Trailer Out Now For New Movie About One Woman's Journey Through the Immigration Court System

Jun 07, 2022

A movie trailer is out now for a new drama that highlights the deportation process through the immigration courts.

The movie The Courtroom (IMDB1), like the off-Broadway play2 before it, tells the true story of Elizabeth Keathley, an immigrant from the Philippines who faced deportation after mistakenly registering to vote while getting her driver’s license. The movie is an official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival.3

I was hoping that the trailer for the movie would be an adaptation of the play, but it appears to be filmed as a kind of theatrical version of a stage performance, rather than a dramatic movie based on the play. I’m not sure how well that will work as a movie, but I will withhold judgment until it comes out.

Plus, Michael Chernus, who you may know as the self-absorbed brother-in-law from Severance (and please watch it, it’s amazing!), is in the movie.

Like anyone who specializes in a very narrow topic (and who also enjoys independent films), I am interested in seeing how the deportation process is represented on screen. I can also imagine that plenty of people out there who work in this system or who are affected by it will have about as much interest in watching a movie like this in their free time as getting a colonoscopy.

Thanks to Matthew Grobar (@mattgrobar_AL) from Deadline Hollywood for his article about the movie today.4

Spoiler alert: if you want the real story of Elizabeth Keathley, here’s an article from 2014 that discusses the outcome of her case.5