14: Dred Scott, Wong Kim Ark & Vanessa Lopez

One of the surprise issues to arise in the 2016 presidential campaign involves citizenship. Anne Galisky's documentary offers three stories about determining the definition of citizenship—two historic cases that resulted in landmark rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and one contemporary instance regarding the child of illegal immigrants. The film begins with the infamous Dred Scott case, which resulted in the 1857 Supreme Court ruling that blacks could not be U.S. citizens and had no standing that would allow them to bring litigation. Often overlooked insights regarding the Dred Scott case are presented here, most notably regarding the inclusion of Scott's wife Harriet in the litigation, and the acknowledgment that many enslaved blacks tried to use the courts to push for their liberty. The documentary then moves to the Wong Kim Ark case, in which a San Francisco-born Chinese-American successfully forced the Supreme Court in 1898 to define birthright citizenship as per the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. This case recently gained new attention via the debate on so-called “anchor babies” (children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants), which leads to the film's third story regarding U.S.-born Vanessa Lopez and her Mexican parents. Unfortunately, the Lopez story intentionally blurs the lines between legal and illegal immigration, moving the film away from history lesson and towards political statement. Still, this is sure to spark discussion and should be considered a strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)