We are moving stories

“I wanted to make a film that countered the current administration’s negative rhetoric about immigrants and Muslims in particular. I wrote the script in 2016 during the presidential election, and I felt like I had to make something that in some tiny way contributed some positivity into the world because it all felt so hopeless.”

“We felt that currently there is an ugly political discourse on immigration and specifically Hispanic immigration. We wanted to shine a light on the positive, human stories of Hispanic immigrants and understand what America means to those who came here and those who have established a life here.”

“All That We Carry is an intimate glimpse into the life of Maricela, an indigenous Maya M’am migrant from Guatemalan, who lives in Oakland, California with her two-month old daughter Abigail. Following her daily routine, the film slowly reveals small pieces of Maricela’s past and all that she carries with her, physically and emotionally, externally and internally. ”

“As writers, it’s very difficult not to include your own experiences and ideas, and so for both of us, as migrants ourselves living in the US, understand the difficulties of settling into a new place, struggling with language and creating new bonds with people.”

“My wife and I are Mexican immigrants to the US, and this film is based on her real-life green card interview. Something I rarely see portrayed in film or television is the bureaucratic side of immigration. Yet, it is a topic that is frequented often in immigrant communities.”

“I made Patiri because I was burning to tell one young person’s story of hardship. I must have an audience in order to tell that story. This is a story that must be heard. Knowing someone is sitting somewhere, watching... listening, gives me great satisfaction. It’s enough, in the end.”

“Current attitudes in the US and across the world towards immigrants and ethnic diversity have been harsh and negative. As the world shifts towards anti-immigration populism, many immigrants fear of an uncertain future. I wanted to show the world what these children are going through.”

“There is an animosity everywhere towards immigrants that the world hasn’t seen in quite a while. I wanted this film to be a reminder that while we all have different backgrounds, there are things that are inherently human that everyone can relate to. ”

“I think at a universal level “Trust” has themes of home and family. For both Daniel and Sachin the idea of home and family changed for them once they moved to America. Universally, home and family can be fluid and reconstructed. On a much more personal level we have themes of forgiveness and freedom. For Daniel ultimate freedom is tied to forgiveness, while for Sachin, freedom is being able to fly and do something his father wasn’t able to do.”

“This film is about a microcosm of Bulgarian society, but it’s universal dealing with longing, nostalgia, and the ups and downs of belonging to a community and feeling at home somewhere foreign.”

“If you’re like me, your favorite movies are the ones that you can’t wait to discuss. We set out with the goal to create a film that not only pulls at your heart strings, but also leaves you wanting to talk about what happens, and why.”

“You don’t have to know anything about migrants or the situation along the border to enjoy this film. It throws you into that world but it deals with the emotional journey of a young boy that I believe resonates whether or not you’re interested in the broader political context. It’s a great story about a unique character.”

“The Good From the Bad is an important film because it adds to the larger dialogue surrounding migrant and veterans issues from a unique perspective. Now, more than ever, it’s important to consider these issues from as many perspectives as possible.”

“I have spent years of my life living and working in both Mexico and Nicaragua. The themes and content are both very close to me. I have volunteered in the desert, and travelled extensively to northern Mexico. On a universal level, people are dying on a daily basis in the desert, while being subjected to inhumane treatment from both the cartels, as well as the border patrol. I feel strongly this is wrong. I have seen firsthand what is happening to migrants in the desert, and those experiences have left a deep impression on me. ”

“The film appears to be about my father in that we speculate on his questionable decisions, however, the film is actually about my mother because throughout the film we hear her speak and share her ruminating thoughts. It really is a love letter to my mom and all single immigrant parents trying to make it work in a new place.”

“My parents were the primary inspiration for the film. They migrated to the UK in the 1950s, almost a decade after their lives had changed dramatically due to the partition of India and Pakistan. Their story of migration, and of eventually making a home in England, became the seed of an idea to make a film about the experiences of migrant communities.”

“In Australia, migrant and ‘multicultural’ stories tend to follow a predictable pattern. They are slow paced, linear and often, culminate with the migrant’s increased happiness in the new homeland. Visual media is often used as evidence that the narrative is watertight, universal and ensures the story is read as nostalgic, banal or quaint. Audiences start to make the images fit their expectations.

We wanted to explore the possibility that technologies of storytelling might offer subtle disruptions to the expected.”

“I think a lot of people also relate to the idea of isolation through food and language. When we don’t look like the people around us or talk like the people around us or eat like the people around us, we push ourselves away from interacting and assimilating on multiple levels. Immigrants have to do their own share of digging in order to find a place in new cultures.”

“I tap into personal memory and heritage, communal experiences and archived history all at the same time. It’s also about the preservation of culture and our stories, which is very much a universal question for many marginalised communities of color around the world.”

“It’s hopefully engaging, unique and thought provoking and also entertaining! ”

“I relate to the lonely characters who yearn for honest human interactions which is why I felt so strongly for the foreign workers in Singapore. I came across this quirky photo studio that helps takes portraits of foreign workers who are looking for wives and fate led me to Patha who graciously allowed me to document his journey - one I hope that can connect people from many different sides of the globe and make us realize we are more alike and connected than we thought.”

“In discussing the migrant situation with people, we were disturbed to hear how much judgement there was against those who were risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea for Europe. We wanted to explore this judgement.”

“I started to think about the price of a human life and is that price different in Europe, USA and Nepal and why is that so? Main TV channels in Europe and USA are mostly broadcasting the stories of their own concern, completely or mostly neglecting modern slavery stories that are happening currently because of the lack of engagement of important decision makers.”

“There’s an absurdity in the formality and importance of this rite of passage to becoming a citizen. That’s when we began to find an angle: we wanted to tell a dark, sign-of-the-times story that wickedly ventures even further into the absurd.”

“I wanted to contribute to the age-old conversation about travel visas, specifically on the social and psychological impacts that this process has on people from sub-Saharan Africa.”

“I grew up with my Kurdish grandparent’s forced-migration story and witnessed their everyday struggle because of their/our identity. After I lost my grandfather nine years ago, my grandmother was the only Kurdish speaking member of our family. Though she has been forgetting the language over time. I wanted to film our moments learning together and use the language as a means of understanding our people’s and my grandmother’s past.”

“Nutag-Homeland is an animated film, a non-narrative visual poem about ideas of diaspora, homeland, and an example of mass-deportations in human history. It functions as a surrealist requiem for the Kalmyk people who were deported en masse by USSR from 1943-1956; half of them died before they were finally allowed to return home in 1957.”