Exiled, Film Screening & Q&A Session

As a part of our current exhibition “Turning Tales – New Work by 2017-2018 Veterans Residency Artists,” Kala is excited to host Exiled, Film Screening & Q&A session on Friday, Nov 30 at 7pm in the Kala Gallery. Doors open at 6:30pm. Find more info about the film here.

Admission Free, RSVP on Eventbrite.

Two military veterans, both green card immigrants willing to die for their country, find themselves deported and are now fighting to be heard. Stuck in Mexico, Army combat veteran Mauricio Hernandez struggles to find adequate treatment for his severe PTSD, while former paratrooper Hector Barajas fights to reunite with his daughter in Los Angeles, and raise awareness about deported veterans. This film is a persuasive and intimate look at the human consequences of current U.S. immigration policy.

Following the film screening there will be a Q&A session with Mike Seely (Director), Alfredo Figueroa and Zachary Valdez (UC Berkeley student veterans working on projects around the issue of deported veterans), and Hector Barajas (a Veteran featured in the film).

Co-hosted by Cal Veteran Services Center at UC Berkeley.

Mike Seely – Director, Producer, Cinematographer

Director/Cinematographer Mike Seely has produced, directed and photographed dozens of cross-cultural and international documentary projects. His work has been broadcast in the US and screened at festivals worldwide including Slamdance, Tribeca, Toronto International Film Festival, and the San Francisco International Film Festival. His 2010 film The Most Distant Places about a rural hospital project in Ecuador is in distribution through New Day Films. As a freelance cinematographer and producer, he works with independent directors, non-profit, broadcast and commercial clients such as National Geographic, MTV2, Frontline World, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Facebook and Williams-Sonoma. Recent DP credits include: Hard Earned (prod. Kartemquin Films, Al Jazeera America broadcast 2015), Code: Debugging the Gender Gap (Tribeca 2015), and Daughters of the Forest (ITVS/PBS broadcast 2015). In 2005, he completed his MA in documentary film production at Stanford University, and for 2010 he received a Fulbright grant to work in Lodz, Poland on a project exploring the Polish documentary film tradition.

Alfredo Figueroa

Alfredo Figueroa is an entrepreneur and activist. He is an Army combat veteran (Iraq and Afghanistan) that graduated from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Alfredo loves to engage in projects that build bridges of solidarity among different communities.

Zachery Valdez

Zachery Valdez is an Army Veteran who served from 2011-2016. Mr. Valdez deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 and to the California Wild Fires in 2015. He is currently a student at UC Berkeley double majoring in History and American studies with a double minor in Education & Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies. Mr. Valdez has conducted research on the Deportation of United States Military Veterans in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the Philippines.

Hector Barajas – Veteran (featured in Exiled)

Hector Barajas was born in Mexico in 1977, entered the U.S. with his family in 1984, and received LPR status through the Family Unity Program in 1992. In 1995, after graduating high school, Barajas enlisted in the U.S. Army until his Honorable Discharge in 2001. He served with the 82nd Airborne Division from 1996-1999, putting his life on the line during airborne exercises, and eventually PCS’d to the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in Fort Bliss, Texas.

In 2004, Barajas was Deported after serving a prison sentence of 3 years, half of the time being in a California state prison. Barajas reentered the U.S. around July 2004. He is the father of a 13 year old daughter, Liliana Barajas. He was again Deported in 2010. Barajas has since resided in Mexico where, as the founder and director of the Deported Veterans Support House, he now provides support for Deported Veterans like himself. DVSH has assisted Deported Veterans who have served in the U.S. Military yet are either facing deportation or have already been deported to 42 plus countries around the world. Barajas became a U.S Citizen on April 13, 2018.

Event Details

Date: November 30, 2018

Time: 7:00 pm–9:00 pm

Kala Art Gallery
2990 San Pablo Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94702