‘I'm Still Not Crossing That’: Borders, Dispossession, and Sovereignty in Frozen River (2008)

This paper considers the critically acclaimed debut film of Courtney Hunt entitled Frozen River (2008). Unlike many previous Hollywood 'border films', the focus of the film is on a frozen tributary of the St Lawrence and a border town in New York State and a Mohawk Indian reservation. By following the lives of two women, the paper reflects on how the film addresses multiple borders, sites of dispossession and a series of sovereign spaces along and across the frozen river. In a dramatic and compelling fashion, the narrative arc of the film serves as a powerful reminder of how security and insecurity and made and re-made in everyday life. Political geographers and border scholars could learn a great deal from examining closely the craft of the film maker.