Forrest Dylan Bryant - Project: Welcoming America: Immigrant Stories

A young woman wearing a hijab looks directly into the camera

At a time when debates about immigration run sharp as spears, it’s important to give a voice to those most affected by this issue.

This pro bono project for Welcoming America, produced in partnership with ad agency TBD and documentary filmmaker J.M. Harper, focused on personal stories that spark deep conversations about what it means to be an American.

Harper chose to tell both stories using 16mm film, a rarity in the digital age. “Film is a finite, physical medium,” he explained to me. “It forced us to concentrate and make sure that every single moment, every single word, every single question was deliberate and thoughtful and had the kind of gravitas these stories deserved.”

Portrait of a Dreamer

Fidencio Fifield-Perez is a visual artist and DACA “Dreamer” who came to the US as an undocumented immigrant at age seven. Through his curiosity about the actual route he took to come to America, he developed a passion for working with maps as part of the medium for his expression.

In this film, we see a glimpse of Fidencio’s provocative project to complete Gilbert Stuart's iconic but unfinished Athenaeum portrait of George Washington.

“I actively try to see things for what they are instead of what they’re supposed to be,” Fidencio told me. “George Washington has come to represent ideas based on a lot of optimism, but he’s flawed. For one thing, he owned slaves. I think by looking at a point in history we can say: this is where we were. Now we need to get better and do better.”

United Voices

For community activist Natalie Ringsmuth, doing better meant heeding the call to "love thy neighbor" and healing divides in her hometown of St. Cloud Minnesota. In this film, Natalie shares her vision for uniting a town divided by ethnicity, religion, and immigration. Natalie works with individual immigrants in her community to find common ground through sharing stories that unite people in their common experiences.

I asked Natalie what motivated her. “Should there have to be an organization just for people to love their neighbor? No,” she said. “We should inherently do that because we’re all human. But that's not who we are right now. I wish we didn’t have to have this movement. I wish our work was done. But it looks like it’s going to be needed for the long haul.”

Behind the films

This project actually began as part of a brand marketing campaign plan, before the intense subject matter took on a life of its own. I stayed with the project throughout its evolution — from the team that approved the original pitch and selected the director, through copywriting support, and finally to supervising the final audio mix. I also penned a series of companion articles about Fidencio, Natalie, and J.M. Harper.

Why pursue these stories? Again, I turn to Harper’s words: “Personal storytelling is the only storytelling I’m interested in,” he said, “because it allows you to discover more about yourself and the world in an authentic way. Not searching for answers, but searching for better ways to ask questions of ourselves, of the world, and of other people.”