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Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America (2016)

Tiffany Rhynard’s documentary focuses on Moises Serrano, who came to the U.S. at the age of 18 months with his illegal immigrant Mexican parents. The Serrano family settled in rural North Carolina and lived without legal problems until 2007, when state laws began to crack down on the ability of illegal immigrants to have a driver’s license or obtain college scholarship funds.

Being an illegal immigrant and a Hispanic in an overwhelmingly white and conservative area was stressful enough, but Serrano is also homosexual. Rather than live in the proverbial shadows, Serrano became a vocal and ubiquitous political activist for the legal rights of illegal immigrants and the LGBT community. He also found a romantic partner who could provide emotional support for his efforts.

While it is difficult not to admire the passion that Serrano brings to his activism, his hectoring eventually becomes strident and boring. Also, the film makes the same mistake found in too many nonfiction films on immigration: the intentional blurring of legal and illegal immigration, coupled with the acute sense of entitlement that people in violation of immigration laws are victims of a callous society. (His insistence on driving with an expired license is not worthy of admiration.) The film’s broad swipe of white Southerners as being monolithic in their alleged racism is also a dreary stereotype. (Even the Ku Klux Klan shows up briefly.)

Ultimately, Serrano often seems more interested in calling attention to himself rather than his multiple causes, and the film quickly wears out its welcome.