“With the phone they know where you are, who you are.” – Desmond
Across the USA, every day, hundreds of thousands of migrants are tracked through a global positioning (GPS) device strapped to their ankle or through a cellphone with the SmartLINK application. The SmartLINK application sends notifications at various times of the day and night ordering asylum seekers to take and submit a photo of themselves. This deployment of for-profit surveillance technology creates a parallel system to the tens of thousands of detention beds that make the USA the country with the largest immigrant detention population in the world. The videos were made in collaboration with asylum seekers who have chosen to speak out about their experiences of digital detention – not to improve their personal situation, but in the hope that no other person will have to go through the same hardships in the future.
Director of Photography: Jessie Rodriguez Editor: Thea Marie Lindgaard Svane Sound Editor: François Lê Xuân Interviewer and Director: Carolina Sanchez Boe
Desmond, Jessie, Thea, François and Carolina would like to thank Jennifer Long, staff and residents at Casa Marianella; Elissa Steglich and Denise Gilman at the University of Texas. Produced with generous funding from Independent Research Fund Denmark, Carlsbergfondet and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
Carolina Sanchez Boe 