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This Is Home

In the News • 1h 31m

Directed by Alexandra Shiva • Documentary • 2018 • 91 minutes

From acclaimed filmmaker Alexandra Shiva comes the urgent and beautiful story of a community of Syrian immigrants who are resettled in Baltimore in the US. Upon their arrival, they have eight months to find jobs, learn English, and become self-sufficient, all while they are still processing the upheaval of adjusting to a new country and dealing with the aftermath of the horrors that they endured in Syria. And then right in the middle of this process, President Trump issues his travel ban on all refugees for Muslim-majority countries, and overnight their lives (and safety) become even more perilous than they could have imagined. With incredible empathy, director Shiva highlights the inherent decency of a displaced community desperate for help within a country increasingly hostile to them.

"Affecting...Addresses early relief, initial confusion, fluctuating states of peace and homesick despair, and the small joys that come with knowing one can adapt." —Los Angeles Times

Tags
american (u.s.) studies, american dream, american studies, arabic, arabs, asylum, baltimore, bombing, bullfrog films, car repair, caseworker, catering, ceramics, changing gender roles, church supper, citizenship, community, construction, cultural anthropology, cultural orientation, deportation, doc, documentary, documentary films, driving lesson, ead card, employment program, expository, family mentor, fighting, film sales corp, finding a job, fundraiser, global / international studies, global refugee crisis, groceries, grocery store, group therapy, homesick, homs, human rights, i94, immigration and refugees, international rescue committee, interpreters, irc, job placement, job preparation, jordan, learning english, mechanic, medical clinic, mid-atlantic, multicultural studies, newcomer project, ovid, permanent resident, police, prison, psychological trauma, public transportation, race and racism, refugee status, resettlement, sand tray play therapy, school, social issues, social psychology, social security card, social work, sociss, sundance, syria, syrian rap singer, syrian refugees, syrian support group, this is home, tile-setter, tiles, torture, travel ban, truck driver, u.s. foreign policy, u.s. government and politics, umbc

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