Frontpage Interview’s guest today is actor/director Chris Burgard, a Hollywood insider with credits including “JAG,” “Diagnosis Murder” and “Growing Pains.” He is the director of the new film BORDER, a consequential new documentary on the perils of illegal immigration along America’s southern border with Mexico. The David Horowitz Freedom Center will present a Liberty Film Festival screening of Border on August 7th at the Harmony Gold Theater in Hollywood.

FP: Chris Burgard, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Burgard: Thanks for having me Jamie.

FP: What inspired you to direct this movie?

Burgard: When first I started hearing about the rapes on the border and how the "drogandos" would put guns to people's heads and say "You are going to carry this backpack of drugs into America or we are going to kill you and leave you in the desert." I didn't hear it from a bunch of white guys in Arizona or Texas. I was hearing it from fellows who had fled the corruption of Mexico in order to put food on the table for their families. Seeing 86 California hospitals going bankrupt in the past few years. Watching my taxes go up while most of many of my friends have had to have both parents working in order to pay for private schools for their kids.

California used to offer one of the top public educations in the country. By 2004 we were 44th. I wondered how much of that had to due with the influx of so many non-English speaking students. Then there was the violence. Also at this time there was a group called the Minute Men Civil Defense Corps that was doing a big operation on the Southern border. President Bush called them vigilantes. My wife says that I am a news and History Channel junky. I think she finally got so tired of my kvetching that she told me to quit complaining and do something. So she motivated me to get my butt off the couch grab a camera and my dog and go see for myself what was going on on the border.

FP: So how did you go about making the movie?

Burgard: I initially went to the border for a week. I came home with some rough footage. My wife Lisa and I then partnered up with Jennifer Champagne and Todd Sheridan Perry at Max Ink Productions to do the post for the film, we crewed up, and within a month we had two and three film crews out on the road. We covered the 2005 MCDC mission and all the affected players from the activists to the ranchers to the politicians in Washington, DC to the Border Patrol and law enforcement agencies to the illegal aliens dying in the desert. The movie is pretty basic. The audience sees what we saw.

FP: What were some things you witnessed while making the film that surprised you?

Burgard: Rape trees. Armed men in uniform from Mexico using muletrains to smuggle tons of contraband into America. Rancher after rancher living behind razor wire. Ranch after ranch on the verge of bankruptcy due to the illegal traffic, vandalism and drug cartels that are flooding their land. Dead bodies so numerous that border counties are going broke just paying for all of the coroner inquests.

FP: You risked your life to make this documentary didn’t you? Tell us in what ways.

Burgard: We had to get shots of bad guys in order to tell the real story of the border. We filmed armed men in military uniforms escorting a large muletrain of contraband into America, in the middle of the night, at a distance of about 21 yards. Fifteen months later in the same location more armed men in military uniforms came across the border from Mexico. This time they ran into National Guard troops. I don't know how happy those fellas would have been to know that they were all on camera.

FP: Can you expand a bit on your own views of illegal immigration and what you think we can do about it?

Burgard: Well I know that the problem will continue only as long as the Federal Government wants it too. After seeing a US Stryker unit completely close down one of the biggest drug corridors in New Mexico for a month, and after spending a great deal of time working with the rank and file US Border Patrol agents. I am convinced that we have more than enough tools in the shed to secure the border whenever we want to. It is a matter of choosing not to. If enough people pay attention and participate, keep up the same kind of pressure that shut down the phone system of the US Senate, only then when the politicians in Washington are afraid of losing their jobs and their power will you see real change.

FP: Why do you think the U.S. government did not do what needed to be done to secure the border?

Burgard: The short and simple answer: greed. The border is making too much money for too many people the way that it is. The sovereignty of the nation has been sold out for short sighted business and political reasons.

FP: Can you talk a bit about the Minute Men and their struggle to secure America’s border?

Burgard: I can only speak firsthand about the members of the Minute Men Civil Defense Corps (there are many, many different groups with "Minutemen" in their titles) they are the largest Minutemen organization and the one that I filmed. I traveled in the Big Blue Bus with their leader and founder Chris Simcox for over a month. Their commitment and sacrifice was humbling. The majority of them reminded me of my grandparents. Retired military, law enforcement, teachers, artists, welders, mechanics, limo drivers, Wal Mart greeters, lawyers... all races, all political parties from all over the country. Most of them were taking a pretty hard financial hit to be down on the border, but they all felt that they had to do something. For a lot of besieged ranchers who are now existing on the edge, except for an overwhelmed and undermanned Border Patrol, the Minutemen are the only people offering any serious help.

FP: Are you satisfied with your film?

Burgard: Yep.

FP: What reactions do you expect to your film?

Burgard: Probably more of the same. Shock. Disbelief. Anger. What we have seen since our NYC, WI, TX, MI, VA, IL, MO and Washington, DC screenings is that regular Americans have a positive reaction of around 97% to this film. It plays as well with the senior citizens as it does with the high school kids. That is almost unheard of in the film industry. Two weeks ago in Phillips, WI, our 5pm screening drew almost twice as many people as the 7pm Harry Potter show. Yet our Federal Government will continue to try to downplay the film because it so clearly illustrates how our politicians have not been doing their jobs for over twenty years, and if the American people truly understood this they would not put up with it. Hollywood will probably keep trying to ignore the film because it dissolves the divide between right and left. I had a College professor in WI tell me that he was a solid liberal, but after seeing the film, he felt like an American and that he hadn't felt like that in a long time. This film has really brought people together and hopefully it will be seen by enough people to make a difference.

FP: What do you hope your film will achieve?

Burgard: I hope that this film will get America to pay attention and participate. If you want to keep a government that is of the people, by the people and for the people, then the people need to get their butts off of the couch. Democracy is not a spectator sport. I think the most dangerous threat to America is apathy.

FP: Chris Burgard, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview.

Burgard: Jamie Glazov, you are very welcome.

FP: Here is some information for our readers who are interested in attending the screening tomorrow:

The David Horowitz Freedom Center will present a Liberty Film Festival screening of Border directed by Chris Burgard tomorrow, Tuesday August 7, at Harmony Gold Preview House, 7655 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA. Special guest host LARRY ELDER will introduce the film and will join Chris Burgard for Q&A following the film. Wine and cheese reception/registration opens at 7:00 p.m. and the screening begins promptly at 8:00 p.m. All ticket sales must be made online prior to the event. No tickets will be sold at the door. Please arrive early for limited complimentary parking onsite. Street parking also available. For more information go to www.libertyfilmfestival.com.