Films about Refugees and US Resettlement

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  • 24 Days in Brooks (2007), Dana Inkster, 42 min
    In a decade, tiny Brooks, Alberta has been transformed from a socially conservative, primarily Caucasian town to one of the most diverse places in Canada. Immigrants and refugees have flocked here to work at Lakeside Packers - one of the world's largest slaughterhouses. Centering on the 24 days of the first-ever strike at Lakeside, this film is a nuanced portrait of people working together and adapting to change. As 24 Days in Brooks shows, people from widely different backgrounds can work together for respect, dignity, and change - even though getting there is not easy.
  • A Family Crisis: The Elian Gonzales Story (2000), Christopher Leitch, 90 minutes
    This film is based on the true story of the five-year-old Cuban boy who is the sole survivor of a refugee boat that sunk in a storm on its way to the U.S.
  • A Great Wonder: Lost Children of Sudan (2004), Kim Shelton, 61 minutes
    This film documents the difficult transition of three of the "Lost Boys and Girls" of Sudan to lives in Seattle, Washington.
  • A Stranger in My Homeland (2005), Chloe Traicos, 45 minutes
    This film tells the story of the Zimbabwean refugees who spoke out against the regime of terror under which they lived. These brave people were tortured electrocuted and left for dead.
  • Afghan Stories (2002), Taran Davies and Walied Osman, 58 minutes
    Filmmakers Taran Davies and Walied Osman set out to gain an understanding of how a generation of war has affected the Afghan people, spending time with families in Queens, New York, the frontline in Afghanistan, and points in between.
  • Against Wind and Tide: A Cuban Odyssey (1981), Jim Burroughs, 57 minutes
    In spring 1980, Fidel Castro opened the Cuban port of Mariel to thousands of refugees to cross to Key West, Florida and the promise of a new life in the U.S. Director Jim Burroughs and his crew boarded a flotilla vessel bound for Mariel to film the exodus. Burroughs charts the lives of three individuals during their first years in the U.S.
  • A.K.A. Don Bonus (1995), Spencer Nakasako and Sokly Ny, 55 minutes
    After escaping the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Ny family became one of thousands of refugees faced with resettlement in the U.S. Their lives unfold through the lens of this stirring video diary, which sees 18-year-old Sokly Ny (Don Bonus) struggling to graduate from high school.
  • Asylum (1998), Garry Beitel, 78 minutes
    This film allows you to follows three refugee claimants through the legal process that decides their status in Canada: Marnus Chowdhury from Bangladesh, Tatiana Linco from Kazakhstan, and Cristian Ghitescu, a stowaway from Romania. Their stories show the questions that have to be answered to determine who is a refugee.
  • Asylum (2003), Sandy McLeod and Gini Reticker, 20 minutes
    Baaba Andoh fled Ghana in fear for her life, when her long-lost father tried to force her to undergo female genital mutilation. Arriving in the U.S. with a phony passport, she was imprisoned by the INS for one year while her asylum case was tried. Her story ends in victory, but she refuses to forget the thousands of asylum seekers who remain in detention today.
  • Babylon Illusion (2009), Karim Bah and Chester Yang, 54 minutes
    The film is produced and directed by Freetown resident Karim Bah, who says his film is the first attempt by an African to show the reality of life in Europe to an African audience.  The film tells the story of young Sierra Leoneans in the UK, and shows their experiences, hardships and loneliness.
  • Beautiful People (2000), Jasmin Dizdar, 107 minutes
    In London, during October 1993, England is playing Holland in the preliminaries of the World Cup. The Bosnian War is at its height, and refugees from the ex-Yugoslavia are arriving. The lives of four English families are affected in different ways by encounter with the refugees, and one of the families improbably becomes involved with a Balkan refugee through the England vs. Holland match.
  • Becoming American (2003), Ken Levine and Ivory Waterworth Levine
    Becoming American records the odyssey of Hang Sou and his family, as they travel from Laos to a refugee camp in Thailand to a new home in Seattle.
