DocYard: No Data Plan

2019, dir Miko Revereza, 70 min, DCP

This unconventional Amtrak journey from Los Angeles to New York starts with director Miko Revereza describing how his undocumented mother has two phones: “Mama has two phone numbers. We do not talk about immigration on her Obama phone. For that we use the other number with no data plan.” With this premise, Revereza builds mystery, combining his own journey with his discovery of his mother’s affair with a much younger man and memories of their lives and relatives back in the Philippines. His trip floats through dream states and into a fugitive state of mind, weaving together an ingenious mix of captions, subtitles, interviews with friends and family, and kinetic observational footage. This essay film tackles life-changing ideas with aplomb, doling out revelations as plot and as a state of being. Even as it ambles cross country, the film dismisses false promises of freedom and evocatively conveys the particularities of Revereza and his family’s precarious existence, especially his own status as a DREAMer. NO DATA PLAN is a poignant and furious expression of the cinema of resistance from a notable first-time feature director.