Well-Founded Fear

Referring to a legal phrase used in helping to determine whether to grant petitioners political asylum in the U. S., Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini's Well-Founded Fear offers a unique cinema vérité look at a handful of applicants and their interviews with officers in the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). In theory, political asylum is granted to those petitioners who can support a claim that he or she is, was, or will be targeted for persecution on account of one of the five protected grounds--race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. In reality, as viewers will see firsthand, interviewee stories range from heartbreakingly truthful to heartbreakingly fabricated; asylum officers come in all temperamental flavors from wet-behind-the-ears social crusaders to extremely cynical (even well nigh racist) hardened bureaucrats; and the translators working with petitioners and asylum officers can be maddeningly inaccurate. Or, as one asylum officer puts it, "it's a human system." Originally airing on PBS's P.O.V. series, this powerful, even-handed documentary paradoxically illustrates America's inspirational struggle to uphold a noble ideal while also pointing out the flaws in the practical day to day workings of the system. Personally heartrending and intellectually stimulating, Well-Founded Fear's only flaw is that it's too long, perhaps even by half (the slight variations on a theme in each interview tend in the second half to simply underscore what's gone before). Overall, however, this beautifully lensed real-life drama of dreams deferred and--occasionally--granted makes for gripping viewing. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)