Do Not Enter: The Visa War Against Ideas

Director: Robert Richter, Catherine Warnow

Institute History

  • 1987 Sundance Film Festival

Description

What do these people have in common: Carlos Fuentes, Thomas Borges, Mrs. Salvadore Allende, Pierre Trudeau, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Regis Debray, Dario Fo and Robert D’Aubuisson? At one time or another they nave all been denied a visa to enter the United States. All foreigners must have a visa to enter the U.S., and, since the McCarranpWalter Act of 1952, the denial of visas has kept individuals with ideas considered “prejudicial to U.S. interests” from entering this country. Robert Richter’s straightforward examination of the issue includes interviews with Arthur Miller, William Buckley, Jr., and Susan Sontag, as well as a number of prominent writers (among them Fuentes, Dario Fo and Gabriel Garcia Marquez) who have been subject to the “visa war against ideas.” Do Not Enter is a terrific film about a subject that has the misfortune of sounding dull. Don’t be fooled.

— Karen Cooper

Screening Details

Credits

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