This article compares the representation of lesbian undocumented women and their relationship with citizen women while highlighting the shifting intersectionalities of vulnerable migrants. Cinematic representations of vulnerable migrations have the potential to reduce distance and create an intimacy and immediacy that makes difficult the task to comfortably accept that people are only members of nameless, faceless groups. Films can, however, also reaffirm stereotypical tropes of victimization and lack of agency through simplifying the migrant experience. The two films discussed here represent different examples of how cinema can be a productive or a reductive means to visualize the largely invisible experience of being lesbian and undocumented.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.