“Filmmaking that matters. A must see for those who care about the truth.” – Norma E. Cantu
Professor of English and U.S. Latina/o Literatures
University of Texas at San Antonio
“A vivid and moving portrayal of one of the latest waves of Latino immigration to the United States… This is top-notch ethnographic filmmaking with the power to enlighten.”
-Wayne Cornelius
Director, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies
University of California-San Diego
“Documentaries like this one are vital for the urgent task of understanding the ongoing struggle over the present and future of New Orleans, and its deeper implications for insurgent labor and the politics of class, race, and citizenship confronting the continuing transformations in the global regime of capital accumulation.” – Dr. Nicholas De Genova
Assistant Professor, Anthropology and Latino Studies
Colombia University
“Dos Americas does an amazing job at letting the viewer reflect on a modern day slavery that was created by our government in post-Katrina New Orleans. Letting those in the labor force most affected by the lack of regulations tell their own stories is a moving and insightful wake up call to those of us who wished those days of exploitation had long passed.” – Paul Harris
Author of Diary From the Dome, Reflections on Fear and Privilege During Katrina
“Dos Americas is a great tool to help us understand the human effects of failed immigration policies, witness the reconstruction of New Orleans from those who came to help rebuild it, and most importantly, learn from this situation.” – Iris Rodriguez
La Nueva Raza
“Like its earlier documentary Down But Not Out, Upheaval Productions’ latest release, Dos Americas, is a very powerful and disturbing series of portraits of individuals trying to survive in a post-Katrina New Orleans landscape of chaos and desolation. While Down But Not Out focused on the disaster itself through interviews of flood victims suffering from the loss of their homes and the breakdown of an entire society deserted by government and insurance companies, it is another form of violence that is revealed with frightening insight in Dos Americas.” – Dr. Oleg Kobtzeff
Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society
Assistant Professor, American University of Paris
“Dos Americas is as poignant as it is informative. For my teaching purposes, it will prove to be a valuable tool. From the broader perspective, it provides a new example of the age old problem of racial discrimination. And within the more specific case study, it focuses on how the system tries to benefit from forcing two marginalized groups to compete for scant resources. This is a story that needs to be heard.” – Dr. Adam Spires
Saint Mary’s University
Halifax, Canada
“Dos Americas powerfully captures an important aspect of the disaster of the city’s reconstruction programme which, like the storm itself, continues to play itself out within ethnic and racial coordinates. The film is a poignant comment not only on the social divisions deepened by Katrina, but the social movements that these divisions have brought into being. This has implications for disasters zones the world over plagued by economic and racial discrimination.” – Dr. Anna Hartnell
Dept. of American and Canadian Studies
University of Birmingham, UK
“Dos Americas courageously tackles the issue of the artificially produced competition between African American and undocumented migrant workers on the most precarious reaches of the local labor market… But the documentary also reveals an obstinate quest for worker unity: first through a vivid web of local community organizations endeavoring to overcome mistrust between laborers of different origins; second, by workers themselves, whose interview extracts convey an extraordinarily acute class consciousness well worthy of the giant struggles to come.” – Sébastien Chauvin
Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies
University of Amsterdam
“[The filmmakers’] ability to observe, identify significant characters of a great drama and their issues, and to create the trust needed to make them accept to speak on camera without disguising their voice or hiding their face is the best quality of this documentary. It is the sign of an ability to listen which makes great journalism.” – Nature & Cultures Journal
American University of Paris
