Announcing Home Is Distant Shores Film Festival 2024!

12 PM Noon, May 18th 2024

The Cary Theater, Cary, North Carolina.

In its 5th year, the Home Is Distant Shores Film Festival celebrates the lives and experiences of immigrants and refugees who have embarked on journeys to new lands, showcasing their compelling stories through captivating films and artwork. This year, we're excited to feature a special event highlighting the visual masterpiece of Ukrainian-born artist Anatolii Tarasiuk, who now resides in Morrisville NC, followed by an interactive Q&A session. Following this, two film blocks will immerse audiences in a variety of engaging narratives, each culminating in Q&A sessions with filmmakers and community members. Join us for a transformative experience and secure your tickets today!

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Event Program

  • Doors Open 11:30:00 AM

  • Special Event - Visual Artist Q&A - Anatolii Tarasiuk (Local Ukrainian Artist) 12:00:00 PM Noon

  • Intermission 12:45:00 PM

  • Film Block One - Welcome & Films Introduction 1:00:00 PM

  • Film Block One - Screening (93 mins) 1:05:00 PM

  • Film Block One - Q&A 2:40:00 PM

  • Intermission 03:10:00 PM

  • Film Block Two - Films Introduction 3:30:00 PM

  • Film Block Two - Screening (88 mins) 3:35:00 PM

  • Film Block Two - Q&A 5:03:00 PM

  • Breakdown / Load Out Begins 5:33:00 PM

  • Event Ends, Theater Closes 6:18:00 PM

Special Event - From Ukraine to Carolina: A Journey of Art and Resilience

Art exhibition and interactive Q&A with Ukrainian Artist and Morrisville resident Anatolii Tarasuik

Film Block 1- Between Homes: Navigating Deportation and the Quest for Belonging

  • as American as it Gets - Director Marnie Salvani, A Filipino American filmmaker and her family reflect on the American Dream as they prepare for her mother’s immigration trial amidst a global pandemic.

  • Gandom - Director Hashem Moradi, A young Afghan woman living in Iran receives the news that her entire family in Afghanistan are killed in an air strike by the U.S. She tries very hard to keep the hope alive for her teenage brother by hiding this tragic news from him …

  • The Test - Directors Claudia Myers, Laura Waters Hinson, A Ghanaian maintenance worker at a Virginia retirement community dreams of becoming an American citizen to provide a better life for his family. With their future at stake, he enlists the help of two elderly residents to prepare for the biggest test of his life: the US Citizenship exam.

  • S.P.I.C. - Director Heidi Miami Marshall, A young boy’s desire to get his mother back, and a father’s struggle to make things right collide. Inspired by true events.

  • RAIZ - Director Raydrick Feliciana, Raiz - Papiamento for "Roots". A personal exploration of past, family, and the question of home, weaved through long-forgotten footage and distant conversations.

Film Block 2 - Borders of Belonging: Stories of Immigration and Identity

  • Soraya - Director Maryam Rahimi, Fearing family prejudices, Soraya an Iranian woman decides to immigrate illegally by smugglers.

  • Un Velero Llamado Libertad - Directors Julieta Crissien, Alisa Olegovna Barinova, follow the relentless journey of an immigrant father as he juggles multiple jobs to defy the odds and provide for his family

  • The Angel of History- Director Eric Esser, A border in Europe. A painting by Paul Klee. A poem by Walter Benjamin. A film about yesterday and today, and how difficult it is to recognize one behind the other.

  • Champion - Director Kim J.Y. Han, It's 1997, and 9-year-old Jimin just moved to California. Jimin refuses to speak to her father who stayed behind in Korea, but when a major financial crisis devastates their home country, all hopes that he can join them in America dissipates. Now, Jimin must gather the courage to take the next steps alone.

  • Bite of Benin - Director Brad Herring, Adopted at the age of ten from her homeland of Bénin, West Africa, and raised in an abusive household in Connecticut, Chef Adé Carrena travels back home on a journey to reclaim her identity through food and represent what was taken away from her across the Diaspora.

Some of our past selections

Featured
The Heart of Texas
The Heart of Texas

Dallas is home to over 100,000 refugees, where more than half come to Vickery Meadow nicknamed a "Mini United Nations". In Vickery Meadow lies Heart House, an after-school program for refugee children specializing in Social Emotional Learning (SEL). "The Heart of Texas" provides an outline of the child refugee crisis, and how Heart House provides impactful support to refugee children.

Migrant Lives in Pandemic Times (Newcomer)
Migrant Lives in Pandemic Times (Newcomer)

The Covid-19 pandemic has left no life untouched. "Migrant Lives in Pandemic Times" presents a collection of personal testimony to explore how the everyday realities of migrants from across the globe have changed during the pandemic. From a Senegalese street seller in Bilbao/Spain, to a Syrian gig worker in Toronto/Canada and a Senegalese human rights activist in Berlin/ Germany, the stories give voice to those missing in public debate. They also reveal insights into universal conditions and challenges in terms of work, economical uncertainty, freedom of movement, mental health, activism and the importance of communities - linking us as human beings beyond our specific cultural backgrounds.

American Hate
American Hate

Based on a true story of an Asian Indian immigrant couple whose lives are shattered by an unexpected hate crime in Olathe, Kansas fueled by anti-immigrant and racist rhetoric after the 2016 election.

Libertad
Libertad

"Libertad" is an intimate portrait of political refugees from Venezuela, their resilience and love for one another, and their lived experiences of abduction, torture and oppression.

'Pipi Thay Too' ('The Grandmother Tree')
'Pipi Thay Too' ('The Grandmother Tree')

Pipi Thay Too (The Grandmother Tree) is a short animated film celebrating resilience, the power of identity, mystical encounters with ancestors, and the Karen and Karenni refugee experience.

Smiling with the World
Smiling with the World

On September 20th 2021, a nomadic Tibetan girl, Geru Tsomao, travelled around 1,700km from Qinghai province, part of what is called the planet’s ‘third pole’ to Beijing for cleft palate and lip surgeries. At that time, no one could possibly know how this journey would change her life forever.

Dreamer
Dreamer

Lily Cruz, a DACA recipient, travels on a medical volunteer mission and upon returning to the USA a TSA agent isn’t so welcoming.

Ma's Kitchen
Ma's Kitchen

Ma's Kitchen is a semi-autobiographical short film (which will become a feature film) about Debbie Vu, her mother, their language barrier and straddling between two very different cultures, Vietnamese and American.

Home is...
Home is...

Recollections of people who travelled to Britain from all over the world, and found a home within an artistic community at The Questors Theatre in Ealing, west London. This film was the culmination of a lengthy series of interviews originally conducted and transcribed by members of the theatre's PlayBack team. The contributors were then encouraged to share their memories on camera, and their stories were fascinating.

Home
Home

Home is the world.

We are interested in wide variety of stories such as migration journey, border security, education, employment, documented and undocumented immigration, community integration, family separation, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), resettlement of refugee and asylum seekers etc. We encourage various storytellers to share their work with almost 800,000 immigrants who reside in North Carolina state and beyond.