BORDERLAND
Directed by Darren Foster
Jeffrey Plunkett & Alex Simmons
'Borderland will touch you. It will make you angry. And it will make you weep. And in the process, you will never look at the issue of illegal immigration in the same way again.'
- The Huffington Post
'It turns out there is a reason to watch Al Jazeera America...Borderland is exploitative in a good way, using the ignorance of ordinary Americans to enlighten viewers about a problem so intractable that it's often easier not to look.'
- Alessandra Stanley, The New York Times
‘It's rare for a television show to come along that makes me think this could really change everything...'
- Sylvia Longmire
BORDERLAND
Al Jazeera America | 2014 | 4 X 60mins
Six ordinary Americans are confronted with the realities of undocumented immigration as they retrace the journeys of dead border runners.
Gathered at Pima County morgue, the participants are handed three case files and tasked by the Arizona medical examiner with retracing the footsteps of three dead migrants - three of over 6,000 undocumented immigrants who perished in American deserts in the last 15 years.
The participants first visit the borderlands, embedded with US border patrol and meeting Arizona ranchers angry that the cartels send drug-mules across their vast properties.
Split into three groups, the participants head for Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador to meet the families of the dead migrants. They will then follow in the footsteps of the thousands of desperate migrants and work their way back to the United States by whatever means necessary, including notorious river-crossings, through gang-controlled jungles and riding the infamous cargo train known as La Bestia.
Traversing the notorious cartel-held Sinaloa state, they attempt the final dangerous trek through the hot badlands of the borderland.
They'll live.
But will they learn?
AWARDS & NOMINATIONS
BANFF WORLD MEDIA FESTIVAL 2015
Nominated - Humanitarian and Investigation Award
JAPAN PRIZE 2015
Nominated
LOS ANGELES PRESS CLUB AWARDS 2014
Nominated - Investigative Television Award
AUSTRALIAN SCREEN SOUND GUILD AWARDS 2014
WINNER - Best Sounds for Lifestyle, Reality or Live Television Award
CRITICAL PRAISE
‘Borderland is a show like no other...it is must watch television.'
- Juan Escalante
‘This is reality television like you have never seen it...'
- The Week - Pick of the Week
KEY CREDITS
Directed by
DARREN FOSTER, ALEX SIMMONS & JEFF PLUNKETT
Line Producer
JENNIFER WOOD
Story Producer
RODRIGO X GONZALEZ
Written by
NIAL FULTON
IVAN O'MAHONEY
Composer
ROGER MASON
Editors
ANDREW COOKE
PETER CROMBIE
Executive Producers
NIAL FULTON
IVAN O'MAHONEY
KATHY DAVIDOV
BORDERLAND was produced for AL JAZEERA AMERICA by IN FILMS
in association with MUCK MEDIA