Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

This Is Home

United States • 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

Up Next in United States

  • At the Drive-In
    1:19:30
    At the Drive-In

    At the Drive-In

    Directed by Alexander Monelli • Documentary • 2017 • 80 minutes

    Unable to purchase a $50,000 digital projector, a group of quirky film fanatics in rural Pennsylvania fight to keep a dying drive-in theater alive by screening only vintage 35mm film prints and working entirely for free. At The Driv...

  • Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism's Un...
    1:28:25
    Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism's Un...

    Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism's Un...

    Directed by Stephen Ujlaki, Christopher Jacob Jones • Documentary • With Peter Coyote • 2024 • 89 minutes

    BAD FAITH explores the dangerous rise of Christian Nationalism in the United States. Part archival chronicle, part exposé, the film reveals the secretive political machinery that has relentl...

  • Written on the Landscape
    58:26
    Written on the Landscape

    Written on the Landscape

    Directed by Anna Sofaer • Documentary • With Christopher Beaver • 2024 • 58 minutes

    Written on the Landscape: Mysteries Beyond Chaco Canyon conveys to viewers the brilliant achievements of the Chaco civilization -- many of which are in grave danger today. This documentary reveals the astounding ...

×