A moving portrait of traditional Finnish American culture in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, highlighting that fragile community of memory connecting ourselves with parents and grandparents. It uses the “biographical model” of folklore filmmaking to tell the story of Erikki Vourenmaa, a 92-year-old Finnish immigrant, and his family living near Ironwood, Michigan. This three-generation farm family works, celebrates, reflects, and grieves together. The film explores the meaning of family, ethnic history, aging and intergenerational bonds. It contrasts between the immigrant elder, his American-born son and the partially assimilated grandchildren to illustrate change and continuity in the "sauna belt" of the Lake Superior Region. As Dr. Sharon Sherman concluded, “Loukinen’s focus on the bonds between generations will strike emotional chords about family relationships and ethnic identity for numerous cultural groups.”
A reclusive non-conforming immigrant arouses fear and suspicion within a conservative insular community.
Olivia (12), just moved with her family from New York and arrives for her first day of school. She struggles to find her place within the hierarchy of her new school. Finding herself caught between the popular students and her shy classmate, Alem, Olivia must ultimately make a choice about who she is and how she will navigate her newfound circumstances.
The encounter with a growing, and mostly undocumented, brazilian community allows us to bear witness to its energy, its vivacity, and its diversity. This film attempts to work for a larger acceptance of foreigners in their land of exile.
ICE conducted the largest immigration raids in US history at slaughterhouses in 2019, arresting and deporting undocumented workers. Despite the danger to herself and her family, former slaughterhouse worker Susana returns to the scene at night to care for animals on their way to the kill floor.
A personal account of the COVID-19 pandemic in America and its effects on an immigrant family as seen through the eyes of a student quarantined at his barren university.
A desperate journey in the heart of Thessaloniki. Seven Iranians, each one for his personal reasons, leave their homeland and embark on a life journey. Europe can provide them with a different life. It can provide them with human rights. An obligatory stop on the way is Greece. There, they meet each other, they are imprisoned and they realize that “democracy” isn’t what they imagined. They try in any way they can to flee the country, living to the fullest every last moment they spend here. Thessaloniki is their new homeland for now. So, they try to become one with the city, to experience “Greek democracy”
A social justice organization based in Oakland-Asian Immigrant Women Advocates-focused on building the collective leadership of limited-English speaking immigrants, and empowered women and youth to become powerful agents of social change.
Stonecutters emigrated from northern Italy to Barre, Vermont, the "Granite Capital of the World." Follow the artisans and their families from quarries, workshops and schools in Italy to granite carving sheds in New England, as they seek their own identities, choosing what to keep and what to cut away from their American and Italian legacies.
The idea for this film comes from the encounter with two African boys who live in Rome, and is based on their music. Tunisian Afif and Senegalese Aliou tell their different stories, talk about friendship, immigration, freedom and, above all, about the fundamental value of making music together.
Fifteen-year-old Pavle Hromiš, obeying the will of his parents, leaves Germany and goes to live in Yugoslavia with his grandmother. He has problems with the language and the different curriculum. The only place where he feels fine is the aeronautic club where he practices hang gliding. The film was the basis for a docudrama shot the following year: The Second Generation.
30 years after their emigration, Danni interviews his family and tries to learn their story to reconcile with the past.
A documentary exploring the experiences and attitudes of Indian and Pakistani taxi drivers in New York City while also questioning the filmmaker's relationship to these South Asian immigrants and to his mixed-race heritage.
Celia Adler, doyenne of the Yiddish stage, gives a haunting performance as a new immigrant forced to give up her son. Obsessed with the thought of reuniting with him, she spends the next 25 years searching, pining, and bewailing her loss.
The challenging daily routine of Ceará-born jockey Antonio Davielson and his family living in a foreign country on the other side of the planet.
Tensions, along with demons from the past, rise as a young farmer, the mashgiach (kosher supervisor) and the local Rabbi try to decide what to do about the mysterious illness infecting the cattle.
Austin based refugee house, Casa Marianella, is one of the most prominent refugee houses in the United States, providing life saving services for thousands of immigrants each year. Meet the people who live here now.
Boiling Point (original title Kiehumispiste) describes the different reactions the Finnish people had to the large immigration amounts in 2015-2016.