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DOCUMENTED Send This Review to a Friend
The nagging issue of how to provide paths to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who have worked their way into places in society is brought strongly to the fore in the very personal story “Undocumented,” directed by Jose Antonio Vargas.
The filmmaker is a noted, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who wrote about his own story in the New York Times Magazine, thereby running the risk of deportation. He has publicized himself as a representative example of the problem and the need for a resolution. But more than political, the film is a very personal story dealing with the journalist’s estrangement from his mother in the Philippines.
He was sent by his mother when he was a youngster to California, where he was raised by his grandparents. For years he felt resentment against his mother for not following him to America as promised. To the viewer, this may seem narrow-minded on his part for lack of understanding.
All leads up to an emotional highlight when a long-distance reunion with his mother occurs via Skype. This provides a dramatic dimension to the film, which is largely reportorial and argumentative.
The main aspect of “Documented” is that it focuses on the problem that affects so many, with the hope that the prominence of the filmmaker is able to spotlight the issue that urgently needs resolution by Congress. A CNN Films release. Reviewed May 2, 2014.
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