‘Separated’ director Errol Morris on his ‘devastating’ documentary about immigration policy: ‘I’m afraid they could do it all over again’
Oscar winner Errol Morris (“The Fog of War”) has directed a new documentary, “Separated,” which confronts one of the darkest chapters in recent American history: family separations. The film is based on NBC News political and national correspondent Jacob Soboroff’s book, Separated: Inside an American Tragedy, and both men joined Gold Derby for a recent webchat to discuss the movie. Watch the full video interview above.
“I might have thought at the outset of this whole project that I was doing some historical account of a policy that was instituted and rejected, but is in our rearview mirror,” Morris says. “As time went on, this movie became more and more relevant, and more and more current. Not about the past, but about the present and future and our fears of what could possibly happen next in this country.”
More from GoldDerby
In the film, Morris speaks to insiders and whistleblowers, both former and current government officials, who describe implementing a policy to separate children from their parents at the border to discourage other immigrants from illegally entering the country. Over 1,300 children were never reunited with their families.
“It’s a story about America, a story about racism, a story about policies that should never have been implemented in the first place, but may well be implemented again,” Morris warns. “We have to fight against it.”
Soboroff states, “We wouldn’t be here were it not for decades of US immigration policy, from both Democrats and Republicans, that treat migrants as criminals and not as human beings. Donald Trump was able to separate all these children, 5,500 of them, because the previous presidents had set up a system that was based in punishment instead of humanity. I’m an unlikely eye witness to what the Republican-appointed judge who stopped this policy called ‘one of the most shameful chapters in the history of our country.'”
While discussing the people he interviewed, Morris says, “You realize the extent of their self-deception. The denial of what they were really doing. It’s one of the themes that really fascinates me. Do people really commit evil acts? Or do they first construe them as good acts, so that they can commit them even though they’re evil? To what extent does self-deception play a role in public policy?”
“It’s a story, among other things, about bureaucracy,” he continues. “And the malleability of human consciousness and morality. It’s a devastating story for me. I’m afraid they could do it all over again. What’s going to happen next? Will we see something even more draconian and insidious than what we saw the last time around? I don’t know, but I’m certainly fearful that may be the case.”
“Separated” has been released in limited theaters and will debut Dec. 7 on MSNBC.
Best of GoldDerby
Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.