About the Film
An HBO documentary following Lizbeth Mateo, an attorney in Los Angeles—one who started a law practice, hired four employees, and took an oath to uphold the U.S. constitution. She also has no legal options to stay in the country. Lizbeth is undocumented.
Since crossing the border at age 14, Lizbeth hasn’t let her immigration status hold her back. Frustrated by an unjust system, she’s drawing from her own experiences to fight for immigrant rights in the streets and in the courts.
Her latest client is Edith Espinal, a woman avoiding deportation by taking sanctuary in a church. As the months turn to years, Lizbeth is running out of legal options to help. Lizbeth returns to her activist roots and teaches Edith to fight back—because sometimes you need to ignore the law in order to change it.
Now streaming in the U.S. on HBO Max.
Festivals and Awards
Our Team
Chris Temple & Zach Ingrasci — Directors
Chris and Zach are filmmakers and the founders of Optimist, a non-profit production studio that creates films with impact. They are best known for directing the feature documentaries Living On One Dollar and Salam Neighbor. Their films have been released by Netflix, Amazon Prime, National Geographic, and The Atlantic. Most recently, they directed the unreleased feature documentary, Five Years North, set to premiere at Full Frame Film Festival in 2020.
Every film they make is accompanied by an impact campaign to create measurable outcomes. Their projects have raised over $91.5 million dollars for the films’ causes and have changed over
275,000 lives.
Jenna Kelly — Producer
Jenna Kelly is the producer of the feature documentary Five Years North and the short documentary, The Undocumented Lawyer. Before transitioning into the film world, she was a strategist for the communications firm GMMB.
Lila Place — Editor
Lila Place began her career as an apprentice in the edit rooms of Woody Allen and Spike Lee and went on to edit numerous award-winning documentary films including "The Pawn," by Jean-Cosme Delaloye and "116 Cameras," by Davina Pardo.
Brenda Avila-Hanna — Executive Producer
Brenda Avila-Hanna is an award-winning filmmaker and educator. Born and raised in Mexico City, her films mostly focus on the transnational, immigrant experience between Latin-America and the United States.
Morgan Kays — Executive Producer
Morgan Kays is a board member of Optimist. She’s also the Executive Producer of the Tribeca short documentary, The Undocumented Lawyer, as well as the feature documentary Five Years North. She’s based in Los Angeles.
John Trefry — Executive Producer
As the CEO of next-generation video production company 4WT Media, John Trefry creates campaigns for top brands and produces award-winning film and TV projects.
Claudia S. Murray — Impact Producer
Claudia S. Murray is an award-winning director, documentary producer, and former civil-rights lawyer. Her work has screened in theaters around the country and has earned her a spot on NALIP's "Latinx Directors You Should Know" list.