Community of Parting(2020)

Cuban Rafters(es)

The story of Cuban refugees who risked their lives in homemade rafts to reach the United States, and what life is like for those who succeed.

Arada(de)

The story of three Turkish men. They all grew up in Switzerland and all got deported after various criminal offenses.

The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey(en)

Many geneticists and archaeologists have long surmised that human life began in Africa. Dr. Spencer Wells, one of a group of scientists studying the origin of human life, offers evidence and theories to support such a thesis in this PBS special. He claims that Africa was populated by only a few thousand people that some deserted their homeland in a conquest that has resulted in global domination.

Roots In The Wind(en)

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.

Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama(en)

Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama tells the epic journey of the late Japanese Canadian photographer Tamio Wakayama who decides to join the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the deep south during the 1960’s American civil rights movement. Learning the art of dark room photography along the way, this transformative moment in time allows him to confront his own identity and return ‘home’ to the west coast of Canada to begin a body of photographic work that continues to celebrate, re-present and document the spirit of Japanese Canadians who resided in the former Paueru Gai/Powell Street neighborhoods.

The Lebanese Burger Mafia(en)

The heir to a Burger Baron franchise, the filmmaker chases clues through rural Alberta, capturing the trials and tribulations of Arab immigrants while uncovering the saga of a rogue fast-food chain with mysterious origins and a cult following.

Our Algeria(ar)

"Djazaïrouna", produced by the cinema service of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA), is a montage film intended to inform the international community at the UN in 1959 on the objectives pursued by the Algerian resistance during the war of 'Algeria. Independence in Algeria (1954-1962). In 1959, Djamel-Eddine Chanderli and Mohammed Lakdar-Hamina produced Djazaïrouna (Our Algeria) from images taken by René Vautier and Doctor Pierre Chaulet. This film, completed a little later and will result in the film “The Voice of the People”. This documentary on the history of Algeria through a montage of current events, traces the political and military actions of the A.L.N, the demonstrations of December 1960, and the attack on a fortified French base on the border between Algeria and Tunisia.

Landscape of our Body(vi)

As queer trans and gender non-conforming children of the Vietnamese diaspora, we are fragmented at the crossroads of being displaced from not only a sense of belonging to our ancestral land, but also our own bodies which are conditioned by society to stray away from our most authentic existence. Yet these bodies of ours are the vessels we sail to embark on a lifetime voyage of return to our original selves. It is our bodies that navigate the treacherous tides of normative systems that impose themselves on our very being. And it is our bodies that act as community lighthouses for collective liberation. Ultimately, the landscape of our bodies is our blueprint to remembering, to healing, to blooming.

The Real Eve(en)

The made-for-cable documentary film The Real Eve is predicated on the theory that the human race can be traced to a common ancestor. The mitochondrial DNA of one prehistoric woman, who lived in Africa, has according to this theory been passed down from generation to generation over a span of 150,000 years, supplying the "chemical energy" to all humankind.

American Herro(en)

American Herro is the remarkable story of a young Kurdish girl who comes to America as a refugee from Iraq and lives out the American dream. 30-years later, traveling the globe working for Condoleeza Rice, U.S. Diplomat Herro Mustafa invites her first American friend, filmmaker Kirk Roos, to visit Iraq and retrace her steps to freedom.

The world like a jewel in the hand: unlearning imperial plunder ii(en)

This film travels over open books, looted objects and postcards to look for the imperial foundations of the world in which we live. Within this wide landscape the film focuses on the destruction of the Jewish Muslim world that existed in North Africa, making it imaginable and inhabitable again. Narrated in the first person, by an Algerian Jew and a Palestinian Jew, the film refuses imperial histories of those places. Objects held captive in museums and archives outside of the places from where they were looted are only the visible tip of the iceberg of the mass colonial plunder of Africa. The film explores the substantial wealth accumulated through the extraction of raw materials, labour, knowledge and skills, including the “visual wealth” attained by putting people in front of the colonisers’ cameras.

Soon Come Back(en)

Soon Come Back is a poetic documentary about migration’s effect on Nande's relationships to “home” in Jamaica and the US, and her feelings of alienation being a child of the diaspora.

The Grass is Greener on the Other Side(cn)

Thousands of Hongkongers, still living in the shadow of the 2019 protests, are immigrating to the UK to forge a freer future. This film documents their struggle to break free from a homeland that is no longer welcoming, while holding on to the Hongkonger identity in which they find purpose. In exile, can the Hongkonger identity persevere, or is it destined to obscurity? Can they really find a place to call home?

Razões Africanas(pt)

Tales of the Diaspora(en)

Tales of the Diaspora is the debut film from xxiivanu productions, and was conceived as a love letter to Pasifika youth around the world, as they navigate the sometimes tumultuous waves of finding and retaining cultural identity whilst growing up away from their homelands.

The Heroes of the Massacre River(ht)

The Heroes of the Massacre River is a powerful documentary that chronicles the stories of the pioneers behind the construction of the historic Canal of Ouanaminthe, a project that united Haitians across the nation and the diaspora. This film celebrates the groundbreaking efforts of key figures, centering on Dr. Bertrhude Albert, Dr. Naismy-Mary Fleurant, architect Wideline Pierre, economist Etzer Emile as well as dedicated canal workers Milourie Sylfrard, Theodore Johnson and Joseph Pressoir — all guided by the investigative journey of Max Angie Clervil. It also serves as a commentary on the complexity of colonialism and borders, tracing the role that the Massacre River continues to play in the history of Ayiti.

Jeronimo(en)

Born to Korean immigrant parents freed from indentured servitude in early twentieth century Mexico, Jerónimo Lim Kim joins the Cuban Revolution with his law school classmate Fidel Castro and becomes an accomplished government official in the Castro regime, until he rediscovers his ethnic roots and dedicates his later life to reconstructing his Korean Cuban identity. After Jerónimo's death, younger Korean Cubans recognize his legacy, but it is not until they are presented with the opportunity to visit South Korea that questions about their mixed identity resurface.

Ôrí(pt)

A look at the Brazilian black movement between 1977 and 1988, going by the relationship between Brazil and Africa.

The Dawn is Too Far: Stories of Iranian-American Life(en)

The Dawn is Too Far: Stories of Iranian-American Life poetically narrates the story of a community of Iranian Americans who have made the San Francisco Bay Area their home over the past five decades. The film explores Iranian immigration through turbulent histories of dissent, revolution, war, and separation, and the reinvention of identity in a new land and culture. The Dawn is Too Far highlights how Iranian students, activists, and artists have navigated displacement while drawing on and influencing Bay Area culture. This community offers a more nuanced story of the Iranian diaspora—the ways that this community enriches the region where they live, work, and build families. The Dawn is Too Far undermines the tired and overplayed news headlines that are dominated by narratives of enmity and mistrust between the government of Iran and the U.S., to offer a more humane understanding of the how people's lives and the sacrifices they make are part of the larger story of immigration.

Blood and Water(en)

When the 2004 tsunami hit the coast of Sri Lanka, 65-year-old Anton Ambrose's wife and daughter were killed. "In five minutes," he says, "I lost everything." A year later, Anton returns to Sri Lanka. With him is his nephew, award-winning filmmaker Rohan Fernando. A Tamil, Anton moved to California in the 1970s and became a very successful gynecologist. His daughter, Orlantha, made the opposite journey, returning to Sri Lanka where she ran a non-profit group that gave underprivileged children free violin lessons. Blood and Water is the story of one man's search for meaning in the face of overwhelming loss, but it is also filled with improbable characters, unintentional comedy and situational ironies.