The Truth Tellers: Documenting the Persecution of Immigrants for Future Accountability

An Exclusive 10-Minute Short Film Selection & Conversation on Evidence, Documentation and a Way Forward

At a moment of extraordinary immigration enforcement and expanding detention across the United States, what does it mean to document what is happening now—not only for today's public understanding, but for the historical record and the possibility of future accountability?

Please join us for a private advance selection of testimonies in The Truth Tellers, a new documentary project from acclaimed filmmakers Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís, followed by a conversation with the filmmakers and Dr. Austin Kocher, a leading expert on federal immigration detention data and transparency, moderated by Documented.

We'll begin with an exclusive 10-minute preview of The Truth Tellers, which follows a growing effort by immigrants, families, advocates and communities to document what is happening in and around immigration detention. The project explores community-led truth commissions: efforts to gather testimony, preserve evidence and create a record of potential abuses and human rights violations that might otherwise be lost—and that could one day be critical to truth-telling and accountability.

Together, we'll ask: How do we know what is actually happening across a vast and often opaque detention system? What can data, journalism, documentary film and firsthand testimony reveal? And amid a period of fear and repression, how are people organizing now to preserve the truth and create the possibility of future accountability?

Join us to learn about—and support—the filmmakers and journalists working to document this consequential moment. The evening is generously hosted at Columbia University by Anya Schiffrin and Lisa Anderson.

Tuesday, Oct 20 | 6:00–7:30 PM
Columbia University | 420 West 118th Street, Room 1512

100% of proceeds will support Documented's journalism and Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís's documentary work illuminating immigration enforcement at this critical moment.

Suggested donation: $75 | $12 for students and journalists

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