Hang Sou and his family, preliterate tribal farmers, await resettlement in a refugee camp in Thailand after fleeing their war-consumed native Laos. "Becoming American" records their odyssey as they travel to and resettle in the United States. As they face nine months of intense culture shock, prejudice, and gradual adaptation to their new home in Seattle, the family provides a rare insight into refugee resettlement and cultural diversity issues.
In 1979, after the Soviet Union attacked Afghanistan, millions of Afghans were forced to leave their homeland to save their lives, and in the meantime, a huge wave of them immigrated to Iran.
Rosine Mbakam is invited to step in Sabine’s small hairdresser’s because it is dangerous in the street. She accepts and pushes in with her camera. Sabine’s stories and the customers’ joys, worries, problems and fears bring depth and life into the premises. At times, it feels like the entire African quarter of Brussels had squeezed in. Laughter abounds, anecdotes and life stories elicit emotions, and a male visitor brings a touch of flirt into the salon.
Documentary that shows the changing attitude towards immigrant labor in The Netherlands. The documentary follows three immigrants that arrived in Holland 30 years ago to work in a bakery.
Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.
A childhood story is narrated while home movie footage is displayed. The narrator recounts her assimilation experience: moving to America, learning English, giving up your culture and a part of yourself.
A documentary from 1987 featuring the life of early Chinese immigrants to the island of Newfoundland.
Five Years North is the coming-of-age story of Luis, an undocumented Guatemalan boy who just arrived alone in New York City. He struggles to work, study, and evade Judy - the Cuban-American ICE officer patrolling his neighborhood.
At the end of a quarry, in a godforsaken place called Rotzloch, a new life begins for four young men.
La Vie sans Brahim
Biodun is Nigerian. In this animated documentary, he tells the story of his journey on foot from Lagos to Paris, how he survives with a container (un bidon) and thanks to his courage. With his amazing patter, he transforms the events into extraordinary adventures.
“An Untitled Film” by George Alshevskij-Jones is a short documentary/visual essay about the struggles of moving to seek a better future in a different country. The research for the film was done by observing and talking to people who have left their home country. It doesn’t matter what country a person has left and in which country he has found himself, the general experiences and emotions stay the same. The most important message that I want the film to convey is that everything is possible and home is not a place on a map, but a place in the soul of each person that I spoke to. The unconventional way of showing many people as one is not just a way of making the film more convenient to create, but a way to fit a much information into one consistent image, that the audience is more likely to understand and perceive as the author intended it. My own experience blended in with the experiences of others.
With the help of hidden camera, Danish TV 2 documents how a known Danish imam teaches Muslim women about Islam's violent rules of adultery.
A powerful set of stories of “righteous persons” taking action along the U.S.-Mexico border, motivated by moral conviction and compassion. "Borderland" shows how courageous actions can lead to political mobilization and the defense of human rights in the face of hate and discrimination.
“Jews of the Wild West” is a feature-length documentary completed in December 2021. The independent not-for-profit project is produced by Electric Yolk Media and directed by award-winning filmmaker Amanda Kinsey. Through on-camera interviews, compelling footage, and historical photographs, the film tells the positive immigration story and highlights the dynamic contributions Jewish Americans made to shaping the Western United States.
An environmental account of Henry Ford’s Amazon experience decades after its failure. The story addressed by the film begins in 1927, when the Ford Motor Company attempted to establish rubber plantations on the Tapajós River, a primary tributary of the Amazon. This film addresses the recent transition from failed rubber to successful soybean cultivation for export, and its implication for land usage.
Monaco, Italia. Storie di arrivi in Germania
The long lasting Palestinian-Israeli conflict has created appaling phenomenons that have horrified the Israeli society. the "politically conscience-refusals" or those individual soldiers refusing to fight in the occupied territories, are one of those phenomenons. In opposition to them stand a thousand immigrants from the former Soviet Union, ex-military men from the Red Army, who yearn to be recruited into the IDF and fight for Israel, but who are denied the right to serve in the army. Through the stories of Oleg and Alex, immigrants and the battalion's charismatic commanders, the story of the Russkii Battalion is told. It is a story of contrasts between the hardships of the daily struggles they face as new immigrants against the pride and the sense of belonging they find in the battalion. The Russkii Battalion is a film about a militaristic social bubble, in a country that is in constant war.
The events that took place at the beach of El Tarajal in Ceuta (Spain) in February 2014 - the killing by the border police of 15 people who were trying to reach the Spanish coast - are an example of how the police force can violate the laws of its own country and international conventions with total impunity. The worst part is that this violation of human rights is protected by the Spanish Ministry of Interior itself, which hinders any effective action by the prosecution. For this reason, the civil society plays a fundamental role in revealing the facts. This is where the figure of collective complaints (DESC Observatory and the association Coordinadora de Barrios) steps in.
Rosa is a Mexican woman who, at the age of 17, migrated illegally to Austin, Texas. Some years later, she was jailed under suspicion of murder and then taken to trial. This film demonstrates how the judicial process, the verdict, the separation from her family, and the helplessness of being imprisoned in a foreign country make Rosa’s story an example of the hard life of Mexican migrants in the United States.