Filmmaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas thought the best way to talk about immigration was to tell his own story. So he made a documentary.
Vargas visited Seattle on Oct. 24 to screen “Documented” at the 2014 Seattle Social Justice Film Festival.
The documentary follows Vargas in the days leading up to the time he outed himself as an undocumented immigrant in 2011 in The New York Times Magazine. The film then explores the impact that decision had on both his personal and professional life.
“Documented” also chronicles his childhood journey from the Philippines to America and focuses on his more recent journey to reconnect with his mother, whom he hadn’t seen in 20 years.
“The goal of this film is to disrupt what you think this issue is. And who you think people like me are,” Vargas said before the screening. “I think there is a line in the film when I say, ‘We are not who you think we are.’ That’s the thesis of the film.”
After the screening, Vargas spoke at the University Christian Church. The evening focused on the lives of undocumented immigrants and their struggle to gain respect and citizenship.
Vargas said he believes the issue has been “overly politicized,” which influenced his decision to focus the film more on his personal journey than the politics and economics behind the issue.
In making the film to help others understand this issue, he also helped himself.
“It is kind of interesting that I made a film to make sense of my life. Like I didn’t really get to know myself until I saw it on film, when you’re forced to make sense of your life and where you come from.”
This personal approach resonated with audience members, including Rhenda Meiser the film festival’s communications director
“It took courage for Mr. Vargas to make this film, not only because he’s here without papers, but because it reports the personal toll it had on his relationship with his mother,” she said. “It’s precisely those moments in the film, when Mr. Vargas awkwardly Skypes with her in the Philippines, that you understand the pain and loneliness that parents and children feel when they cannot be reunited in the U.S.”
Laura Brady, the film festival’s assistant director, emphasized the importance of showing a film about immigration at the festival.
“We knew that we needed to have an event on immigration issues just because it is such an active topic right now of discussion,” she said.
Vargas is familiar with the impact of media. Growing up in the Philippines, his ideas of the United States were shaped by its popular culture. He associated the country with Michael Jackson, Oprah and the television show “Baywatch.”
“Any new immigrant will tell you that the way we make sense of America is by what we watch on television and movies,” he said.
Vargas wants to use media to start a discussion about immigration, so he founded an organization called Define America, a media and culture campaign that seeks to use personal stories to change perceptions about people who immigrate to this country.
“You cannot change the politics of this issue unless you change the culture in which people talk about this issue,” Vargas said.