This Is Home
Migration
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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
Up Next in Migration
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Long Distance Swimmer: Sara Mardini
Directed by Charly Wai Feldman • Documentary • 2023 • 89 minutes
At 20, Sara was already famous. She fled Syria in 2015 with her younger sister Yusra. When their boat broke down as they were crossing the sea to Greece, Sara and Yusra and two others jumped into the waves and swam for three and a ...
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Gaza Online
Directed by Mohamed Jabaly • Documentary • 2020 • 22 minutes
Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly’s 2020 short film follows the interactions with friends and family back home in Gaza while living in exile in Northern Norway, not being able to return. Jabaly’s first award-winning feature Ambulanc...
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From Swastika to Jim Crow
Directed by Lori Cheatle • Documentary • 2000 • 60 minutes
In the 1930s Jewish intellectuals who escaped Nazi Germany and immigrated to the U.S. faced an uncertain future. Confronted with anti-Semitism at American universities and a public distrust of foreigners, many sought refuge in an unlikel...