A documentary on racism in America after Sept. 11, 2001 made its Boston premiere last night at Tufts.
The screening of "Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath" was hosted by the Asian American Center and followed by a question and answer session with the filmmakers Valarie Kaur and Sharat Raju.
A second screening of the documentary will take place tonight at 6 p.m. in Barnum 108.
"The stories [Kaur] filmed of victims of hate crimes post-9/11 are a reminder that racism is still very much present in our country," director of the Asian American Center Linell Yugawa wrote in an e-mail to the Daily.
Kaur began the project after she heard that Phoenix, Arizona resident Balbir Singh Sodhi was killed on Sept. 15, 2001. It marked the first of nineteen hate-crimes following Sept. 11, 2001 that are mentioned in the film, Raju said.
He said that the film discusses the perception of what it means to be American with regards to the question "who do you include?"
Yugawa contacted Kaur after reading about her and her film in a magazine. The racism that Kaur attempted to portray in the film reminded Kaur of the way Japanese-Americans were treated during World War II, and is relevant for Asian-Americans today, she said.
"After 9/11, students, mostly South Asian and mostly male, told me how they were asked if they were terrorists," she wrote. "Why should students see this film? It's about America, what happened in post-9/11 America."
The film made its New York premiere at the Spinning Wheel Film Festival last night in the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan. Raju, who said he felt exhilarated after the screening in New York, is hoping for a good turnout at Tufts.
"I don't have any expectations," he said. "Hopefully it will be a good chunk of people."
- Marc Raifman and Sarah Butrymowicz
