“Hey, man, he’s saying goodbye to his family!” A stranger yells at an O’Hare International Airport agent who escorts Tony Wasilewski away from his wife and son and puts them behind security lines. “Go easy on him, boss man!”
The Wasilewskis, a Polish immigrant family living in Chicago, are the focal points of Tony & Janina's American Wedding, a feature-length documentary directed by Ruth Lietman highlighting the Catch-22 that undocumented immigrants in America face today.
After 19 years in the States, Janina Wasilewski is deported back to Poland, where current immigration laws ban her return for 10 years. The Wasilewskis’ son, an American citizen, is going with her. The film takes place as Senator Barack Obama rises to the presidency. It follows the family’s struggle to be reunited while addressing broader topics of human rights and immigration reform within our borders.
Fri., Oct. 22, 7:15 p.m., 2010
