In 1994, a Clinton administration initiative forced migrants to take deadlier routes through the Sonoran Desert to cross from Mexico into Arizona. Starting in 2016, the Trump administration pursued even more intense policing measures at the border, resulting in the arrests of volunteers who provided food, water and shelter to migrants. The short documentary USA v Scott chronicles how, in 2018, a geography professor and volunteer humanitarian aid worker named Scott Warren was arrested under a law that had previously been used to target smugglers, and faced the potential of a 20-year prison sentence. Following Scott as he continues to help migrants while preparing for his trial, the film ponders the boundaries between country and country, and law and morality.
Directors: Ora DeKornfeld, Isabel Castro
Producers: Marie-Hélène Carleton, Micah Garen
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Human rights and justice
Surreal, dazzling visuals form an Iranian expat’s tribute to defiance back home
10 minutes
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Language and linguistics
Why Susan listens to recordings of herself speaking a language she no longer remembers
5 minutes
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Ethics
Plato saw little value in privacy. How do his ideas hold up in the information age?
5 minutes
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Animals and humans
Are zoos and natural history museums born of a desire to understand, or to control?
57 minutes
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Family life
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them
21 minutes
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Political philosophy
The radical activist couple who fought for social change in the courtroom
21 minutes
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Human rights and justice
When a burial for slave trade victims is unearthed, a small island faces a reckoning
29 minutes
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Family life
The precious family keepsakes that hold meaning for generations
10 minutes
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History
There are fragments of Romani Gypsy history all over the UK – if one knows where to look
3 minutes