  • Being Hmong Means Being Free (2000), NEWIST/CESA #7 and Wisconsin Public Television, 56 minutes
    Focusing on a Hmong immigrant community in Wisconsin, this documentary offers a comprehensive look at fundamental practices of the ancient Hmong culture and investigates how these have framed Hmong culture and community. "Being Hmong Means Being Free" explores how life has changed for Hmong in the U.S. in the space of a generation.
  • Blue Collar and Buddha (1986), Taggart Siegel, 57 minutes
    A Laotian community in Rockford, Illinois survives terrorist bombings and drive-by shootings at its local Buddhist temple.
  • Breaking the Silence: Inside Burma’s Resistance (2009), Pierre Mignault & Hélène Magny, 52 or 75 minutes
    Pierre Mignault and Hélène Magny secretly enter one of Burma's most dangerous zones, penetrating to the very heart of the Karen Nation, where civil war has been waging for 60 years.  This film reveals the extent to which the Burmese people are prepared to fight to regain their freedom and institute democracy.
  • Brothers and Others (2003), Nicolas Rossier, 54 minutes
    This film follows a number of immigrant and American families in the U.S. following September 11, 2001. In interviews with Arab and Muslim immigrants, government representatives, and legal and historical experts, this film explores how America’s fear of terrorism has negatively impacted many U.S. residents.
  • Bui Doi: Life Like Dust (1994), Ahrin Mishan & Nick Rothenberg, 28 minutes
    This film takes us inside the mind of Ricky Phan, once a gang leader in Southern California and now serving an 11-year sentence for armed robbery. We are forced to ask ourselves which is more violent: fleeing from a war-ravaged nation or trying to survive in an alien western culture?
  • Burma Soldier (2010), Nic Dunlop, Annie Sundberg, Ricki Stern, 70 minutes
    Tells the story of a Burmese soldier turned pro-democracy activist, who is now living as a refugee in the United States.
  • Catfish in Black Bean Sauce (1999), Chi Muoi Lo, 119 minutes
    Dwayne and his older sister Mai are adults: Mai is married to Vinh, Dwayne is about to propose to Nina. Twenty-two years ago, when Mai was 10, she and Dwayne were refugees in Vietnam, adopted by Harold and Dee Williams, African-Americans from Los Angeles. When Mai locates their birth mother, Thahn, and she arrives in Los Angeles, tensions reach the breaking point.
  • Crossing Midnight (2009), Kim A. Snyder, 29 minutes
    This documentary tells the story of a remarkable group of refugees from Burma working against incredible odds to help their own.
  • Darfur Now (2007), Theodore Braun, 98 minutes
    This acclaimed, inspiring documentary follows six people who are striving to end the suffering in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur. The six – an American activist, an international prosecutor, a Sudanese rebel, a sheikh, a leader of the World Food Program, and Don Cheadle, who traverses the globe with fellow actor George Clooney to pressure world leaders – demonstrate the power of one individual to make extraordinary changes. Be an eyewitness to the tragedy and the triumphs, the fear and the pride. Meet the refugees, determined to return to their beloved homeland. And discover how you too can make a difference.
  • Fire Dancer (2002), Jawed Wassel, 79 minutes
    The film follows Haris, an Afghan-American artist who shows his work at a downtown Manhattan art gallery. His story explores the ramifications of leaving Afghanistan and living as a refugee in America. Haris embarks on a journey through the world of Afghan-Americans to learn more about their culture, finding humor and tragedy.
  • First Person Plural (2000), Deann Borshay, 56 minutes
    In 1966, at the age of nine, Deann Borshay came to the U.S. from South Korea as one of tens of thousands of children adopted by white American families after the Korean War. In this extraordinary personal documentary she chronicles her struggle to reconcile the demands of two families, two cultures and two nations.
