In 2010, the Arizona Senate passed controversial immigration law SB1070, also known as the “papers please” law, igniting a national maelstrom. Supporters call it a common sense law-enforcement tool; opponents feel it will inevitably lead to racial profiling. Neighborhoods empty, businesses shutter, and immigrants flee the state. Those who choose to stay organize boycotts, mass demonstrations, daring acts of civil disobedience, and prepare families for the possibility of separation by sudden deportation.
Mixing in interviews with footage of heated protest rallies and television coverage, the film tells the stories of Arizonans on all sides of this divisive issue — activists, politicians, Latino immigrants, ranchers, controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the newly empowered Tea Party movement, for whom illegal immigration is a flashpoint subject — depicting a state and its people testing the edges of our democratic values.
Arizona’s enforcement-led policy, which grew out of its unique position as a frontline border state, is reshaping the national conversation around immigration reform. With dozens of states considering a similar approach, The State of Arizona holds up a mirror, asking Americans who they are, and who they want to be.
Catherine Tambini is an award-winning filmmaker. Most recently she directed and produced Perfectly Normal For Me about four feisty kids who want to change the conversation on disability airing on PBS’s America ReFramed this fall. She directed and co-produced Hate Rising with Jorge Ramos, a co-production of HBO and Univision, winning the Impact Award for Outstanding Documentary at the National Hispanic Media Coalition. She was nominated for an Emmy for The State of Arizona, a CINE Golden Eagle winner and Imagen Award nominee (directed and produced with Carlos Sandoval). The highly acclaimed Farmingville (directed and produced with Carlos Sandoval) won the Sundance Special Jury Award among many other awards including an Independent Spirit Award nomination. She co-produced the Academy Award-nominated Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse that premiered at the New York Film Festival and aired on Great Performances/Dance In America. She produced and directed Art and Heart: The World of Isaiah Sheffer that premiered at the NY Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center and will be broadcast on CUNY-TV later this year. She assisted in the production design of well-known Hollywood films including The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Steel Magnolias and The Secret of My Success. Tambini has received many grants from the Sundance Institute and the MacArthur Foundation among others. She is teaching filmmaking as an adjunct professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Undergraduate Film and Television.
