Thank you for watching our documentaries! We are students at Macaulay Honors College, and made these films as part of a Spring 2015 course called The Peopling of New York, with professor Fatima Shama.
This seminar class revolves around NYC immigration and integration. The goal is to investigate the role of immigration and integration in shaping NYC’s past, present, and future.
PAST – Students gain a historical context of NYC immigration through walking tours in the city, guest lecturers, and readings of personal immigration stories and past censuses.
PRESENT- Weekly Press Highlight assignments and recent statistics allow student to understand current immigration issues and are thoroughly discussed among peers during the seminar class.
FUTURE- Students spend a portion of the semester creating and designing a documentary film. This is where students identify an issue and possibly draw up solutions while further informing the class on the topic. This is a group effort where students find interviewees that fit the theme of their group, design interviews, shoot video, plan and edit a film, present their documentary to the class and showcase it at the Macaulay Film Festival (and possibly win an award)!
By the end of the class, students leave with increased knowledge on a topic very relevant to today’s political, economic, and social worlds.
FUN FACT- We attend a CUNY school where 1 in 3 incoming CUNY students are immigrants.
