In 1937, tens of thousands of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent were murdered by the Dominican army, on the basis of anti-black racism. In 2013, the Dominican Republic’s Supreme Court stripped the citizenship of anyone with Haitian parents, retroactive to 1929. This resulted in more than 200,000 people becoming stateless, without nationality, identity, or a homeland.
Writer/Director Michele Stephenson’s documentary, “Stateless,” was selected to be part of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival. It follows the grassroots campaign of a young attorney named Rosa Iris as she challenges electoral corruption and fights to protect the right to citizenship for all people, putting herself and her family at great personal risk because racism is out in the open in the Dominican Republic.
Besides the subject matter, Stephenson has put together an incisive look at what’s really going on there, and the film itself is beautifully shot. It’s a very professional looking doc despite its being made under an incredibly oppressive atmosphere. Even the hidden camera scenes are crystal clear and revealing. 
You can’t help but root for Rosa Iris, first because she is really helping people that need it and then when she sets out to join the government in the hope of effecting real and meaningful change.
This doc works at every level, because Stephenson has done a great job putting it together, and in Rosa Iris, she has a real-life hero who is trying her best to make people’s lives better. Every country could use more like her, especially at a time when the world seems bent on self-destruction.
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