Filmmaker Sawyer Broadley discusses his process and the creation of the documentary.
One week ago today, FLO attended a Simmons University hosted screening of the documentary "Change the Subject." The film tells the story of a group of students at Dartmouth College, whose singular effort at confronting anti-immigrant sentiment in their library catalog took them all the way from Baker-Berry Library to the halls of Congress. The screening was well attended and immediately followed by a panel discussion. Panelists included filmmakers Sawyer Broadley and Jill Baron, film producer and student activist Oscar Ruben Cornejo Casares, and two local immigrant justice activists Irma Lemuz Amaya and Catalina Santiago.
Dartmouth College alum Oscar Ruben Cornejo Casares recalls his involvement in student activism via Zoom.
Both the film and the panelists discussed how the pejorative subject heading "illegal aliens" still lingers in many library catalogs across the nation and highlighted their efforts to change the term to "undocumented immigrants." Their ultimate goal would be to convince the Library of Congress to make the change, as their subject headings have become the de facto standard in most libraries. While the Library of Congress did announce they would update the heading in favor of "noncitizen" and "unauthorized immigration" in 2016, they quickly went back on their promise due to backlash.
Simmons Beatley Library cataloguer, Andrew Clark, announces FLO's commitment.
At the end of the panel discussion, Simmons Beatley Library cataloguer, Andrew Clark, made the announcement that the Fenway Library Network has agreed to change the offensive subject heading "illegal aliens" to "undocumented immigrants" locally in all of its members' catalogs. Clark stated, "I'm extremely grateful that I'm able to use my position of privilege to help facilitate this change and hope this will encourage other libraries to do the same."
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