Doc Corner: Tribeca '21 — 'Stateless' and other racial justice docs

By Glenn Dunks

The idea of statelessness is sadly a timeless one. In the last year alone there have has been Michèle Stephenson’s documentary Stateless (Apátrida) about Dominican-born Haitians, and the Australian refugee drama of the same name (yes, the one with Cate Blanchett as a cult leader). Plus you only need to turn read the news about Palestine or Syria or too many other places on this Earth to see it and it can often feel like there is nothing that can be done. Is it statelessness or hopelessness?

In the commanding Stateless, director and producer Stephenson—whose most noted film to date is 2013’s Emmy-nominated and Sundance-winning American Promise—ventures into the politically fraught island territory of Hispaniola. It is the home of both the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and the Canadian filmmaker of Haitian-Panamanian descent (who resides in the United States) has made a really quite remarkable work that is eye-opening for both its story as well as its rich visuals.

It captures long-standing racial tensions that look an awful lot like a certain other country to its north (up to and including the need to “build a wall”) and the political divides that have swept a generation of people into this state of, well, statelessness where they are neither Dominican nor Haitian. It captures a ruptured international feud (to put it mildly) enflamed by nationalistic rhetoric against a beautiful backdrop of orange and purple sunsets, and bright green cane fields.

Stephenson attaches herself to at least one extraordinary subject, the Dominican-born Rosa Iris whose Haitian heritage and determined advocacy has made her a spokesperson for the community of marginalized individuals who don’t even get to call themselves citizens of either country. The camera follows her as she runs for congress, knocking on doors and determinedly fighting for the rights of those who’ve been stripped of their nationality. It’s a campaign that ignites even greater hatred for her by the Dominican nationals, boldly and to her face. Her second subject is Gladys Feliz, a well-to-do Dominican by heritage and nationalist who points to dark-skinned Haitians as the aggressor to all of the country’s ills while sitting around in relative luxury. Despite fighting side by side once upon a time for independence, the Dominican Republic saw itself as aligned with its European roots. Their racial hatred of Haitians resulting in the deaths of many including most prominently an ethnic cleansing massacre in 1937.

This story of the Dominican Republic and Haiti is long and complicated. And depending on what you bring to it, Stateless doesn’t make too strong of an attempt at getting deep into the history of this conflict. Rather, through the film, we get to see it up close and personal as it is today. Punctuated by inciting speeches by the Dominican leader, and at one point even utilising hidden video to highlight the flagrant racism hurled at those for simply trying to claim their Dominican citizenship back, Stephenson’s film is confronting and even radical as it points to corruption and systemic abuse. It’s final title cards are hardly shocking.

Stateless is still playing Tribeca virtually and will air on PBS POV on July 19^th.

Elsewhere at Tribeca…

Michael Moore and Jon Stewart have a lot to answer for. It’s easy to understand why filmmakers choose to put an emphasis on funny, but not everybody has Moore’s or Stewart’s once natural ability to take a serious political issue and turn it into an entertaining yet serious work of journalistic news and film. I guess director CJ Hunt didn’t have much of a choice with The Neutral Ground—he is after all an actual stand-up comic and comedy writer/producer by trade (including for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah).

It’s just unfortunate that he uses his directorial debut to give his routine a plug. The film, about the efforts to have memorial statues to racists be removed, it an otherwise fine film. It’s just one that didn’t need Hunt cracking quite so many jokes.

Perhaps the best film I watched from the festival was Takeover, which follows similar themes of racial justice. Albeit this time it is much more propulsive. Using extraordinary archival footage and perhaps even more extraordinary re-enactments (they are quite seamless), Emma Francis-Snyder’s mid-length doc exposes the storming of a Bronx hospital by a Puerto Rican activism group. Aiming to get the dilapidated Lincoln Hospital, they sought to bring attention to the inequality faced by their community—something supported by the hospital staff during the non-violent demonstration.

Why this story hasn’t been made into a movie, I don’t quite know. But this exciting work here is taught and a well-made introduction to Francis-Snyder.

The Neutral Ground is still online at Tribeca and will also screen on PBS POV on July 5th. Takeover is still online at Tribeca.