Filmmaker Statement

'beside the golden door' is a subtle social commentary on the American Dream. My hope for this short was to establish an isolated 'wilderness' reminiscent of an arctic landscape before revealing we are on the fringes of New York. It is shot like a series of still lives or moving photographs and sound is used to carry you through the lonely landscape; the disused and scarred land from which the city rose. There we find a single solitary individual standing 'guard' at the gateway of this great city. 'Beside the golden door' is the last line of the poem The New Colossus, written by Emma Lazarus and at the foot of the Statue of Liberty. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” This short seeks to show the huge divide between those living in the city. The immigrant struggle and the reality of the American Dream.