INTERVIEW: ‘From Here/From There’ follows a Dreamer’s journey
Photo: Luis Cortes Romero is the subject of the new documentary From Here/From There, directed by Marlene “Mo” Morris. Photo courtesy of PBS / Provided by press site with permission.
The new PBS documentary From Here/From There (De Aquí/De Allá), presented as part of the Voces program, features the story of immigration lawyer Luis Cortes Romero, who is the first undocumented immigrant to bring a case before the United States Supreme Court as an attorney. For Romero, his fight for the rights of American Dreamers — those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — is a deeply personal one. In the film, when he makes the legal case before the highest court of the land, he recognizes there’s a probable impact to his own journey and the journey of his family members.
From Here/From There recently premiered on PBS and is available to stream on PBS.org. The director of the documentary, Marlene “Mo” Morris, has a professional connection to the topic at hand, and that’s what motivated her to tell Romero’s story.
“[My] inspiration is being an immigration lawyer,” Morris said in a recent Zoom interview. “I saw that another immigration lawyer happened to be undocumented, was licensed to practice and is becoming a Supreme Court litigator. … My impetus was to follow the story of someone who just blew me away that he could be an undocumented immigrant and headed to the Supreme Court on a case that was as monumental as this, defending his clients and essentially himself who were at risk of deportation.”
The court case at the center of From Here/From There — involving the arrest of an American Dreamer — occurred at a time when the administration of then-President Donald Trump was attempting to rescind the DACA protection. Although pundits believed the case was going to fail and essentially DACA protections would be rescinded, Romero and his team of lawyers fought and fought, and actually scored a win. “The Supreme Court overturned the Trump administration’s rescinding of DACA,” according to a press release. “[But] despite the victory depicted in the film, the fate of DACA continues to be argued in courts and in Congress, leaving the fates of hundreds of thousands of young people still in limbo.”
In addition to the court case, Morris also focuses on Romero’s personal story. He grew up with his parents and three siblings in Redwood City, California. When he attempted to secure a passport to attend a student trip in Europe, his family told him he was unlikely to receive the document because he was born in Mexico and then came to the United States, according to press notes. Efforts by his family to change the situation ended in heartache and a disruption to the lives of his loved ones. This development sent Romero into an upheaval, and he only got back on track while attending San Jose State University and then the University of Idaho law school.
“We got involved when they were at one of the lower-court hearings,” Morris said. “We just knew it would likely head to the Supreme Court, and by the time I met Luis, they were at the Supreme Court. But we just kept following the story, and when we were able to get deeper into his family life, you build trust. And once he was comfortable introducing us to his family, then we started to really see the journey here is a very personal and deep one for an undocumented immigrant and what it took for him to get to that point of going to the Supreme Court. … The case is the framing of the narrative arc, but the story is really Luis’ journey as a person who has lived here for 35 years without status.”
Morris said that Romero was open to talking about his own story, but he was sensitive about his family members’ inclusion. The director recognized that in order for Romero to share these personal details, she needed to gain his trust.
“I think it gave him a lot of comfort that I had been an immigration lawyer and understood the confidentialities not only of sensitive issues in his family but also with his clients,” she said. “He is open. He’s very public about his own journey, but of course [as] the relationship deepens, you learn more and more as you go along.”
Morris added: “I think the film is going to benefit the public’s understanding of the issue as well, the fact that it’s going to be seen so widely on PBS and that we are launching a campaign where we’re going to be going into schools and businesses and all kinds of community settings to have these kinds of dialogues. Immigration is always at the forefront of these debates, but because of the recent executive actions [by President Joe Biden], it’s being discussed even more. And I think it’s important to see it’s very easy for DACA recipients to be used as pawns and be forgotten … forgotten in the context of the larger immigration reform debate, and we want to make sure that they’re not forgotten, that people can focus on the fact that the majority of Americans support a path to citizenship for Dreamers. It’s just a matter of making it a reality and somehow segregating it from the other issues.”
Morris, who also made the film A New Color: The Art of Being Edythe Boone, is interested in documentary filmmaking because of the characters she is able to focus on. She strives to put a human face on difficult issues. In this movie, the issue is immigration, which is near and dear to her professional background.
“I think it’s absolutely essential not only to make a connection with a person like Luis, but also to break down the legacy framework into a straightforward and as simple a way as possible so it can be digested and understandable to people,” the filmmaker said. “We did work hard with the animation and the descriptions to help people understand that it’s a process to get to the Supreme Court. You can’t just ask the Supreme Court to rule in your favor. It takes a lot of grassroots support and allies in order to make that happen, so this was a story of allyship in some ways. I don’t think they could have been as successful at the Supreme Court without everyone that came together to support Dreamers.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
From Here/From Theatre (De Aquí/De Allá), directed by Marlene “Mo” Morris, is now available to stream on PBS.org. Click here for more information.
