Year in Exile

Doc Shorts: Immigrants & Refugees

122 minutes 6 Films

Harrowing stories of coming and going — by choice, by force, or by necessity.
In this program
Above the Troubled

Above the Troubled Water

Directed by
Joseph Cohen
Canada
U.K.
U.S.
2020
38 minutes
English
Three gay friends from Nigeria are forced to flee their country and adjust to life in exile.
Ale Libre

Ale Libre

Directed by
Maya Micaela Cueva
U.S.
2021
16 minutes
English & Spanish
As she prepares for one of the biggest moments of her life — her deportation case — Alejandra is forced to reckon with a past mistake and a system that could tear her apart from her family and the only home she has ever known.
Eagles

Eagles

Directed by
Kristy Guevara-Flanagan & Maite Zubiaurre
U.S.
2021
14 minutes
English & Spanish
The Aguilas del Desierto (Desert Eagles), themselves largely immigrant Latinos, search along the scorching southern border in Arizona, where it is estimated that only one out of every five missing migrants is ever found.
since

Since You Arrived, My Heart Stopped Belonging to Me

Directed by
Erin Semine Kökdil
Mexico
U.S.
2021
21 minutes
Spanish
Central American mothers journey by bus through Mexico, searching for their children who migrated north toward the United States but disappeared en route.
Year in Exile

A Year in Exile

Directed by
Malaz Usta
Syrian Arab Republic
Turkey
2020
19 minutes
Arabic
An innovative look at the first year in the life of an immigrant after moving to Turkey from Syria.
Yulisa

Yulisa

Directed by
Joshua Echevarria & Jonathan Schienberg
Mexico
U.S.
2020
14 minutes
English & Spanish
A young pregnant woman, fleeing for safety, finds herself trapped in dire conditions in a dangerous Mexican-U.S. border town just weeks before she's supposed to give birth.