Carolina Calvo

Dr. Lipsker 

HUM 104

09 May 2026

Skylight Master Class – Activism and Art and Borderland Film 

The screening of the film Borderland: The Line Within was shown in the Duke Performance Hall in February 2026. In a time of political turmoil regarding the mass deportations that ICE was committing, it was a timely film to present. The film director, Pamela Yates, and the film producer, Paco de Onis, came to Davidson to speak about the film, with an introduction for the film before it was shown, and a Master Class that was about the intersection of activism and art the next day. I attended both the film and the Master Class, as well as a lunch with the film producer and film director, which made me really interested in the topic since I learned a lot about the film and the creative processes that were taken to accomplish its goal. 

Pamela Yates said the 2024 documentary was a preventative film so that people could see the impact that the Trump administration had on immigration injustice and the harm that could continue to happen if he got reelected. The film was created in hopes to inspire change in US immigration policy. She said that a big inspiration for the creation of Borderland: The Line Within was to channel her anger about the injustice of the immigration system into an artistic expression that could inspire and reach many people. She wanted to focus on the impact that the stories and analysis would have on viewers. Yates said that the film, and her other films, have been about “people fighting for their rights” (Pamela Yates). For example, the series 500 Years is a trilogy of the resistance in Guatemala. As I was watching the trailer during the master class, there were a lot of similarities that I was seeing between then and now in regards to an authoritarian government and people protesting and organizing against it. This was purposeful, according to Yates. She said that making films “evergreen” was an important aspect of Skylight Films. She explained in the Master Class that making films be relevant to the specific event but have them follow big themes could inspire people in whatever movement, because those themes, like courage, for example, are transferable and can last well beyond that event.  

The Master Class was successful because Yates and de Onis discussed methods of how to use activism and art to present a meaningful story. They discussed the different ways that they accomplished that– the people in the films have a say in how their story is presented. The conversation is what makes the film- the protagonists have a lot of speaking time in the film. Yates also stays connected to people that she filmed and maintaining those relationships were a couple of examples that really stood out. The way that they approached their work seemed very intentional and meaningful which was great to see. Another aspect that they talked about that is a feature of Skylight, the media organization that produced the film, where SolidariLabs. SolidariLabs are workshops in which artists, filmmakers, and activists can come together and work on projects. The point is to gather people from different backgrounds to share  “diverse experiences and shared visions”. Yates and de Onis made a film about community based truth commissions, which is similar to the truth and reconciliation committees in South Africa during apartheid that we discussed in Humes. It was very interesting to learn about another form of TRCs, since it was very relevant to what we had just learned about the previous semester. The film was the cinematic sequel to Borderland, since it was a hybrid initiative.