You’ve read about the migrant workers who live in the canyons surrounding Rancho Peñasquitos and Carmel Valley. Now they’re making their big screen debut.
“The Invisible Mexicans of Deer Canyon,” a documentary by filmmaker John Carlos Frey, who spent more than a year living with the immigrants, was released this week and seeks to expose their meager living conditions and chronicles their struggle.
From a description of the film:
He followed them to work at construction sites, local farms and five star resorts. He accompanied them to Sunday services at a clandestine chapel built by the migrants deep in the heart of the canyon. He tracked their desperate circumstances as local citizens and law enforcement continued to demolish the migrant shacks and push them further from local neighborhoods. “The Invisible Mexicans of Deer Canyon” is a never before seen expose of migrant life and the untold side of the immigration debate.
In addition, the film features commentary from former voiceofsandiego.org reporter Will Carless, who also lived amongst the migrants while reporting for his three-part series on their lives.
A screening of the film will be held at the University of San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice in November.
The film is also available on DVD via its official web site.