Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, recently outed as undocumented immigrant talks about his film, his mother and the challenges to US immigration reform

DOCUMENTED
CNN Films/Apo Anak Productions
Directed, written and co-produced by Jose Antonio Vargas
In English and in Tagalog and Spanish with English subtitles
89 min, US


Part confessional, part advocacy, Jose Antonio Vargas's DOCUMENTED, because of its honesty and courage, strikes at the chord of immigrants, from different parts of the globe, who know, who may have met or who suspect to have known and met, someone who is undocumented, that is, who has crossed the border, whether by land, by air or by sea, and stay in the United States for an indefinite period of time without the benefit of legal papers.

Vargas, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, who outed himself in a very public New York Times Magazine personal essay in 2011 - My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant - by insinuating his personal journey from the Philippines, sent for the US by his grandparents at the age of 12 via a "smuggler" and leaving his mother who until now, he has not seen since then, into the whole immigration issue especially as it affects almost 11 million immigrants living in the shadows, has rendered the personal and the political in a very compelling film.

I had a short interview with Vargas in San Francisco, part of a multi-city promotions tour for the film, where he talks about his film - actually, his second as writer-director (his first was THE OTHER CITY (2010) based on the 2006 series on HIV.AIDS in Washington DC - his mother and the challenges facing immigration reform push by advocates, notably the DREAM-ers, young people who were brought to the US by their parents at a young age and are still undocumented.

At Larsen Associates offices, San Francisco, CA, May 8, 2014.

How is this film important to you?

It is important to me personally, as personal statement, an expression of civil disobedience on a very political issue. Actually, the project started with me following through 5 undocumented  persons, then for some reasons, it ended to be a very personal film, talking about my mom, how to explain the separation. The film gave me and my mom an opportunity to reconnect.

How did the process of re-connection go, considering that based on the film, your mentioned you last wrote her in 1997?

Yes, I did write her last in 1997, but we had phone conversations. Those times, I did not want to open my life to her, what I was undergoing.

True, you mentioned about your fear, getting scared. Do you still the feel the same way, now?

I was afraid, not necessarily for myself, but for my family. Come to think of it. the issue of immigration is about family. Making the film for me, is just like coming home, inasmuch as the feeling is not complete.

You said home, what does it mean to you?

Home is where my shoes are, where I grew up. A sense of belonging, a claim that this is my country. I also want to go visit the Philippines soon, if I can.


There is a very interesting part of the documentary when you attended a Mitt Romney town hall meeting. How was it and why did you do it?

I went there to ask questions and I soon, realized and learned how immigration as an issue, is so much less understood by a lot of people. Why is this so, that is because our immigration laws are very complicated, so difficult to understand.

Now that you completed the film, what do you expect to happen, what do you hope to happen?

Immediately, I want to push for two things: One, stop the deportations. Two, start pushing for reforms. This is very liberating for me. I hope and I wish that the film will start a national conversation on immigration.