“As each character invents a life against obstacles significantly unlike those faced by Europeans coming to America, viewers must drop their sentimental conceptions of immigration and submit to the new ideas and images that are so judiciously and artfully rendered here.”
—Virginia Hefferman, The New York Times
“…Chicago documentarian Steve James and his team deliver a film that is at once epic and intimate, universal and specific. The triumph of ‘The New Americans’ is that it reminds us of a truth too easily forgotten: Immigrants are all of us.”
—Steve Johnson, Chicago Tribune
“In the post-9/11 era, when many immigrants are looked upon with distrust, The New Americans offers a fresh perspective…a powerful and deeply personal documentary.”
—Suzanne Ryan, Boston Globe
“The New Immigrants is a cinematic masterpiece…It is a sensitive, compelling, irresistible collection of stories.”
—Andrew Greeley, Chicago Suntimes
“Truly a moving and intimate portrayal of migration.” (A)
—Monica Mehta, Entertainment Weekly
“The New Americans has the richness and density of a Dickens novel.”
—Lewis Beale, LA Times
“The moments we’re privileged to share can be bitter or sweet, bittersweet or simply enlightening. The film exquisitely charts a rainbow of fates for its rainbow of immigrants.”
—Diane Werts, Newsday
“Always compelling and frequently heart-wrenching…”
—Jabari Asim, The Washington Post
The New Americans follows four years in the lives of a diverse group of contemporary immigrants and refugees as they journey to start new lives in America. We follow an Indian couple to Silicon Valley through the dot-com boom and bust. A Mexican meatpacker struggles to reunite his family in rural Kansas. Two families of Nigerian refugees (including the sister of slain Ogoni activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa) escape government persecution. Two Los Angeles Dodgers prospects follow their big dreams of escaping the barrios of the Dominican Republic. A Palestinian woman who marries into a new life in Chicago only to discover in the wake of September 11, she cannot leave behind the pain of her homeland’s conflict.
Kartemquin assembled a team of talented directors including the creators of Hoop Dreams, Who Killed Vincent Chin, and Vietnam, Long Time Coming. The detailed portraits that resulted were woven into a seven-hour miniseries that presents a kaleidoscopic picture of immigrant life and a first impression of the U.S. that few born in America can imagine.