've got to take emotion out of your politics, no one on my side cares for sob stories or emotional arguments. Unless your side learns that lesson, expect nothing to change.

[SimounAngel]

@saifayouby don't reply to this asshole, all he knows is idiocy. His ass has too many sticks in it already. So he will not reason at all, is like talking to a retarded kid.

[SimounAngel]

@kristoffersayshi You hypocrite bastard. Blame our parents? maybe if I was the naive kid I was once. Maybe but you know, you don't know us nor our parents. I would rather beat the crap out off you. I adore my mother, you have no idea the history behind her actions and any dumbass like you could never understand. Why don't you go back to the Philippines.

[kristoffersayshi]

@SimounAngel One doesn't have to be a teacher to point out your grammatical errors. I fail to see how I'm a hypocrite since I'm not an illegal alien speaking against illegals. I'm a legal immigrant turned citizen that is against illegal aliens that break laws, bypass the legal process, trespass our borders, use our resources, lead dishonest lives, and demand rights that they don't have.

By the way "Its" is the possessive form and inappropriate, "It's" works better.

[kristoffersayshi]

@SimounAngel First off it's "affecting" not "effecting." Secondly, I'm an immigrant, I have no problems with immigrants and I don't know anyone that has problems with immigrants. Illegal aliens however are a different story.

[SimounAngel]

@kristoffersayshi You feel it? Okay tell me what damage has an immigrant you that's killing you and effecting you at the moment? don't say "they don't pay taxes", I will burn your ass b/c if you give that simple excuse then you're clearly ignorant. Don't say they take jobs b/c if you were that good in a job then you wouldn't worry about an immigrant taking your job.

[kristoffersayshi]

@SimounAngel I never said I was white and I do not see the relevance of race in this debate. I am a legal immigrant (hence real immigrant) from Philippines, and like many real immigrants, we feel that the very presence of illegal aliens is desecration of this nation. The illegals have disrespected this country from the moment that they snuck in. So sorry if I seem indifferent to the sob stories and excuses. If you are illegal then don't act surprised when the law catches up.

[SimounAngel]

@kristoffersayshi One more thing, from the looks of it. You're not even white so at one point your family were immigrants too. Haha..is people like you that amuse me and make my need to push you mutherfukers to your limits. Sick little asshole, you're a sad sad person.

[SimounAngel]

@kristoffersayshi You mean to say that we disrespected YOU by coming here, well more like pulled in by our parents at age 2. Tch, if I had the choice, I would of stayed in Mexico but how would I know at that age that I was illegal and that I was offending people. You bigots piss me off, I hate self centered morons like you. "Real immigrants" if you're talking about the old immigrants, you're not that bright by saying that. Tch and you're a citizen, heh p.s You're amusing.

[kristoffersayshi]

@saifayouby I can't be a heartless person, otherwise my blood wouldn't be pumping and we wouldn't have this debate. The Indians failed to defend their land, so they lost the rights to it. But as I said before, if they want it then the surest way to do it is to win it in War.

My parents wanted a better future for us in the States and there were two choices:

A) Be true citizens raising children in an honest life or

B) Be criminals and raise children in a dishonest life.