Stateless

A film by Michèle Stephenson

STATELESS, from Michèle Stephenson, the critically acclaimed filmmaker of American Promise, looks at the complex politics of immigration and race in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, using a combination of magical realism and hidden camera techniques.

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SYNOPSIS

In 1937, tens of thousands of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent were exterminated by the Dominican army, based on anti-black hatred fomented by the Dominican government. Fast-forward to 2013, the Dominican Republic’s Supreme Court stripped the citizenship of anyone with Haitian parents, retroactive to 1929. The ruling rendered more than 200,000 people stateless, without nationality, identity or a homeland. In this dangerous climate, a young attorney named Rosa Iris mounts a grassroots campaign, challenging electoral corruption and advocating for social justice. Director Michèle Stephenson’s new documentary Stateless traces the complex tributaries of history and present-day politics, as state-sanctioned racism seeps into mundane offices, living room meetings, and street protests. At a time when extremist ideologies are gaining momentum in the U.S. and around the world, STATELESS is a warning of what can happen in a society when racism runs rampant in the government.

Filmed with a chiaroscuro effect and richly imbued with elements of magical realism, STATELESS combines gritty hidden-camera footage with the legend of a young woman fleeing brutal violence to flip the narrative axis, revealing the depths of institutionalized oppression.

PRESS

“Wonderful storytelling.”

The Upcoming

"The covert cinematography one sees throughout STATELESS illustrates the personal risks that subjects like Rosa and Juan Teofilo assume while bringing such stories to light"

POV Magazine

“A chilling and important look at how hate speech can lead to outright violence and a populace that’s fearful of speaking up against outright injustice."

The Gate

"A fascinating, often infuriating work of non-fiction, Stateless is a richly textured piece of filmic revolution."

CriterionCast

“Stateless shows how easily systemic racism and political power can erode a society like a virus... It is a cautionary reminder of how easily one can become a stranger in your own home."

That Shelf

“Stateless is yet another example of the xenophobia and racism that plagues the world.”

Skon Movies

"Stephenson’s nonjudgmental approach, cross-cutting between the two women, exposes the hypocrisy of nationalism, and the toll on those who fight it."

Seventh Row

“Stateless points out universal themes of access to citizenship, migration and systemic racism.”

Toronto Caribbean

"A taut, scarifying portrait of a Haitian population under siege."

The Independent

"Stephenson’s film is confronting and even radical as it points to corruption and systemic abuse."

The Film Experience

"The use of both visual and thematic chiaroscuro beside the folk tale and the use of dramatic editing create a strong narrative that keeps the viewer watching until the very end...highly recommended."

Video Librarian

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

Best Feature Documentary, BlackStar Film Festival
Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature, Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival
Best Feature Film Audience Award, Boston Latino International Festival

Tribeca Film Festival
Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival
Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM)
DOC NYC Film Festival
DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Vancouver
Haiti International Film Festival
Toronto Black Film Festival
Calgary International Film Festival
FIN Atlantic Film Festival
Ottowa Black Film Festival
Third Horizon Film Festival

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Michèle Stephenson

Emmy award-winning filmmaker, artist, and author Michèle Stephenson draws from her Haitian and Panamanian heritage and experience as a social justice lawyer to transform non-fiction storytelling. She creates emotionally powerful narratives of resistance and healing that emphasize the lived experiences of communities of color across the Americas and the Black diaspora. Through a Black Atlantic perspective, Stephenson reimagines storytelling to provoke thought and inspire action against systemic oppression, weaving together fiction, immersive, experimental, and hybrid forms. In 2023, her films Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project and Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games were Oscar-shortlisted, with Going To Mars winning the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the prestigious Emmy Award for Outstanding Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. Black Girls Play received significant accolades, including the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Video and Best Short Doc at Tribeca. Her feature American Promise earned three Emmy nominations and won the Jury Prize at Sundance, while Stateless was nominated for a Canadian Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Stephenson co-directed The Changing Same, a magical realist VR trilogy that premiered at Sundance’s New Frontier XR Program, won the Tribeca Grand Jury Prize for Best Immersive Narrative, and was Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Interactive Media. In 2024, she received the NYWIFT Nancy Malone Muse Directing Award and is currently in post-production on a feature on the Black Power movement in Canada. She is a Guggenheim Artist Fellow, Creative Capital Artist, and member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (9/23)

The NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA, HUNGRY EYES MEDIA, and RADA FILM GROUP present STATELESS, a film by MICHÈLE STEPHENSON

HISPANIOLA PRODUCTIONS in co-production with The NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA

Written and Directed by Michèle Stephenson Produced by Jennifer Holness, Lea Marin, Michèle Stephenson Executive Produced by Anita Lee, Joe Brewster, Sudz Sutherland Executive Producer for Black Public Media: Leslie Fields-Cruz Executive Producer for Latino Public Broadcasting: Sandie Viquez Pedlow Featuring Rosa Iris Diendomi-Álvarez, Teofilo Murat, Gladys Feliz Directors of Photography: Alfredo Alcántara, Tito Rodriguez, Naiti Gámez, Nadia Hallgren, Jaime Guerra, Pedro Arnau Bros Santana Edited by Sophie Farkas-Bolla Music Composed by Ben Fox

For a full list of credits, click here.

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Clips

Video Librarian

Subject Areas

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Sound of Torture

Since 2006 when Europe closed its borders, human trafficking has burgeoned in Egypt’s Sinai Desert, where Eritrean asylum seekers and refugees heading north to Israel are kidnapped, held hostage, and tortured by Bedouin smugglers demanding exorbitant ransoms for their freedom. Fleeing an oppressive military dictatorship at home, with a “shoot-to-kill” policy at the border and where only pregnant women are exempted from service, over 300,000 Eritreans have fled their homeland in North Africa. Many of these men, women and children die in Sinai’s torture camps. This powerful documentary intimately follows Swedish-Eritrean journalist Meron Estefanos and her efforts to aid the hostages and their families. From Stockholm she runs a popular online radio show, fielding calls for help from Eritrean victims and their relatives. Her activism takes her to Israel and Egypt’s Sinai Desert to seek the release of a badly abused young woman held captive with her baby and to search for another who disappeared along the Egyptian-Israeli border after her ransom had been paid. Both eloquent and harrowing, SOUND OF TORTURE spotlights one of today’s most underreported human rights violations and the one woman who is making it her mission to create change.

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Birth on the Border

Seeking a safer future for their children, two women from Ciudad Juárez, risk harassment at the hands of Border Patrol to cross the US-Mexico border legally to give birth in El Paso, Texas.

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Everyone Their Grain of Sand

This award-winning documentary reveals the struggles of the citizens of Maclovio Rojas in Tijuana, Mexico as they battle the state government’s attempts to evict them from their homes to make way for multi-national corporations seeking cheap land and labor. Filmmaker Beth Bird followed the fiercely determined residents for three years as they persistently petitioned the state for basic services like running water, electricity and pay for their teachers, only to be met with bureaucratic stonewalling. Eventually, several community leaders are targeted for persecution, and one is arrested while others are forced into hiding. Balancing these stories of hardship, Bird also captures intimate scenes of daily life in Maclovio Rojas, revealing hard-won triumphs such as the building of a school by hand and the graduation of an elementary school class. This compelling and ultimately inspiring documentary is an eye-opening look at the human cost of globalization and a moving testament to the power of grassroots activism.

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I Is a Long-Memoried Woman

This extraordinary film chronicles the history of slavery through the eyes of Caribbean women. A striking combination of monologue, dance, and song—griot-style—conveys a young African woman’s quest for survival in the new world. Based on award-winning poems by Guyanese British writer Grace Nichols, the evocatively rendered story charts abusive conditions on sugar plantations, acts of defiance and the rebellion which led to eventual freedom. Produced by a Black women’s collective, I IS A LONG-MEMORIED WOMAN illuminates Black diasporic culture and heritage.

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OUR CATALOG

Stateless

SYNOPSIS

PRESS

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Clips

Subject Areas

RELATED LINKS

YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN

Too Black to be French

Angola Is Our Country

Sound of Torture

Birth on the Border

Everyone Their Grain of Sand

I Is a Long-Memoried Woman