Director: Nathaniel Lezra
With: Maria Pascal, Jonathan Guerrero, Adama Bah, Mammad Mahmoodi, Sasha Allenby
Running time: 118 mins
Written and directed by Nathaniel Lezra, this compelling documentary explores the global immigration crisis, offering a powerfully emotional look at the human cost of forced migration. Interweaving three separate storylines, it’s a superbly made doc that shows the human side of a deeply political issue.
The film focuses on three different subjects, intercutting between them and using a mixture of to-camera interviews and captions to tell their stories, with news clips inserted for broader context. The subjects include: Jonathan Guerrero, a human smuggler, based in Cucuta, Colombia, 200m from the Venezuelan border; Maria Pascal, an asylum seeker in New York; and a group of humanitarian volunteers in New York City, dedicated to supporting those who have arrived in the city seeking asylum.
Various other characters emerge as the story progresses, including a group of migrants working with Jonathan and his team, who embark on the journey to the United States. This is a treacherous route through the Darien Gap, a dense network of jungle, swamps and mountains, spanning the border between Columbia and Panama.
Lezra’s cameras accompany the group through multiple stages of their quest, before they reach Necocli, the jumping off point for the Darien Gap, including their efforts to raise the money they need. The interviews with the group are powerfully emotional, capturing their hopes, but also their fears and their sadness, at having to leave behind friends and family members, in search of a better life.
On a similar note, Maria proves an extremely valuable subject for Lezra. Her story about fleeing her abusive partner is powerfully emotional, but she also offers a perceptive view of the reality of moving to America, pointing out that it is painted as a dream, but those who arrive often face insurmountable difficulties.
Finally, the humanitarian workers – mostly involved with a non-profit organisation called EV (East Village) Loves NYC – offer their own view of the scale of the crisis, including the on-the-ground realities not covered by the media. These include horrifying examples of the lack of care (like a 12 year old diabetic girl being put on a bus from Texas to New York without insulin) and a deep suspicion of the so-called official bodies who are meant to be handling the crisis, having been handed multi-million dollar contracts to do so.
The film is impressively well researched throughout. Maria’s experience is especially illuminating, as she makes her way through the legal system, seeking asylum, and trying to assemble the evidence she needs to support her claim. She’s aided throughout by cigar-chomping Mike Perez, the founder of Hungry Monks NYC, another non-profit organisation that apparently works closely with EV Loves NYC – he proves extremely useful for the doc when it comes to explaining the harsh realities of the asylum process.
In addition, Lezra doesn’t shy away from the dangers faced by migrants who undertake the journey to the US. Maria recounts how she nearly lost her life while crossing a river in the Darien Gap, and Jonathan’s group encounter another group of migrants, just 30 minutes ahead of them on the trail, who were robbed, an encounter that resulted in two dead bodies.
On a technical level, the film is very well made, with colourful camerawork from Lezra and three other cinematographers (Mitch Blummer, Raul Hernandez and Braulio Jatar) that captures the feel of the streets, both in New York and in Cucuta. In addition, there’s a decent score from Peter M. Murray that works well.
In short, this is a powerful and important documentary that shows the very best of humanity, a vital voice, considering that the topic involved often brings out the very worst of humanity.
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