THE COURTROOM
by Karen Pecota

Lee Sunday Evans, USA, 2022

Filmmaker Lee Sunday Evans collaborates with screenwriter Arian Moayed to present a dramatic reenactment of one woman's acutely distressing, but true story with the United States legal system in THE COURTROOM.

In 2019, an original play using this story created by Waterwell premiered Off-Broadway and won critical acclaim. The audiences were privy to a chilling experience of what can possibly transpire within our country's immigration court system.

For the film, Evans takes Moayed's screenplay that uses only the verbatim text of the real court transcripts in Elizabeth Keathley's case as the dialogue for the film.

A female citizen (Elizabeth) of the Philippines married an American male in 2003. In 2004, the couple begins their life in the United States. Elizabeth navigated beautifully the complicated system of the U.S. Immigration laws and started to pursue the application process toward U.S. Citizenship. Elizabeth goes to the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and applies for a state driver's license and state ID (Identification). Unknowingly, she checks a box claiming to be a U.S. citizen with voting rights.

The misunderstanding was brought to her attention when a letter from the U.S. Homeland Security claimed that she falsified documents and could be deported back to the Philippines under oath of perjury; that could include being forever banned from receiving U.S. Citizenship. Shocked and confused, Elizabeth would never intentionally jeopardize the law nor put herself in such a state to be forever separated from her husband and their children.

Claiming her mistake was unintentional, the attorney for the Homeland Security Department was bringing the case before the courts as contrary. Elizabeth finds herself in a legal battle with the country she holds dear and refuses to lose faith in the system she trusts to not fail her. (KP)