  • Flygtningene fra Kosova (2000), Per Wennick
    This three-part documentary follows two families on their way from Kosovo to the primitive conditions in a refugee camp in Macedonia to resettlement in Randers, Denmark.
  • God Grew Tired of Us (2006), Christopher Quinn, 89 minutes
    Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, God Grew Tired of Us explores the spirit of three Sudanese young men who leave their homeland, triumph over adversities, and move to America.
  • Gran Torino (2008), Clint Eastwood, 116 minutes
    Walt Kowalski is a widower who holds onto his prejudices despite the changes in his Michigan neighborhood and the world around him. Kowalski is a grumpy, tough-minded, unhappy an old man, who can't get along with either his kids or his neighbors, a Korean War veteran whose prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in mint condition. When his neighbor Thao, a young Hmong teenager under pressure from his gang member cousin, tries to steal his Gran Torino, Kowalski sets out to reform the youth. Drawn against his will into the life of Thao's family, Kowalski is soon taking steps to protect them from the gangs that infest their neighborhood.
  • Heavy Metal in Baghdad (2007), Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti, 84 min
    In the late summer of 2006, filmmakers Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi traveled to Baghdad to meet and interview the only heavy metal band in Iraq, Acrassicauda. "Heavy Metal in Baghdad" is the story of the band and its members, young Iraqis whose lives have been distorted and displaced by years of continual warfare in their homeland. The filmmakers have collected glimpses into the struggles of Acrassicauda as they try to stay together and stay alive. The International Rescue Committee has been working to resettle the members of Acrassicauda since last summer. Nearly three years after fleeing Iraq and living as a refugee in Syria and then Turkey, heavy metal drummer Marwan Riyadh stepped off an airplane at Newark Liberty International Airport on January 30, 2009.
  • Home Across Lands (2008), John Lavall
    The film chronicles the work of the International Institute of Rhode Island as it guides and empowers a group of Kunaman refugees making the transition from life in the Shimelba Refugee Camp in Northern Ethiopia to their new home in America.
  • In This World (2002), Michael Winterbottom, 88 minutes
    This film is the story of two Afghan cousins who trek from a refugee camp in Pakistan to London, where relatives await them.
  • Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport (2000), Mark Jonathan Harris, 122 min
    In 1938 and 1939, about 10,000 children, most of them Jews, were sent by their parents from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia to the safety of England where foster families took most of them in for the duration of the war. Years later, eleven children, one child's mother, an English foster mother, a survivor of Auschwitz who didn't go to England, and two of the kindertransport organizers remember: the days before the Nazis, saying farewell to family, traveling to England, meeting their foster families, and trying to find families after the war ended.
  • Journey to Kapasseni: A Refugee's Gift (2001), Bill Weaver, 51 minutes
    Joseph and Perpetua Alfazema are refugees from Mozambique who live in Victoria, Canada. They are determined to start a school in Joseph's home village and, against all odds, they raise money for the school and begin a long journey.
  • Kelly Loves Tony (1998), Spencer Nakasako, 57 minutes
    Seventeen year-old Kelly Saeteurn has a dream – an "American dream." Just out of high school and on her way to college, Kelly envisions a rosy future. Kelly is the first in her family of Iu Mien refugees from Laos to have accomplished as much as she already has, but she encounters grave obstacles in the course of pursuing her dream.
  • The Last Survivor (2010), Michael Pertnoy and Michael Kleiman,84 minutes
    Following the lives of survivors of four different genocides and mass atrocities - The Holocaust, Rwanda, Darfur, and Congo - the film presents the stories of Survivors and their struggle to make sense of the tragedy by working to educate, motivate and promulgate a civic response to mass atrocity crimes.
  • Letter Back Home (1994), Nith Lacroix and Sang Thepkaysone, 14 minutes
    This film is a compelling look at life in San Francisco's Tenderloin district for Laotian and Cambodian youth.
