{"id":1302567,"date":"2019-01-18T08:06:25","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T15:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/?p=443330"},"modified":"2019-01-18T08:06:25","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T15:06:25","slug":"ski-town-immigrant-communities-get-the-spotlight-in-the-quiet-force-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/ski-town-immigrant-communities-get-the-spotlight-in-the-quiet-force-documentary\/","title":{"rendered":"Ski town immigrant communities get the spotlight in \u2018The Quiet Force\u2019 documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The documentary\u00a0\u201cThe Quiet Force\u201d<\/a>\u00a0opens with President Donald Trump on screen at a rally promising to build his \u201cgreat wall\u201d and spewing anti-immigrant rhetoric. Headlines about immigration then flash across the screen in the film\u2019s early moments, interspersed with shots of young Latin skiers on the slopes.<\/p>\n

The timely 35-minute film, by Jackson Hole-based ski filmmakers Hilary Byrne and Sophie Danison, paints a multi-faceted portrait of immigrants in American ski towns, their vital place in the tourism economy and the pall of fear cast over the community in the Trump era.<\/p>\n

Byrne and Danison met while working on the popular 2014 all-female ski movie \u201cPretty Faces\u201d and began talking about using their storytelling talents to be agents of change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been having a conversation since then about doing something with a little more meat that inspired social change,\u201d Byrne said in a recent phone interview. \u201cWe were both in a similar rut where we were doing cool stuff but not satiating that desire.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March 2016, the publication of David Page\u2019s Powder magazine article \u201cThe Quiet Force,\u201d about immigrants in American ski towns, inspired the pair to start adapting it for the screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then Trump got elected and it became even more relevant,\u201d Byrne said.<\/p>\n

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Recommended Stories For You<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The film will screen on Friday night at the Wheeler Opera House, as part of the two-day 5Point Aspen mini-festival, playing in a moment when the government has been shut down and Congress is gridlocked over the president\u2019s demand for a wall on the southern border.<\/p>\n

The film profiles immigrant families with varying citizenship status in Mammoth and Jackson Hole, along with a young Salt Lake City woman with DACA status. The filmmakers also shot in Vail, but ended up cutting the footage from the film. It brings in elected officials, business owners, law enforcement officers, immigration experts and attorneys to frame the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a ski film,\u201d said Byrne. \u201cIt\u2019s using these ski towns and industries to talk about an issue that can be applied everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

It argues that, while immigrant labor props up the economy nationwide, its necessity is laid bare in smaller service-driven ski communities where infrastructure would crumble without immigrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are the people who keep this machine running,\u201d Mono County Sheriff Ingrid Braun says of the Mammoth area immigrants in the film. \u201cIt\u2019s unseen, the quiet workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

The movie also profiles young Latino skiers who\u2019ve never known any life but the American ski town life, who still live with the fear of losing family members to deportation or of being deported themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cSkiing makes me feel alive,\u201d one young skier says in the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best this is I\u2019m a skier,\u201d Diana Zunga, the DACA recipient in Salt Lake, says, later adding while ski-touring in the Tetons: \u201cIt pushed me to be somebody who I wanted to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film introduces viewers to characters like a Jackson Hole area carpenter, with a wife and two American-born children, who was brought here from Mexico by his parents as a teenager. He is now raising his kids as ski town rippers while living in the shadows.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Quiet Force\u201d debuted, to a sold-out audience, at the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts in November. The 5Point Aspen screening comes as it tours the west, with post-screening discussions with local immigration experts at each stop. After the Wheeler screening, Byrne will discuss immigration issues with Aspen Skiing Co. sustainability director Matt Hamilton and Valley Settlement director Jon Fox-Rubin.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur original goal was to spark conversation in our communities,\u201d Byrne said. \u201cThe idea is to see the film, feel some inspiration, then through the local experts on the topic figure out what exactly people can do in their community. We want people to walk away with a clear idea of what they can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while ski town residents, ski industry leaders and local government officials tend to favor paths to citizenship over deportation and advocate keeping immigrant families together, the filmmakers believe the ski community is failing its immigrant community.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big reason we made this film is that we believe the ski and outdoor industries can use their voice a lot more,\u201d Danison said.<\/p>\n

