The Undocumented Lawyer
Director: Chris Temple / Zach Ingrasci
Short: Documentary
Social Commentary |
United States |
20 min
Lizbeth Mateo is an attorney in Los Angeles. She started a law practice, hired four employees, and took an oath to uphold U.S. law—but she has no legal right to be in the country. Lizbeth is undocumented.
Since crossing the border at 14, Lizbeth hasn’t let her immigration status hold her back. Frustrated by a broken system, she’s drawing from her own experiences to defend immigrant rights in the streets and in the courts.
Her latest client is Edith Espinal, a woman avoiding deportation by taking sanctuary in a church. Running out of legal options, Lizbeth returns to her activist roots—because sometimes you need to ignore the law in order to change it.
Director’s bio:
Chris Temple and Zach Ingrasci are the co-founders of the non-profit production company, Optimist. Their documentary feature directorial debut, Living on One Dollar, and second feature, Salam Neighbor, were both distributed globally by Netflix. Their films also included significant impact campaigns, raising a combined $91.5 million for the film’s causes.