Today, my guest blogger is Katie Conway, Immigration and Refugee Policy Analyst for the Office of Government Relations of the Episcopal Church. In this piece, Katie presents an overview of a recent documentary on the DREAM Act and provides links to supporting resources that you might find useful for organizing a youth or intergenerational group discussion night. As you might remember, the General Convention Official Youth Presence (GCOYP) was active in encouraging the General Convention to pass a resolution encouraging Congress to pass the DREAM Act.

New Documentary Focuses on DREAM Act

The Dream is Now campaign is a collaboration between the Emerson Collective, led by Laurene Powell Jobs, and acclaimed filmmaker Davis Guggenheim.  The goal of the campaign is to pass humane immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for DREAMers and their families.  The campaign is working on a number of fronts with the goal of attracting a broad audience: using the power of story through video, activating social and traditional media, and conducting grassroots organizing on college campuses.

One of the key tools we are using is the recently released documentary, also entitled The Dream Is Now, which chronicles the real life stories of students who are trying to access higher education or military service but are unable to because of their immigration status.  We have made this movie available via our website, YouTube, and soon it will be available on Netflix.  Additionally, we will screen the film in communities and on college campuses across the country.

• The film can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfiInvpjPtI
• The trailer can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUx62UBoOoU

Recently, we released additional tools on our website including a “Write your Elected Official” template and a “Tweet your Senator or Representative” feature.

This is a historic moment, with Democrats and Republicans coming together to fix what’s broken. A bipartisan group of eight Senators has already introduced a compromise proposal, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 (S. 744).

We are making progress, but there is a long way to go.

We need your help. Please consider joining us on the journey and sharing this film with your friends and neighbors. Please visit our website at www.thedreamisnow.org to learn more. If you’re interested in screening the film in your community or have any questions, please contact us at film@thedreamisnow.org.