Interprete Me

The short documentary Out of Many, One talks about a sensitive theme to many people around the world: the issue of immigration to the United States. As reported shortly in the trailer shown on Netflix before the debut, one in five immigrants choose the country currently ruled by Donald Trump to rebuild their lives. In this touching and engaging project, which has only 34 minutes, shows some people who have moved from their places of origin towards the powerful America; each with their motives, but all properly received (watch here).

The United States has always been the country that has always seemed, to foreign people, the one which offers the most opportunities to live a better life. It is the so-called “American dream”, which makes these individuals risk leaving their countries to live in an unknown place, but which is famous for providing all basic rights to its citizens, whether born there or not.

A historical rescue

Out of Many, One talks about some people who have had the courage to leave their original homes and embark on a kind of adventure, in search of the so-called “American dream”. Some for wanting a better and fairer life. Others suffer persecution of a political nature in their home country. And there are also those who did it out of love: when meeting an American citizen, they decided to move to the United States to get married.

All of these stories are told in the starting minutes of Out of Many, One, but are so well condensed that stretching the duration longer would take the risk of making the work dull. The 32-minute documentary shows the lives of these people, and how they felt welcomed when they arrived in the United States. It is an advertisement of how the world’s greatest power is hospitable and receptive, but it is also a good study of the reasons why most immigrants choose America to live.

Of course, there is the factual counterpoint. Watching Out of Many, One is to imagine that the United States is the paradise for people from the most diverse places on the planet. Meanwhile, newspapers show that the Trump government has been struggling to “sanitize” the population, with its famous motto “America First”. That is, the Americans first, then the rest. Watching this short movie, then, makes us think: what leads a president to want to face his own Constitution, trying to make it difficult for non-Americans to enter their territory?

“E pluribus unum”

The name of the documentary derives from the motto of the United States, “E pluribus unum”, which means out of many, one. This Latin phrase was chosen to represent the ideals of the United States at the time of the integration between thirteen different territories that formed the nation as we know it today. Evidently, because of immigration, it gained another meaning. Until recently, it was the synonym of a country that welcomed and integrated people from the most diverse places on the planet, giving them the opportunity to live the “American dream”.

In Out of Many, One, we watch the stories of those people who worked and were able to feel within that dream. But one can not stop thinking about so many others that are rejected, for the most diverse reasons – often ridiculous or even xenophobic – and that show that such an “American dream” is no longer for all. Something has changed, and Out of Many, One, in addition to showing what went right, by comparison also demonstrates what it did not. Apparently, now the motto is “out of many, only a few”.

You can also like Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski, Death by Magic, They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead and Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj.

Trailer and additional information about Netflix Out of Many, One – The immigrant’s Story

Synopsis: In this documentary short, a diverse group of men and women discuss their personal journeys as they prepare for the U.S. citizenship test.

Age rating: 10;

Release year: 2018.