  • Lost Boys of Sudan (2003), Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk
    This is an Emmy-nominated feature-length documentary that follows two Sudanese refugees from Sudan and Kenya to the U.S. Winner of an Independent Spirit Award and two Emmy nominations.
  • Moving to Mars (2009), Matt Whitecross
    Moving to Mars charts the epic journey made by two Burmese families from a vast refugee camp on the Thai/Burma border to their new homes in the UK. At times hilarious, at times emotional, their travels provide a fascinating and unique insight not only into the effects of migration, but also into one of the most important current political crises - Burma.
  • Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter (2009), Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater, 60 minutes
    An official selection of the Human Rights Watch Film festival, the documentary is a moving story of a West African mother’s fight for asylum in the US to protect her two-year-old daughter from female genital cutting.
  • New Year Baby (2006), Socheata Poeuv, 80 minutes
    New Year Baby is a personal documentary of a woman born in a refugee camp in Thailand and eventually resettled to the United States. It is her search for the truth about how her family survived the Khmer Rouge genocide and why they buried the truth for so long.
  • North Korea - Shadows and Whispers (2000), Kim Jong-Eun, 52 minutes
    This documentary, filmed in the remote northeast mountains of China, captures the dire circumstances of North Korean refugees who journey to China.
  • One Family, Voices & Visions: The Documentary Project for Refugees Youth, 10 minutes
    “One Family” tells the story of twelve youth from Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Burundi, and Serbia who have weathered war and long journeys to America and New York City.  Weaving their voices into a shared story, they reflect their views on themselves and the whole world, joined as one family.
  • Pushing the Elephant, Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Mandel
    This documentary looks at the experiences of refugees, the long-term effects of war and one woman’s experience as an advocate for forgiveness and reconciliation aired nationwide on the Emmy award-winning PBS series Independent Lens.
  • Rain in a Dry Land (2006), Anne Makepeace, 82 minutes
    An official selection of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival 2006, the film chronicles two years in the lives of two Somali Bantu families who leave Kakuma refugee camp for Springfield, Massachusetts and Atlanta, Georgia.
  • Reflections: Returning to Vietnam, Producer: KCSM TV60, 30 minutes
    Vietnamese refugees speak about the loss of family and friends, migration and feelings about their war torn homeland. The program offers three individual perspectives from the Vietnamese Diaspora.
  • Refugee (2003), Spencer Nakasako, 63 minutes
    In this film, three young refugees who are raised in San Francisco's Tenderloin district, journey to Cambodia.
  • Roosevelt’s America (2004), Roger Weisberg and Tod Lending , 30 minutes
    An inspirational story of a Liberian refugee, Roosevelt Henderson, who resettles in Chicago from Liberia attempts to reunite with his wife and young daughter, who are still in Liberia.  Winner of numerous awards at the Columbus International Film and Video Festival, the San Francisco Black Film Festival, the Cleveland Film Festival, and other venues.
  • Shadow Over Tibet: Stories in Exile (1994), Rachel Lyon, 57 minutes
    This film is a personalized account of Tibetan refugees attempting to maintain their ancient culture in exile while using nonviolent means to bring peace and freedom to their homeland. "Shadow Over Tibet" investigates the personal odyssey of Norbu Samphell, a Tibetan immigrant now living in the U.S., who is determined to become part of the American social fabric without abandoning his cultural heritage; and the Dalai Lama, religious and secular leader of Tibet-in-exile, who seeks to create a "zone of peace" in Tibet.
  • Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars (2005), Zach Niles and Banker White, 78 minutes
    This film chronicles a band of six Sierra Leonean musicians living in a refugee camp in Guinea. Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars chronicles the band over three years, from Guinean refugee camps back to war-ravaged Sierra Leone, where they realize the dream of recording their first studio album.
  • The Betrayal: Nerakhoon (2008), Ellen Kuras, co-directed by Thavisouk Phrasavath, 96 minutes
    During the Vietnam War, the US government waged its own secret war in the neighboring country of Laos. When the US withdrew, thousands of Laotians who fought alongside American forces were left behind to face imprisonment or execution. One family, the Phrasavaths, made the courageous decision to escape to America. Hoping to find safety, they discovered a different kind of war.
