“Brings the immigration experience to a remarkably personal and enthralling level. The filmmakers included a genius and purposeful tool in the DVD menu, enabling viewers to select stories by country. While the standard feature intertwines the stories of the would-be Americans, one may chose to view a continuous rendering of the story of the Dominican baseball players, for example. This is simply a phenomenal work in scope and execution.”
"If you want to know what it’s like to be an immigrant today, watch the DVD “The New Americans."
"Truly a moving and intimate portrayal of migration." (A)
"The New Americans has the richness and density of a Dickens novel."
"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."
"Always compelling and frequently heart-wrenching..."
"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."
"...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."
"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."
"The New Immigrants is a cinematic masterpiece...It is a sensitive, compelling, irresistible collection of stories."