Clínica de Migrantes: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
(2016)
Synopsis
Filmmaker Maxim Pozdorovkin (HBO’s Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer) shines a well-deserved light on Puentes de Salud, a health-care clinic serving a population that all-too-easily slips through the cracks: undocumented immigrants. Clínica de Migrantes counters the often dehumanizing and highly politicized rhetoric surrounding America’s immigrant population, providing a compassionate profile of patients at Puentes, many of whom have left their families behind to come to America and perform physically exhausting labor for meager wages. Poverty-stricken and without medical insurance, the patients at Puentes often have nowhere else to turn for medical care. In addition to the patients, the film follows the tireless clinic staffers who treat around ten thousand patients each year with limited space and even less funding. As it plans a larger facility to accommodate its rapidly increasing demand, Puentes’ executive director Dr. Steve Larson and his team must find a way to keep their practice running in spite of obstacles at every turn. Highlighting the admirable doctors, their patients and the bonds built between them, this inspirational, thought-provoking film forces us to consider whether America can continue to keep basic necessities from the estimated eleven million undocumented immigrants living within its borders
Directors
Maxim Pozdorovkin, Jennifer Lim
Production year
2016
Rating
TV-14
Studio
HBO Enterprises
Runtime
45 minutes
Cast
Steve Larson