They want to see immigration reform become a priority for the industry on par with its advocacy for action on climate change and for protecting public lands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry has so much power and can speak up more for these people in our communities,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The Aspen Skiing Co. has made its pro-immigrant stance a prominent plank in its recent values-based marketing campaigns and political activism. SkiCo CEO Mike Kaplan, in a widely distributed Dec. 2016\u00a0op-ed entitled \u201cWe\u2019re Still Here,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0called for deferred action policy for so-called \u201cDreamers\u201d who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children and wrote \u201cwe are the Latino community \u2013 and we will remain a sanctuary for these co-workers and neighbors, students and parents, who will always be welcome in our schools and businesses and homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton said that the company\u2019s advocacy for immigrants is based in the company\u2019s economic needs and in its community values.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur success is not only tied to our company\u2019s success but the broader community\u2019s success,\u201d he said, reached by phone this week at a Florida conference of American businesses on immigration reform. \u201cAnd that includes the community of immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n

National policy changes, like stricter limits on work visas, have harmed the company\u2019s ability to employ and retain foreign works who, as Hamilton put it, \u201cmeet the cultural needs of our guests.\u201d This winter, Hamilton said, 12 foreign SkiCo employees, in the week before they were schedule to begin working, were denied H-2B visas at the last minute because a government limit had been reached.<\/p>\n

Hamilton, who also sits on the Roaring Fork School District board, said that fostering a safe and welcoming community in the valley is equally as important.<\/p>\n

Hamilton said that he hopes locals will contact their elected representatives after they leave Friday\u2019s screening and call for humane immigration reform, echoing the mission of the company\u2019s ongoing \u201cGive a Flake\u201d campaign for climate change policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most critical thing, whether it\u2019s immigration policy or climate policy, is that elected officials are not hearing from constituents,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cIf there is one action people need to take, it\u2019s talking to elected officials about this government shutdown over border security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jon Fox-Rubin, executive director of Carbondale-based immigration support nonprofit Valley Settlement, said the situation outlined in the film mirrors the one in the Roaring Fork Valley, where immigrants are the backbone of the service industry and where a majority of Roaring Fork School District students are first- or second-generation immigrants.<\/p>\n

Demand for Valley Settlement\u2019s services increased in the lead-up to the election in 2016 \u201cwhen the rhetoric was getting harsher and harsher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Policy tweaks and the president\u2019s rhetoric have made it less likely for immigrants to to report crimes or serve as witnesses in the court system, Fox-Rubin noted. His nonprofit has focused on early childhood education for immigrant children, mentorship and services for adults like language classes and degree opportunities. Fox-Rubin chooses to view \u201cThe Quiet Force\u201d and events like Friday\u2019s 5Point screening as a source of hope in this often-bleak moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it\u2019s sharing this hope of people really settling in their new community,\u201d he said of the movie. \u201cWatching kids in the film say \u2018I am a skier\u2019 and defining who they are that way, that\u2019s a hopeful sign that they feel like they are a part of this country regardless of the stress and trauma that is in their background. That\u2019s a path to the American dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

via:: Vail Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The documentary\u00a0\u201cThe Quiet Force\u201d\u00a0opens with President Donald Trump on screen at a rally promising to build his \u201cgreat wall\u201d and spewing anti-immigrant rhetoric. Headlines about immigration then flash across the screen in the film\u2019s early moments, interspersed with shots of young Latin skiers on the slopes. The timely 35-minute film, by Jackson Hole-based ski filmmakers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1302567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 18:13:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1302567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1302567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1302567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1302567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}