Steve Is Undocumented

Steve is a white British ex-weightlifter, with a job as a bouncer at a club in Los Angeles. He has a pregnant girlfriend who’s also foreign, he’s proud of his gun collection and he loves heavy metal. He has been living in the United States for over 25 years on an expired visa. We watch him from across the street as he works the door at the club. This involves a lot of talking to drunk customers and passersby, and along the way he shares his views on immigrants—there are too many of them! Although we see him at a distance, the clear recordings of his conversations bring him close.

This audio is interspersed with rapidly edited footage of his home life and hobbies. Steve says he wants to go back to England for the sake of his wife and twins, a luxury that most immigrants in the United States don’t have. Gradually the film offers us a picture of a person who in his own way—and with his own contradictions—is in pursuit of happiness.