ASU documentary screenings examine the meaning of citizenship and service
'American Exile' events connect students, faculty and community members through film and post-screening dialogue
An aerial view captures attendees at an ASU screening of "American Exile" as speakers engage in a post-film conversation onstage. Courtesy photo
Nearly 300 people registered to attend Arizona State University Center for the Study of Race and Democracy's two film screenings of "American Exile" last month — a response that reflects the urgency of the questions the documentary raises.
The screenings were co-sponsored by ASU's Sidney Poitier New American Film School, the School of Transborder Studies, the Center for Latina/os and American Politics and Research, and the Arizona Latino Media Association. Several community organizations participated in tabling at the film screenings, creating meaningful opportunities to connect and engage with attendees.
Held on April 1 at ASU’s MIX Center in Mesa and April 2 at the Paul C. Helmick Center in Tempe, the screenings were part of the center's yearlong series Life, Liberty & Pursuits of Happiness, which examines foundational American ideals through documentary films and community dialogue. Following each screening, Dr. Lois Brown, director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and Foundation Professor of English, was in conversation with the film's director, Peabody Award-winning filmmaker John Valadez.
"American Exile" follows Manuel and Valente Valenzuela, decorated Vietnam veterans and brothers who, decades after serving with distinction, receive a letter of deportation. The film traces their fight to stay in the country they defended.
The atmosphere across both evenings reflected the intent of the screenings: reverent and intellectually engaging, offering space to sit with discomfort and consider questions that inspire change.
"In a democracy, what do you do?" Valadez queried the audience. "You talk. You tell stories. You impart information, help people understand what their fellow citizens are going through. And you compete in that marketplace of ideas."
Valadez has spent nearly 30 years making documentary films for national broadcast on PBS and CNN and has received several esteemed recognitions of his work. But he says "American Exile" represents to him something more meaningful than any award. Just before the film aired in November 2021 as a PBS Veterans Day special, the Biden administration announced a program to bring back deported veterans and their families. Valadez credits the film and the years of on-the-ground advocacy by Manuel Valenzuela for bringing about this significant policy shift.
Valadez reminded audiences that "a camera is the most powerful form of communication ever created in the history of humankind. It can mislead and deceive and destroy people — or it can liberate their minds and their hearts and their souls."
Valadez himself was clearly moved by one scene that he was able to capture on camera. He recalled the moment when Valente Valenzuela threw his military medals, including a Bronze Star, into the Rio Grande after self-exiling to Mexico. Far from a gesture of despair, Valadez described that moment as an act of liberation — Valente, he said, was a man freeing himself from a country that had stopped claiming him; now he could start again.
"The only way he could be free," Valadez said, "was to return to America ... so he could be reborn."
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Audience members sit attentively during a public screening and discussion event about the documentary "American Exile."
Photo courtesy Ivan Martinez
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ASU Center for the Study of Race and Democracy Director Lois Brown (left) and a Health and Democracy Fellow in the center, Natalie Gruber.
Photo courtesy Ivan Martinez
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From left: John Valadez, Lois Brown and Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez
Photo courtesy Matthew Cowser
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John Valadez (left) and Lois Brown during a dialogue hosted after one of the screenings of "American Exile."
Courtesy photo
One attendee, Natalie Gruber, a Health and Democracy Fellow in the center, noted that "focusing on a particular aspect of our democracy opens a much broader aspect of our democracy."
The screening and dialogue prompted her to ask: "If we are frightened about our existence, how can we engage? That is where empathy comes in,” she said. “It allows us to put ourselves in the shoes of a mother who sends her daughter to war and never returns, or a brother or husband who leaves, returns a shell of himself."
An ASU student in the Sidney Poitier New American Film school who was in attendance put it plainly: "It is inspiring seeing a film do so much healing for the community. That is the purpose of film."
During Valadez’s residency, he met with students in a graduate-level class taught by Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez, Regents Professor and founding director emeritus of the ASU School of Transborder Studies and a veteran himself. A conversation between Professor Vélez-Ibáñez and Valadez beforehand touched on themes central to both the film and the subsequent dialogue: the long history of Latino military service, the overrepresentation of working-class communities in combat and what it means to belong to a country that does not always recognize that belonging.
Valadez closed both evenings with the same compelling question, one he said he asks himself every time he picks up a camera: "What am I going to do?”
He urged attendees to be mindful of democracy and civic engagement.
“Given who you are, given your skills, your talent, your knowledge,” he said, “what are you going to do to participate in the democratic process? Everybody is going to do something different. Because we're different ages and we're different people.”
That question became a refrain that closed each of the screenings. Valadez’s final words came in the form of two evocative questions: “What are you going to do to make sure that a vision of a more just, a more fair, a more equitable world emerges? What are you going do to make sure that this country lives up to the promise of freedom and liberty and human dignity?”