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In “Citizen U.S.A.: A 50 State Road Trip,” we see a woman in a red dress and American flag socks leading a courtroom in a sing-along of a song called “Let’s Hear It for America” — which involves the attempted rhythmic waving of red, white and blue paper plates.
In creating her HBO documentary about how immigrants officially become American citizens, this was but one of the many customs that filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi was introduced to along the way.
“If you Google it, you’ll see that this is a very popular song in elementary schools — with the paper plates,” says Pelosi, who lives in Manhattan. “That routine is very popular outside of New York. I didn’t know that until I got to Butte, Mont.”
Pelosi, who has directed several documentaries for HBO including the 2002 George W. Bush campaign documentary “Journeys With George,” got the idea for the film when Michiel Vos, her Dutch-born husband, became a citizen at a ceremony at Ellis Island.
“I went to his naturalization ceremony, and it was really emotional. People were talking about how it was the most important day of their lives,” says Pelosi. “I was really taken by it.”
Pelosi traveled to all 50 states for the film, attending naturalization ceremonies at the Ringling Brothers circus (clowns included), Tiger Stadium and the Mall of America in Minnesota.
The film illustrates the extent to which America is an ever-broadening melting pot, with big communities of Iraqis in Nebraska and Sudanese in Iowa, plus the likes of the Jordanian Muslim woman in the film who was eager to start her new life in Memphis, Tenn.
In some cases, the US government has created this diversity, spreading immigrants across the country in much the way previous generations were automatically ushered into Ellis Island.
“What was interesting is that you could go to Kansas City, and find 100 different countries represented at their ceremony,” Pelosi says. “Who knew?”
Pelosi discovered that new Americans often have a very different view of our country than those who’ve been here all their lives.
“Immigrants have a much more optimistic view of America,” she says. “They were all so positive and happy. They shared an optimism about this country that nobody else seems to have.”
Among the truly optimistic in the film were famous naturalized citizens such as Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger and Arianna Huffington.
While all had a different take, their very success and the nature of it, often spoke volumes about our country.
“Arianna’s made a career out of criticizing America,” says Pelosi. “That’s unique, that you can criticize this country and become a multi-millionaire doing so. That’s the American dream.”
Given that her sons are 3 and 4 years old, Pelosi did the 50-state excursion in short regional spurts over the course of a year, often with the boys in tow.
“They like to brag to their friends that they’ve been to all 50 states,” she says. “I don’t have the heart to tell them they’ve never been to Alaska or Hawaii.”
Since her film celebrates citizenship, it mostly shies away from the political. The one exception comes, unsurprisingly, from her visit to Arizona, where naturalization ceremonies were met with fierce protests.
“There was one guy there who was like, ‘I used to be illegal, but I got amnesty from Ronald Reagan, and now I’m a citizen, and I feel like this is like Nazi Germany,’ ” she recalls.
Talking to as many legal immigrants as she did, Pelosi saw how those who’ve worked hard to make lives for themselves here the legal way, tend to get caught up in the debate.
“I don’t know if people know the difference between legal and illegal immigrants, because when people talk about immigrants, they paint them all with the same brush,” she says. “A lot of people put in a lot of effort to go through the process legally, and they don’t get the appreciation they deserve.”
The stories in “Citizen U.S.A.” were also captured in a book published by Penguin with the same title.
CITIZEN U.S.A.
Monday, 9 p.m., HBO