"In the Shadow of the Raid" Screens in Meriden

From Jennifer Hawkins

"In the Shadow of the Raid" a new documentary by Greg Brosnan and Meriden native Jennifer Szymaszek

A special, Janaury 15th viewing of this gripping documentary, at 7p.m. will include a chance to meet the filmmakers and advocates as they present their film about the biggest immigration raid in history and the devastating consequences for two towns: one in the US and one in Guatemala.

On May 12, 2008, US government stormed a Kosher meat plant in the American heartland, arresting nearly 400 undocumented workers. The biggest immigration raid in US history severed an economic lifeline in Postville, Iowa, one of the poorest corners of the Western Hemisphere, pushing the farm town to the brink of collapse.

Postville itself was a boomtown before the raid — a rare exception in a part of rural America that has been emptying out as the changing economics of agriculture alter the social landscape. Now it is on the brink of economic collapse after losing much of its population and its main employer — all in the middle of the worst recession in decades.

And a Guatemalan town was brought to its knees as it plummeted into an abyss of poverty.

Streetdog Media is the Mexico City-based multimedia production company of journalists Greg Brosnan and Meriden native Jennifer Szymaszek, makers of the documentary ‘In the Shadow of the Raid’.

Brosnan and Szymaszek are freelance video producers for The New York Times. Brosnan has also been a print journalist for Reuters in New York, Guatemala and Mexico, and more recently has written for publications including Business Week and The Houston Chronicle. Szymaszek is also a freelance photojournalist, working mainly for The New York Times.

This project was made possible with grants from the Institute for Justice and Journalism at USC Annenberg, which includes Ford Foundation funding, and from the Washington D.C.-based Fund for Investigative Journalism.

The film will be shown at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Meriden, January 15 at 7 p.m. Located at 328 Paddock Road in Meriden, directions can be found on the website www.uumeriden.org.