Last Chance

Superficially similar to Well-Founded Fear (VL-3/01), a documentary about political-asylum seekers in America, Canadian filmmaker Paul Émile d'Entremont's Last Chance focuses on would-be emigrants to Canada who claim homophobia in their native countries as their clear-and-present-danger need for refugee status. The camera introduces several individuals, including a Jamaican lesbian facing violence in Kingston, described as the most homophobic culture in the Western Hemisphere; Jennifer, of Beirut, who was born a male but is undergoing hormone therapy, breast implants, and cross dressing to become female; and a man who believes himself to be in peril from a Cairo police force whose criminalization of homosexuality included launching a fake gay-friendly Egyptian website just to entrap patrons. All three campaign for sanctuary in Canada, which is described as being in an anti-immigrant mood (no comparisons are made with the United States, or many other countries). While the long, agonizing bureaucratic waits for a judging panel's decision are less riveting for the viewer than for the protagonists, this National Film Board of Canada documentary should still be considered a strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)