Note: this story was written before this afternoon's announcement by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom that he was dropping out of the 2010 race for California governor.

Annabel Park and Eric Byler’s new feature documentary ‘9500 Liberty’ may not yet have a film distributor but the film previews what is certain to be a scorching hot debate next year about immigration and immigration reform in the United States. Last night the filmmakers held the west coast premiere of ‘9500 Liberty’ at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas on Post Street in San Francisco’s Fillmore District.

The film tells of the powder-keg style atmosphere surrounding Prince William County in Virginia in 2007 and 2008 over a law approved and implemented by the county's lawmakers that required police officers to question anyone they have “probable cause” to believe or suspect is an illegal or undocumented immigrant. The law, spurred by a local anti-immigrant activist, engenders bitter racial hostility and tension throughout Manassas. Passions are sparked on both sides from many of the town’s older white residents and the Central American immigrant locals, some of whom carry their U.S. passports with them on an almost-daily basis.

Ms. Park and Mr. Byler received anonymous death threats while filming in the Virginia town from August 2007 through October 2008, just prior to the presidential election. Mr. Byler, who lives within minutes of Manassas, said of the eventual override of the ‘probable cause” law there that “it took Republicans and Democrats -- it took the law enforcement community, to finally stand up to this very well-organized militant takeover of our county government.”

Mr. Byler revealed that it wasn’t easy while filming as he and Ms. Park found themselves participating in the volatile debate as much as depicting it.

“For a few months, a very small number of people were controlling the democratic process to represent 360,000 people, and that their views were very radical, outside of the mainstream – almost a white separatist kind of sentiment. And it was all triggered by a period of immigration [in Virginia] that went with the building of many houses and malls – we call them McMansions – and the builders many times were immigrants. So they settled into housing that as more affordable to them, which meant that they were living to people who were much more accustomed to the segregated Virginia that we had been for many years. A lot of it was the anxiety of demographic change that our whole country is going through.”

Mr. Byler, who lives within minutes of Manassas, talked about the endeavor he and Ms. Park faced with ‘9500 Liberty’, parts of which have been shown to highly successful effect on YouTube with segments of testimony for and against the law from Manassas residents -- black, white, Latino, Jewish, and Asian.

‘9500 Liberty’, named after the block on which one resilient immigrant lives, also features a fissure among the lawmakers on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors regarding the law – a tension not unlike that between San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors and Mayor Gavin Newsom over a measure vetoed by the mayor that would require full due process to undocumented immigrants convicted of a crime who would face possible deportation.

The drafter of the San Francisco legislation, District 9 supervisor David Campos, attended the “Liberty” post-screening Q&A and made a brief reference to the current local politics. “The mayor’s a good person. I do think he’s trying to do the right thing. But sometimes good people do bad things,” said Mr. Campos, who was joined by Michael Yaki, Commissioner of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. 

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has promised to override Mayor Newsom's veto.

“Immigration is not a Latino issue, it’s an American issue. We all need to be concerned about it and act to help solve the issues it raises,” said “Liberty” filmmaker Ms. Park. She and Mr. Byler suggested writing letters to local politicians and state congressional representatives as well as U.S. senators.

“The best part of the movie is seeing some of the fiercest opponents of immigration become some of its biggest supporters,” said Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos, the nation's largest political online blog. “They’ve seen first hand – in a way that a lot of people across the county haven’t – what happens when you enact anti-immigration legislation,” he said. Mr. Moulitsas, a Chicago-born member of an El Salvador immigrant family, had introduced ‘9500 Liberty’ to the sizable Sundance Kabuki audience in attendance. The event was hosed by Citizen Hope, NDN and Netroots Nation.

Of the Newsom vs. Board controversy, Mr. Moulitsas said that while he had followed the situation only peripherally, the mayor’s actions were “curious” in light of the fact his veto would be overridden, adding that while mindful of Mr. Newsom’s run for governor of California next year’s elections Mr. Moulitsas was “not sure what the political play is here,” citing that “this is not a state where demonizing Latinos has played well.”

For more on ‘9500 Liberty’ visit the film’s official website

For more of Omar's film stories, movie reviews and interviews visit his Popcorn Reel website and watch his unscripted film reviews on YouTube.  For a list of Omar's Examiner articles, click here.

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