  • The Fortress (La Forteresse) (2008), Fernand Melgar, 104 minutes
    This documentary takes a look at a Swiss registration and processing center for asylum seekers. It follows the lives of the residents and the staff and immerses us into the heart of this “daily sorting process of human beings”.
  •  The Letter: An American Town and the ‘Somali Invasions’ (2003), Ziad H. Hamzeh, 76 minutes
    In the wake of 9/11, a firestorm erupts when the mayor of Lewiston, Maine sends a letter to 1,100 newly arrived Somali refugees advising that the city's resources are strained to the limit and asking that other Somalis not to move to the city. Interpreted as racism by some and a rallying cry by white supremacist groups across the U.S., The Letter documents the crossfire of emotions and events.
  • The Longest Struggle: The Karen of Burma (1993), John Shephard and Tom Shehan, 52 minutes
    The Karen of Burma have been fighting a war for nearly half a century against the Burmese, whilst attempting to retain their traditional way of life. Sons and daughters who have never known peace follow parents and grandparents against one of the most repressive regimes in the world.
  • The Lost Boys (2002), Clive Gordon, 77 minutes
    Orphaned by the war in Sudan and raised in a desert refugee camp, Moses and his young friends are one day invited by the U.S. government to start a new life in Boston.
  • The Split Horn: Life of a Hmong Shaman in America (2001), Taggart Siegel, 60 minutes
    This film follows the emotional saga of Paja Thao, a Hmong shaman and his family in the U.S. who were transplanted from the mountains of Laos during the Vietnam War to America's heartland. For over seventeen years, Siegel has chronicled the intimate and private lives of Paja Thao, his wife, and their thirteen children. This intimate family portrait explores universal issues of cultural transformation, spirituality and family. It is a rare close-up view of one Hmong family's resettlement and acculturation in America.
  • The Valley (2000), Dan Reed, 70 minutes
    A real-time war documentary made in the middle of the Kosovo ethnic conflict, the piece was filmed in 1998 in Drenica Valley where the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) had its base. The film documents interviews with people on both sides of the conflict.
  • TL Xmas, School Daze, and Home, Spencer Nakasako in collaboration with the Vietnamese Youth Development Center (VYDC), 50 minutes
    “TL Xmas” follows Cambodian youths as they attend a "Gift Giveaways" program and experience the holiday for the first time. "School Daze" humorously breaks down a day in the lives of six students from different San Francisco high schools. "Home" closes the package with nine youths’ tender, poetic dedication to their family, friends, and San Francisco.
  • War Child (2008), Christian Karim Chrobog, 94 minutes 
    The film documents the story of Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier of Sudan’s civil war. He is now an emerging international hip hop star sharing a message of peace for his war-torn land and beloved Africa.
  • War/Dance (2006), Sean Fine and Andrea Nix, 105 minutes 
    Set in civil war-ravaged Northern Uganda, this Best Documentary Oscar nominee follows the lives of three youngsters who attend school in a refugee camp and find hope through song and dance. Coming from a world in which children are abducted from their families and forced to fight in the rebel army, these kids give it their all when they travel to the capital city to take part in the prestigious Kampala Music Festival.
  • Welcome to Shelbyville, (2010), Kim A. Snyder, 60 minutes
    Shelbyville     follows a small Southern town as they grapple with rapid demographic change and issues of refugee and immigrant integration.
  • Where We Live, (2011), Fady Hadid
    Within a day and a night, everything changed for the Hamad family. Once living peacefully alongside relatives in Baghdad, they fell victim to kidnappings and the violence tearing their homeland apart. Forced to flee and seek asylum in America, the Hamads now find themselves far from home, largely friendless and facing the struggles of the immigrant experience.