Citizen USA: A 50 State Roadtrip (DVD)

Intrepid journalist/filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi -- who has built an award-winning reputation with her playful, politically charged HBO documentaries focusing on both the famous (George Bush, Ted Haggard, John McCain, Barack Obama) and not-so-famous (right-wing Republicans, Evangelicals, motel kids in California) -- unabashedly waves the flag in this uplifting and illuminating look at the naturalization process in America. Beginning with the swearing-in ceremony of her own Dutch-born husband, Michiel Vos (who produced this and several other HBO films with his wife), Pelosi travels across the U.S. to attend naturalization ceremonies in all 50 states, where she meets brand-new citizens and probes why they inevitably chose America as their home. The documentary intersperses stories of newly naturalized citizens with interviews from notable first-generation Americans, including Madeleine Albright, Arianna Huffington, Henry Kissinger and Gene Simmons.

• documentary
• drama