On Friday night, an documentary by Jose Antonio Vargas, one of the most famous undocumented immigrants in the Unites States, premiered in his home country of the Philippines at the 10th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival.

On Friday, the festival presented Vargas' mother, Emelie Salinas, with a certificate of recognition, which she accepted on her son's behalf, according to The Associated Press.

Salinas watched the movie, "Documented," which Vargas directed, wrote and produced, with two of her children and other relatives.

"It's my third time to watch it, but I still can't stop myself from crying," she said.

"Documented" is an autobiographical film and details Vargas' trip to America to unite with his grandparents, which occurred when he was 12 years old in 1993. He was separated from Salinas for 21 years.

"Here in America, where people like me are called illegal, this film is an act of civil disobedience," Vargas said in a recording that played before the movie.

Vargas has a respectable history in journalism. He has written for Huffington Post, Philadelphia Daily News and the San Francisco Chronicle. In 2008, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his 2007 report with the Washington Post on the Virginia Tech shootings of 2007.

The journalist revealed his immigration status in 2011 and started the DefineAmerican campaign to help the other 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country. These undocumented include 1.3 million people who came to the United States from Asia as children, just like Vargas. He was spoken across the country and even testified at a U.S. congressional hearing on immigration reform last year.

In July, Vargas was held by Border Patrol agents at a McAllen, Texas airport. He was released hours later "because he was not considered a security threat," AP reported.

Since its premiere, Filipinos have praised "Undocumented," with one describing the film as "enlightening, entertaining, heartbreaking" on Twitter, according to AP.

The positive reactions have pleased Czarina, Vargas' sister.

"It is overwhelming that they liked the movie," she said. "It is such an uncomfortable issue, but I am so thankful that they appreciated it and I did not see any negative reactions from the people."
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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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